Effective work in microsoft office. New reading mode

We got acquainted with the general characteristics of the new package and the main directions of its development. The latter, as expected, answer current trends in IT and in certain circumstances open up new use cases, primarily in terms of organizing collaboration and sharing PCs and tablets (and possibly some other representatives of the trendy Post-PC category). However, in the end, users will still be working with the same Word, Excel and other applications of the suite, which should form the main impression of Office 2013, including the feeling of novelty. Therefore, in each of the applications there are a number of changes, one part of which corresponds to overall strategy, and the other one develops the basic functionality. Which of them is more important and more successful is up to users to decide.

Installation

The system requirements for Office 2013 Customer Preview are as follows:

• processor: frequency from 1 GHz, x86/x64 with SSE2 instruction set;
• memory: 1 GB (x86) / 2 GB (x64);
• hard disk: 3.5 GB;
• operating system: Windows 7 or newer; Windows Server 2008R2 with .NET 3.5 or later;
• graphics (for hardware acceleration): DirectX 10 capable video card and screen resolution of at least 1024×576.

Attention should be paid to two points that were discussed in detail in the first part of the review. Firstly, Office 2013 Customer Preview is installed only in modern operating systems, which include Windows 7 and Windows 8, and its full capabilities (in terms of the touch interface) are only revealed in the latter. In addition, a number of applications may be duplicated by Metro-style counterparts - so far this only applies to OneNote MX and, as promised, the Lync client.

Second, even though the video accelerator in Office 2013 Customer Preview is only required for graphics acceleration, it is gradually starting to play the same role. important role, as in Windows or in Internet Explorer(on the engine of which, by the way, Metro operates). However, nothing out of the ordinary is actually required - even on the example of modern browsers, which themselves turn into a software platform, we have seen that the performance of the video system does not matter much yet. However, again, graphics acceleration will work most fully in Windows 8 with a DirectX 11-enabled accelerator.

You also need to pay attention to the fact that the situation with the 32- and 64-bit versions has not changed. Microsoft still recommends the former, and it is the one that is installed by default, the 64-bit one must be chosen specifically. The main argument is the same - compatibility with various third-party extensions and plugins, which are mostly 32-bit.

You can try out the Office 2013 Customer Preview on almost any system, physical or virtual, and the overall experience will be roughly the same as Office 2010, with the possible exception of the new animation effects. The architecture of Office 2013 Customer Preview makes it easy to install it side by side with an existing package and use any of them interchangeably.

First you need to have a Microsoft account, which, like in Windows 8, will allow you to use settings synchronization and a number of others. useful features. Starting from here, you will need to read a few pages with general information, and then log in and, finally, get into your account. Although there is no localized Office 2013 Customer Preview yet, all preliminary information can be obtained in Russian - if sometimes the browser switches to English on its own, it is enough to change en-us to ru-ru in the address bar. Web installation takes place almost automatically, the choice of components is not available.

The English version of Office 2013 Customer Preview, of course, does not contain language support for Russian, Ukrainian and other languages ​​that are relevant to us. You need to download it yourself - either by waiting for the appropriate prompt from the application, or by going to this page and downloading the necessary modules. Here, however, surprises await us, like the following:

It is not very clear why these modules are changed in each version of Office (especially the installation windows), but after installation they seem to function properly. There are no innovations in the field of grammar and spelling, however, in Word for words with errors, the ability to quickly change the language from the context menu has disappeared - for me, for example, this is an unfortunate loss.

Word 2013

The text editor is undoubtedly the most popular application in the suite, so largest number indicative and generally noticeable changes are concentrated in it.

However, even Word 2013 is clearly not yet complete. Even the “flattened” Metro-style interface is implemented only on the external level, and a significant part of the dialog boxes are designed in the old way. Although they will most likely be abandoned altogether - for example, spelling errors are now corrected in a special panel.

Format Support

One of the most talked about new features is the ability to work with PDF files. If the previous Word versions could only save, i.e. export PDF, then Word 2013 can also import. It is easiest to imagine this function as some simpler analogue of the well-known Abby PDF transformer. Formally, the function is called PDF Reflow, indirectly hinting that the original layout can be changed. Indeed, upon import, the document is converted to the usual Word format, which is then re-saved - this is not even close to Adobe Acrobat. Microsoft itself says PDF Reflow is more for text files, and complex layouts, for example, converted to PDF presentations, may even be too tough for Word 2013. However, it is useful to have such a function at hand.

