Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer today announced the company’s next generation Office Suite software: Microsoft Office 2013, codenamed Office 15, during a press conference in San Francisco, California. Office 2013 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, and Publisher. If you’d like to try out the software right now, head over to Microsoft’s Office page to download. Do note that to download Office 365 Home Premium Preview, you have to sign in using your Windows Live ID.
Be default the 32-bit version of Office 2013 is downloaded and installed, however, a 64-bit version is also available. To download it, you need to go to the advanced install option on the download page. Over there you can select your preferred language and version. Installer is web-based, and each user is restricted to 5 installs.
Office 2013 is completely touch-optimized in light of the upcoming Windows 8 OS, and to be able to run it, you have to be either on a Windows 7 or Windows 8 PC. It comes with a wide range of cloud-based features like ability to sync documents and settings for apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, among a host of other improvements.
Microsoft is also introducing an innovative on-demand subscription feature that allows users to access a full-featured version of Office wherever they are, with all their personal settings intact. This allows you to run a streamed version of Office on any computer with an internet connection, and when you close it, the program is then removed from the computer. To use this feature you need a premium Office 365 Home subscription. However, even if you don’t subscribe, you still get SkyDrive sync feature, and you can use it as a storage hub for all your documents.
Office 2013 is available in a variety of offerings that are flexible based on one’s needs: Home Premium, Small Business Premium, Pro Plus, and Enterprise.