What I Like in Office 2013 (and what I don’t)

A preview version of Office 2013 came out a few days ago. Being the intrepid beta / preview / alpha / use at your own risk software aficionado, I obviously had to put it on my main (and only) home laptop which is also currently the home for the Windows 8 Release Preview. The Office 2013 Preview come with the following applications.

All the usual applications are present in this preview. Which is good!

I decided that while I start using Office 2013 Preview, I will simultaneously start putting down features that I really like and those that I don’t. This is a first impression post and I will put down more detailed posts if I think it’s worth it.

What I like About Office 2013 Preview

1. I love the fact that you can now connect Word to WordPress. A definite win for me. At home, I don’t use Office at all. The fact that I can blog through Word is why I will be using Word.
2. It’s a really small thing, but I really like the fact that cursor moves like its gliding instead of jumping from character to character. Very classy and aesthetically pleasing.
3. I think I like the flatness of the interface.
4. I like the fact that I can save documents directly to SkyDrive. This is especially useful since I will be mostly writing blog posts and may need to continue posts wherever I am.
5. I like the fact that PowerPoint slides are widescreen.
6. I like some of the new PowerPoint designs. Again following with the new look. Very classy.
7. I really like most of the new slide transitions
8. Office presentation service sounds interesting. It says that you can share your presentation and people can see it in the browser.
9. I really like the new reading view that shows you screen-full of content of your document that you can keep panning through.

What I don’t like About Office 2013 Preview

1. I don’t like the fact that the tab titles are in uppercase.
2. Still not a fan of the animations.
3. I am not happy that there are not going to be Metro versions of all the Office applications.
4. Can’t seem to find the “touch mode” for the life of me.

As you can see, there isn’t much I dislike about Office 2013. If they price it like they are planning to price Windows 8, then I will be completely sold. I have been using this for the last few hours and it has been very rock solid and I am confident of using it instead of my Office 2010 installation.