In general, support for document formats has been improved throughout the package. So, in fact, only Office 2013 will have full support for the standard Office Open XML (proposed by Microsoft itself), namely the Strict level of the ISO / IEC 29500 specifications - in previous versions it could only be read, and when saved, the Transitional level was used, which allows the use of older Microsoft Office data types for compatibility. It also supports alternative open standard ODF 1.2 published by OASIS in January of this year. However, the main changes in the new specification concern, rather, not Word, but Excel - ODF 1.2 standardizes formulas in spreadsheets. In addition, Office 2013 will support XAdES digital signatures.

Reading mode

Word 2013 has received a significant update to Reading View, which is an obvious adaptation to future use on tablets. Conceptually, it resembles that in Word 2010, but is implemented more modernly: the standard view is a two-column one with automatic font selection depending on the screen size, with a quick transition to full screen mode and calling additional tools by clicking on the ellipsis characteristic of Metro (although in fact you can click on the entire narrow strip at the top of the screen). Naturally, the user will be able to adjust the image to his taste - change the scale, select a background, use not two, but three columns on wide screens, etc.

In reading mode, a convenient function of scaling objects also works - not only pictures, but also, for example, tables. It is implemented in a "browser" style, when an enlarged image pops up above the "foggy" page, then a special button allows you to increase it even more, and clicking outside it will return everything to its original state.

For this mode, the function of reminding the place in the document where the previous reading/editing session was interrupted is also relevant. The corresponding marker floats above the horizontal or vertical scrollbars and allows you to quickly navigate. Moreover, this parameter is synchronized for the entire account, i.e. continue with right place You can read a document stored in the cloud on any device.

Collaboration and co-editing

This section of functionality has already been briefly described in the first part of the review. Storing a Word document in the "cloud" allows you to distribute information about the document and invite other users to joint (simultaneous) editing in various ways, accessible from the File / Share menu. The process of the latter is organized somewhat peculiarly: a paragraph that one user is working on, in a special way flagged and blocked for everyone else. Moreover, if information about the fact of editing itself is distributed in real time, then the actual changes are only at the time of saving the document (and are highlighted with a green background). Probably, such a scheme is justified due to its versatility - in fact, Word works with a local copy of the document and synchronizes it with the "cloud" when saving. Accordingly, reducing the number of communications increases overall reliability, and blocking paragraphs (enough large pieces of information) eliminates the need to resolve complex conflicts. However, Word Web App can also be used for co-authoring, which implements roughly the same tools. Can also be blocked from third party changes the entire fragment of the document (for example, a section) that is supposed to be edited.

Closely related to co-authoring are the features of saving changes made by different authors and comments. Almost the entire Review feed is traditionally reserved for them, and although they can be extremely useful on their own, working with a document that has been repeatedly corrected is not always convenient. Therefore, in Word 2013, a new display mode, Simple Markup, appeared - in it the document is presented in its final form, however, the changed places are highlighted with colored stripes in the margins, and comments - with a characteristic "cloud". Clicking on any of these elements allows you to view the information: the comment will be displayed in a special window, and the corrections will be drawn in the normal mode (All Markup). Now you can "hard" enable the save changes feature, protecting it with a password.

Working with comments has been somewhat improved in and of itself. They can now be answered (for which there is a special button in the pop-up window), so that each one turns into a mini-discussion. In addition, comments can be marked as "closed" (Done), while they will be grayed out, and their correction will become unavailable - however, it will still be possible to respond to them (although it seems to be no longer necessary).

Another option for online collaboration is document presentation. When you select the Present Online option in the same Share group, the document is copied to online storage, and a special link to the presentation is generated, which is a document viewing mode in Word Web App, scrolling and selection in which are synchronized with the author / presenter's computer. In this case, comments will be visible, you can “share” notes from OneNote in parallel, but, unfortunately, there are no integrated communication tools. Accordingly, they need to be taken care of on their own: in organizations, this can be Lync, and for mere mortals, Skype, which Microsoft promises to make a full member of Office 2013.

