Work Smart: What S New in Office Professional Plus 2013?

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What’s new in Office Professional Plus2013

Customization note: This document contains guidance and/or step-by-step installation instructions that can be reused, customized, or deleted entirely if they do not apply to your organization’s environment or installation scenarios. The text marked by yellow highlight indicates either customization guidance or organization-specific variables. All of the highlighted text in this document should either be deleted or replaced prior to distribution.

Microsoft Office Professional Plus2013 transforms how you work. Each application offers a start experience that gets you going quickly. You can open an existing document in a flash or use a template to jump-start the creation of a new file. It’s also much easier to share and collaborate. You can use new features like Microsoft OneDrive for Business to save and share your files right from your Office applications.

The Office2013 applications are also more closely aligned with each other, so you have a consistent experience from one application to another.

Topics in this guide include:

Getting started

When you start Microsoft Word2013, the Microsoft PowerPoint2013 presentation graphics program, Microsoft Excel2013 spreadsheet software, Microsoft Publisher2013, or Microsoft Access2013 database software, each experience begins with a newly redesigned and uniform Start screen. You can start by usinga compelling template or theme, choose a recent or not-so-recent file, or start from a blank file.

Across all applications, more templates, building blocks, and styles are available for you to use. You can choose from templates that are saved to your local hard drive or from a vast array of online templates.

Saving and sharing files in the cloud

You can save files directly to OneDrive for Business from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and the Microsoft OneNote2013 note-taking program. When you store your files in the cloud, you can get to them anytime you’re online. It’s also easier to share files that are stored in the cloud. You can even work together with colleagues on the same file at the same time.

CAUTION:Your personal OneDriveaccount is a consumer service and is not intended for confidential business information. Use OneDrive for Business instead.

After you save files on OneDrive for Business, you can create a local cache of the files for offline usage by clicking the Sync button, which appears in every document library. The local folder will always sync with the online library when you regain connectivity.

Roaming with Office

When you log on to your computer by usingyour domain credentials, and then open an Office application, Office automatically recognizes you. Your picture and name are displayed in the upper-right corner of the screen to show that you’re signed in.

BecauseOffice is associated with your credentials, your Office files roam with you even when you move to a different computer or device, as long as you’re signed in to Office throughthose credentials. For example, let’s say you’re working on an Excel spreadsheet at work. You save the file to OneDrive for Business, close the file, and then use a different computer or other device when you’re on the road. If you’re signed in to Office, when you open Excel on the new device, your recent files are displayed on the left side of the Start screen, so you can get right back to work on your file.

Your Office settings also roam with you. For example, your Office background, theme, and connected services roam with you when you’re signed in to Office.

To change account information like your picture, tap or click File, and then tap or click Account.

NOTE:If you want to roam with files that are stored on your personal OneDrive account, you can sign in toyour Microsoft account (formerly known as a Windows Live ID). To switch to your Microsoft account, tap or click the arrow next to your user ID in the upper-right corner of the screen.Alternatively, you can tap or click File, tap or click Account, and then tap or click Switch Account.

Accessing your most-used files quickly

In Office2013, the Save As and Open dialog boxes have been improved to reduce browsing and scrolling. Your recent folders are right there, and you can pin a location so that it’s always available.

Showing and hiding the ribbon

In Office2013, you can use more of your screen for workspace by accessing the ribbon only when you need it. If the ribbon is hidden, just tap or click a tab to display it, and then tap or click the item that you want.

If you always want the ribbon to be displayed, pin it by clicking the Pin the ribbon button (far right side of ribbon).

Sharing files

Office2013 applications make it a snap to share files in several different ways.

Inviting people to share

In the 2013 version ofWord, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, after you’ve saved a file on OneDrive for Business, you can simply invite people to share the file. You can even set up permissions (view or edit) to the file from your Office app. When you click Share, Office sends a link to the peoplethat you invite so that they can access the file quickly and easily.

Presenting a file online by using the Office Presentation Service

If you need to share a file with someone who is outside of your organization, you can present a Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or OneNote fileby using the Office Presentation Service, a free public service that allows others to follow along in their web browser. No setup is required to use the Office Presentation Service.

Connecting to a Lync meeting from anywhere

You can connect to a Microsoft Lync online meeting from a smartphone, tablet, or PC, no matter where you are. In the meeting, you can share a PowerPoint presentation, a Word document, an Excel spreadsheet, or a OneNote notebook.

Meeting attendees can see the files even if they don’t have Office installed.

Extending Office

You can extend Office by using the apps for Office and Microsoft SharePoint Server2013.

Using apps for Office and SharePoint Server

Office2013 introduces a Cloud App Model that developers can use to quickly build security-minded, scalable, and flexible apps. By combining cloud services and web technologies, this new class of apps extends and personalizes the way that users can create and consume information from within Office and SharePoint Server. Apps are hosted in the cloud and are independent from Office lifecycles, which provides maximum flexibility to deploy and update apps. Apps for Office roam with a user’s identity (when signed into Office 365), so they are available from a multitude of devices. To create apps for Office and SharePoint Server, developers can useexisting web development skills and familiar languages such as HTML/Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), JavaScript, Microsoft ASP.NET, or Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), along with familiar tools and hosting services.

Using touch

Office2013 is designed for touch-enabled computers and devices that are running the Windows8 and Windows7 operating systems, so you can tap and swipe your way through your files and communications.

If you want to enlarge the space between buttons on the ribbon to make it easier to select options by usingyour fingers, use the Touch/Mouse Mode button. You can add the Touch/Mouse Mode button to the Quick Access Toolbar so that you can easily switch back and forth between touch and mouse modes.

To add the Touch/Mouse Mode button to the Quick Access Toolbar and select a mode:

Tap or click the arrow on the Quick Access Toolbar.
Tap or click Touch/Mouse Mode to add the button to the toolbar.

Tap or click the Touch/Mouse Mode button on the Quick Access Toolbar, and then select the mode that you want.

NOTE:Even in mouse mode, if you open a menu (the collapsed ribbon or the shortcut menu) by using touch, the menu will have spaced icons and controls, as if you specifically switched to touch mode. Functionality that requires hover behavior is not active in touch mode, however. For example, if you tap Font Color (rather than clicking by using the mouse), the buttons will be bigger, but the eyedropper will not be available on the menu.

Learning more about Office apps

To learn more about the features in each of the Office2013 applications, click any of the following links.

What’s new in Office2013

What's New in Word2013

What's New in Excel2013

What's New in PowerPoint2013

What's New in OneNote2013

What's New in Outlook2013

What's New in Access2013

For more information

Office support

OneDrive

What is OneDrive for Business?

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