Adopting MS-Office 2013
Presented by Dodie Edelstein and Eric Crowther
The Scoop
We have evaluated the current release of Office 2013, with a special focus on MS-Word. Most of the changes are cosmetic, and there may not be sufficient new and improved features to make its adoptioncompelling.
Having said that, Microsoft is making it increasingly difficult to acquire licenses for Office 2010 andeventually will abandon support for earlier versions of Office. What is more, if your firm is planning an upgrade, it may be difficult to justify adopting Office 2010, now 4 years old, a year or more after a newer version was released. Still, before you adopt Office 2013, you must make various considerations.
What’s New
The initial changes you may notice are that the Tabs on the ribbon are in UPPERCASE, while the overall design is much crisper and unadorned. Pictures can be inserted from a web search (with the Search Engine using Bing, naturally), and the Exit menu is gone from the File tab. 'Insert Screenshot' now allows you to select a screen clipping for times when you don't want the entire screen (like the Snipping Tool).
Outlook allows instant searching of the entire mailbox from the Inbox search area, and the Calendar automatically displays the current weather in locations of your choosing.
Word has a nice feature that automatically bookmarks documents so that when you open them, a friendly reminder asks if you want to return to the spot where you left off. (It seems to take you to that page, not the exact cursor location, but that’s a start.) Videos now can be inserted into documents. Inserting table rows is easier and more intuitive than ever with a circled "+" that appears between rows.
One of the most outstanding claims is that PDFs can be opened in Word and are converted to Word format. This sounds like a huge improvement, but most PDFs that we tested were not formatted as ready-to go editable Word documents, but instead seemed like sources from which to copy and paste text. All paragraphs were styled using the "Normal" style,and in some cases, every line appeared in a text box or frame, making additional cleanup necessary.
Comments are much improved.Replies to an original comment appear indented below, similar to an email thread.
Word no longer contains a dictionary, which means you have to download and install one before you can look up a word. A handful of Web-connected Apps for Word dictionaries are available from the Microsoft Office Store, but this means the dictionary is only available when you are on-line.
Excel has added 'Insert Recommended Charts' to create the most logical chart type for the data, which makes presenting data easier.
Worksite (HP Autonomy) has made it easier to add 'Open from Worksite' and 'Local Open' as buttons on the Quick Access Toolbar. This is one improvement that takes fewer clicks than before.
Missing Layout Options
The most significant change affecting legal documents arises from a new document layout engine that controls the way the paragraphs and text appear, and the way a document paginates. A large number of Layout (also known as Compatibility) options have been eliminated in documents saved in the new Word 2013 format.
Law firms rely upon Layout options that determine how paragraph spacing, line spacing, justification, tables and other formatting behave in their documents. In certain documents (including pleadings that display line numbers, used in California and Western states), these options ensure that the text lines up and that paragraphs are spaced appropriately, When you open a document created in Word 2010 or an earlier version, even if the document already is in DOCX format, it opensin Compatibility Mode, and the original Layout options are preserved. However, if you use Save As to save it as a new document, Word 2013 strips out most of the Layout options and makes them unavailable, sometimes dramatically altering the layout and format of the document. Once that occurs, those options cannot be restored. You can preserve the original Layout options only if, when saving, you select an option to keep the document in Compatibility Mode. (Note: Check to see if your document management systemsets or preserves that option.)
To create new documents in Word 2013 that continue to rely upon the Layout/Compatibility options available in earlier versions, you either must create the document as a Word 97-2003 document or use a template created in a prior version of MS-Office, then be sure to keep it in Compatibility Mode.
The Microsoft product engineering team has examined and acknowledged this issue and intends to address it in a future update. However, there is no commitment yet on the timing and specific nature of this change.
Possible Bugs
In our testing of Word 2013, we encountered quite a few apparent bugs, particularlywhen working with graphic images and table structures. Some of these were display anomalies not unlike those we have experienced in Word 2010. At other times, Word simply crashed. In our initial testing, Word 2013 seems more unstable than Word 2010, but this deserves further evaluation and experience. Microsoft did address some issues via updates that recently were included in Service Pack 1, but we are unable to judge how stable and reliable it is until law firms begin putting it to use and integrating it into their environment.
Integration
As with any new MS-Office version, you must make sure that all of your third party products that integrate with or affect MS-Office are compatible and work correctly. This includes document management, document assembly, case management, macros and templates, document comparison/redlining, metadata removal, PDF, and even anti-virus software. You should verify how your document management system handles saving documents that are in Compatibility Mode if you wish to use the full set of Layout options as discussed above. Until you can be sure that all of your applications work together correctly, it is wise not to adopt a new version of MS-Office.
Do not rely merely on the assurance of vendors that their products are compatible with Office 2013. Also seek out other law firms that already have adopted those products with Office 2013 to verify that the integration works as expected.
What to Do?
Do your homework. Verify the compatibility of your operating system and all of your applications with Office 2013. Make specific plans for dealing with the Layout changes in Word detailed above. Consider whether you want to be an early adopter that may encounter as yet undiscovered issues.
Acquiring Office 2013
Office 2010 licenses no longer are available, except via third parties or a Volume License typically available to firms with 50 or more users You can acquire Office 2013 in one of two ways:
- by acquiring an Office 365 subscription, which includes a license to download and install the Office 2013 desktop application;
- by acquiring perpetual license to Office 2013, foregoing an Office 365 subscription;
Many law firms are unlikely to take advantage of key features offered by Office 365, such as the online versions of the applications (which have limited features and do not support macros and other customizations), and its OneDrive service that allows you to store and access your documents online (which may not be relevant if you use a document management system). Nonetheless, there are two key advantages to acquiring an Office 365 subscription:
- you can install Office 2013 on more than one computer per user;
- you will be entitled to regular software updates, rather than have to await periodic Service Packs.
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