Online pictures and videos

Keeping up with the times, Word 2013 has learned how to insert pictures and videos from online sources into documents, the lists of which, obviously, can and will be replenished - Microsoft, of course, first of all offers its own resources (Bing), but allows you to add Flickr and YouTube. IN general case the user performs a keyword search in the relevant services, has the opportunity to quickly view what is found and insert a suitable object. At the same time, pictures are loaded locally and embedded in the usual way, although it would be quite possible to limit ourselves to links and their processing on the fly at the time of opening the document, especially since everything happens with the video in this way. In addition, the video can be inserted in the HTML code format that is usually provided by all online services, and this opens up additional possibilities: in this way, you can link not only to the video, but also to virtually any dynamic content - for example, a diagram. How such content will be displayed in the body of the document is difficult to predict, but when played back, which is carried out by Word itself in a pop-up window, it will be shown as expected.

sundries

Word 2013 also has a lot of smaller improvements that are difficult to categorize, except for the most general one - working with documents. One of the most useful is the ability to quickly collapse and expand document sections highlighted by subheadings, for which the corresponding arrow pops up to the left of them.

The contextual toolbar now pops up automatically when text is selected.

A menu with basic image formatting functions also appears automatically in a special panel.

In the process of scaling pictures and other objects, the document is reformatted on the fly, so to achieve desired result it will be much easier.

In tables, you can quickly insert additional lines and columns with special markers.

For paperwork, a whole new tape Design, where you can choose a theme, a set of styles and fonts, choose the appropriate spacing between paragraphs, apply effects to graphic objects, etc.

Excel 2013

The new Excel 2013 is designed in much the same way as Word 2013 (i.e., in the style of the entire package): the same start screen with a list of recent documents and templates of typical tables, the same organization of the File menu, the same integration with SkyDrive and the Share function block. The latter, however, is somewhat more modest - the Present item appears only if Lync is available. Apparently, this is due to the incomplete readiness of Excel Web App, since simultaneous editing is also impossible, although it would seem that the obvious structuring of tables should simplify its implementation.

Analytics (BI)

There are also a lot of changes in Excel 2013, although they are mostly of a private nature and are aimed at improving and developing existing functionality. Accordingly, first of all they will be noticed and appreciated by professional users. For example, the inclusion of PowerPivot and Power View add-ins in Excel 2013 makes it the de facto standard personal business intelligence tool.

PowerPivot was first released for Excel 2010 - it uses a database engine to process huge amounts of data (pivot tables), places and processes them in random access memory, efficiently compresses on save, and also automatically builds an OLAP cube, but hides all the complex specifics from the user, providing a set of high-level functions.

Now some of these features have migrated to Excel 2013 itself, and the xVelocity engine (formerly called VertiPaq) is automatically activated when working with external data. The PowerPivot add-in itself is optional and is connected through the Add-ins section of the program settings. It additionally allows you to filter out unnecessary data during import, correct models and establish links in visual mode(drag-n-drop), create new KPIs and calculated fields.

At the same time, both PowerPivot and Power View have undergone some changes on their own, but this is too deep a topic to touch on in a general overview of the package.

Functions

Another area professional change- built-in table functions. Their list has been replenished with at least 50 new ones, for a variety of tasks. There are also those that can be useful to almost everyone - for example, ARABIC and ROMAN for converting an Arabic number into a Roman one and vice versa. Try, say, to remember how the number 1999 is written in Roman numerals.

But I especially want to touch on completely new category- to work with web services. It has only three functions:

• ENCODEURL plays a supporting role by correctly converting text into a URL;
• WEBSERVICE receives XML data from a web service;
• FILTERXML parses XML and extracts data fragments.

For example, here is how you can use them to receive and process RSS with the BBC weather report:

In the table in the illustration, cell B1 contains the city code for Kyiv, as found on the BBC website.

Cell A3 contains the construction =WEBSERVICE("http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/weather/feeds/en/" & ENCODEURL(B1) & "/3dayforecast.rss"), which receives "raw" XML - data with a three-day forecast. ENCODEURL is used here for demonstration purposes only, since in fact the area code can be used without such conversion.

The XML is then parsed using FILTERXML:

A5: =FILTERXML(A3;"//rss/channel/title") - title of the entire issue;
A6: =FILTERXML(A3;"//rss/channel/item/title") - day of the week and summary;
B7: =FILTERXML(A3;"//rss/channel/item/description") - full forecast for the day.

Similarly - for the other two days (item and item). Naturally, to retrieve data, you need to know their schema. In this case, it is quite simple, and it is easy to figure it out right in cell A3.

The RSS summary is chosen here only for the sake of the simplest and most understandable example for a wide range of readers. In the general case, in this way, from the appropriate sources, you can get a wide variety of data for further processing, creating dashboards, etc. The only annoying limitation is that this group of functions does not yet work in Excel Web App.

sundries

The developers have put in some effort to make using Excel easier. For some reason, the Flash Fill feature, a more sophisticated version of autofill, is praised more than others for some reason, although its use is rather limited. The bottom line is that if the user performs repeated actions with previous cells in a column, then Flash Fill will try to understand the algorithm and offer its services.

Apparently, the main use is to correct the import of some data with an unusual grouping of fields or non-standard separators. The latter, however, must be present: for example, extracting surnames from logins like and_ Ivanov, P_ petrov automated, and if Ivanov, P petrov- No.

To help newcomers to Excel, the Quick Analysis feature has appeared, which offers a limited, but simple and understandable set of templates. conditional formatting, summing up, etc. It is enough just to select a data block and select the desired template using the button that appears.

Approximately a similar role is played by the function of recommended diagrams, the list of which is to some extent adjusted to the nature of the selected data. Moreover, the user will see real results, so that he can quickly decide, for example, whether he needs to visualize data only for a specific month, for the whole year, or broken down by months.

Working with charts has changed in general, now a special panel is used for this, which automatically responds to the selection of one or another element. A fairly large section for designing data labels appeared (with various effects, extension lines, adding text from arbitrary cells, etc.), so that the diagram editor turned into a real design tool.

Three special buttons are offered for quick management of charts, one of which allows you to filter the results on the fly. When the source data changes, the chart redrawing is animated.

Slicers (slicers) of data, i.e. visual interactive filters that were applied to pivot tables in Excel 2010, can now be applied to ordinary ones.

Outlook 2013

The Outlook program as a whole retained the same design, although the interface still changed in the spirit of general direction, i.e. was simplified and "flattened". Nevertheless, advanced user notice some functional innovations. So, the list of letters has become more functional, each item now contains the first line from the body of the letter, also right here the message can be marked as read / unread (the bar on the left) or deleted - in the latter case, the entire bar along the right edge also works, although the corresponding icon only appears in the middle, which can be confusing at first.

It's worth mentioning here that Outlook 2013 integrates with the Windows 8 notification system, which is generally a good thing, as uniformity makes things easier, but it made the notifications themselves much less useful, as they lack additional functionality: for example, with their You can't quickly delete a message with help.

The other obvious visual change is the Metro-style mode panel, where hovering over anything other than Mail (which is obviously the main one) pops up a thumbnail with basic information, so you can, for example, check your download without interrupting work with letters.

Some innovations will be revealed already in the process of work. The answer to the letter is now formed in the same window, for this there are buttons Replay, Replay All, Forward, if necessary, a separate window can be opened using another Pop Out button.

The Calendar displays weather information. This is probably a tribute to the "tablet" application, where the screen size is smaller, and switching between applications is not very convenient.

In the spirit of Windows Phone, the Contacts section has now been replaced with People, although the old-fashioned name still appears here and there. A card for each recipient contains all his details, tools for all available species communications (to which Skype should be added in the future), information from social networks, of which Facebook and Linkedin are supported initially (at the level of the entire Office 2013).

All the changes described so far in Outlook 2013 can be classified as "Odds and ends", which for previous applications I singled out separately. Here they reflect the very essence of the development of the program, aimed at gradual convergence with online and mobile clients. However, two innovations can still be classified as important.

First, Outlook 2013 will be available in all editions of Office 2013, which will allow many to use this program equally at work and at home. Secondly, Outlook 2013 began to support Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), and not only full servers Exchange. This means that users will be able to push email and easily synchronize contact lists and calendars, as EAS has become the de facto standard for popular online services. However, so far you can only connect to Hotmail in this way, and there are errors with Gmail - probably Google needs to upgrade protocol support. In general, this is another characteristic sign of the movement towards a mobile style of work.

PowerPoint 2013

The presentation application is not as popular as Word or Excel, but has long been one of the main components of Microsoft Office. Accordingly, it was fully affected by all the main changes in Office 2013 - this applies to interface changes and support for gesture control on touch screens(in this case, it's even more useful than in Word), and integration with the web.

In particular, PowerPoint 2013 supports the same range of Share features as Word, including online presentations and joint work over documents. However, the latter, although designed in almost the same way as in Word 2013, has an important difference: no elements are blocked, and conflicts (when editing the same places at the same time) are not resolved. This difference is especially evident in PowerPoint example Web App, where there is not even a save button - all changes are fixed instantly. And since PowerPoint 2013 still requires you to save the document in order to sync, in most cases, any changes you make will simply be saved. Perhaps this is not critical (since the slides still do not imply a large number text and other objects), but definitely takes some getting used to.

In support of cooperation, a comment panel has also appeared, reminiscent of that in Word - with the possibility of discussions, operational organization of communications, etc.

The main novelty of PowerPoint 2013, perhaps, is the new Presenter View mode. In it, the speaker will receive additional information (his notes, a thumbnail of the next slide), and will also be able to perform various activities: for example, highlight something on the screen using a “pointer” or marker, take notes, enlarge fragments, etc. However, these tools are also available in the normal slide show mode, but Presenter View works correctly with two monitors, supporting speaker on only one of them and thus hiding the whole "kitchen" from the audience. Presenter View can also be run on a single monitor to rehearse a presentation.

At the stage of preparing the presentation, useful innovations also appeared. On master slides, you can set guides along which to align elements on normal slides. And smart guides (Smart Guides), which appear automatically at the right time, will help to beautifully place illustrations and other objects - for example, so that the corners / borders are on the same level or two adjacent pictures are roughly divided by a median line in half.

A new eyedropper tool will help you select the exact color from an illustration to use it for, say, a title.

Multiple shapes (shapes) can be combined, thereby creating new primitives that will be managed as a whole.

Quite naturally, PowerPoint 2013 also has improved multimedia tools. Built-in support for formats has been expanded, online storages can act as sources - the same as in Word 2013. For audio, however, only standard clip art from Office.com is offered so far. You can also embed HTML code as a video, which further expands the possibilities.

One Note 2013

The OneNote note-taking program has been trying to gain acceptance from the masses of users for a long time, but so far without much success. This is probably due to the fact that it would be more in demand on tablets, and the Tablet PC, for various reasons, did not gain much popularity. It is possible that mobile devices on Windows 8 and RT will change this picture, especially since a special Metro version of OneNote MX has been released for them with original elements management. In general, OneNote is now available on virtually all popular platforms, and different versions must interact correctly over the web.

OneNote 2013 changes the way you work with notes a little. By default, notebooks are automatically saved to SkyDrive and synced across all devices you use. At the same time, it becomes possible to work with them simultaneously, and the style of this work does not match either Word 2013 or PowerPoint 2013. All changes are saved automatically and almost instantly (with some delay, natural for online), but conflicts are still tracked .

Additionally, you can distribute notes within online meetings (Lync) and assign them to regular meetings in Outlook, so that all invited participants can read them - while the corresponding notes are made in the notebook itself. In the future, it will be possible to conveniently view the corrections made by any of the co-authors.

You can now attach Office files, audio and videos to the notes themselves. Also improved tools for working with tables, although they do not reach the capabilities of Word 2013. But if something is not enough for the user, he can convert a regular table into an Excel table - for example, in order to quickly make some calculations. Excel tables can also be embedded directly, though Excel itself is required to edit them.

There are also resident tools for quickly cutting out information from the screen and attaching it to notes.

As for OneNote MX, its capabilities are somewhat limited compared to the desktop version: in particular, it can only display Excel tables, but not embed or convert regular ones into them, and, moreover, not edit them. In addition, the notebook is displayed in a slightly different way to eliminate small elements and make it more natural to use your fingers, including using radial menus.

Access 2013 and Publisher 2013

The subscription-based Office 2013 Customer Preview includes two more applications, Access 2013 and Publisher 2013. Both of them are quite specific and are included, most likely in order to further popularize the new kind package distribution.

Changes in Publisher 2013 are minimal, they mainly touched on working with images that can be downloaded from online sources, applying various effects to them, etc. The functions of preparing documents for various types of printing will also be useful - for example, for photo printing (in the photo lab) each the page is converted to a single JPEG.

Access 2013, while retaining all of its previous functionality, is primarily promoted as a means of creating custom web applications (the term app is used to describe them, not application) that are published to SharePoint servers (local or Office 365) and run in a browser. Rather, their interface part will be executed in the browser, and interaction with the database is assigned to SQL Server.

The interface for such applications will be formed automatically, based on the data model and with maximum use standard structures and controls (although a lot can be modified if desired and skill), so that users get used to them sooner.

Office RT

Interestingly, Office for Windows RT will be available even before the desktop one - simultaneously with the new OS and the first devices based on it. In fact, ARM versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote will form part of Microsoft's tablet platform and will certainly make a strong case for it.

Visually, Office RT will not differ much from Office 2013, but will lose a number of familiar functionality: macros and extensions based on ActiveX technology, support for legacy media formats, the ability to edit formulas in Word, pivot tables and query tables in Excel, sound recording in PowerPoint and OneNote, video notes and search through them, work with the scanner in OneNote.

All these limitations are caused, of course, by the peculiarities of the platform and the specific requirements for the reliability and economy of tablets. But in general, applications will be familiar to users and provide all the basic functionality, starting with the correct support Microsoft formats office.

Eventually

Microsoft recently announced prices for Office 2013: if Office 365 Home Premium costs $100 for a year of use (let me remind you, 5 parallel installations are allowed), then the usual “offline” Office 2013 Home & Student costs $140. In general, the subscription looks quite attractive, especially since it comes with 20 additional gigabytes on Skydrive.

A more difficult question is whether current users of previous versions of the package should upgrade. As you can see, the changes in terms of basic functionality are not so dramatic. There are more of them in Word and Excel, less in other applications, but for the most part, only fairly experienced users will find anything really interesting and useful among the new products.

Since July 16, a public beta version of the new office suite (Office 15) has become available on the Microsoft website, which you can download for free. We, for our part, have found more than 15 good reasons due to which new office ny package you may like.

One of them is opening and editing PDF documents. Converting from PDF format not only gives you access to the contents of the PDF file and the layout of the original, but also correctly transfers elements such as page numbers and headers and footers into the Word document, which become full-fledged managed elements of the MS Word document.

Microsoft Office 2013 / OneNote Radial Finger Menu

At the moment, OneNote in Windows 8 is one of the most impressive applications with a Metro-style interface; it opens notes from SkyDrive and you can add new text or use OCR handwriting. Try also the excellent contextual radial menu containing tools for text formatting, photo editing, copy/paste, and more. Scroll through the circular menu to select new color or change the font size in the text.

Microsoft Office 2013 / Save documents to SkyDrive cloud storage

Take documents with you, not a computer. You can save files from applications directly to SkyDrive (if you choose a plan that supports MS Office, you get an additional 25 GB). You can then edit them not only in Office Web applications, but also on other computers. It is noteworthy that in this case, the "Recent Documents" menu common to all will be available, which is very convenient when working on several computers.

Microsoft Office 2013 / Back View

When you open a document you've worked on before, whether it's on SkyDrive or local disk, you can pick up where you left off. Applications like Word pop up a little box with a link to the last page you edited (and a reminder of what's on that page). This window is unobtrusive; ignore it, and it shrinks to a bubble of text, and if you click anywhere in the document, it disappears altogether.

Microsoft Office 2013 / Customizing Tabbed Toolbars

If you don't like the Office toolbars, hide them automatically. If the panel remains open, then its intelligence is quite enough so that it does not interfere and disappears from the screen again in time (for example, after a single use of any function from it). If you need to keep the panel hidden all the time, you can add the necessary tools from it to the panel quick access(Quick Access Toolbar). And all this effort will not be wasted: when you switch to another computer, you will get a fully customized menu, as it also syncs via SkyDrive.

Microsoft Office 2013 / Adding videos to Word

Word for quite some time was only text tool, you can now embed in documents and watch videos from services like YouTube. New interface perfectly optimized: the application resizes the text for more comfortable reading, and when you click on the picture with the video, it appears in a large window. Thus, you can easily navigate to the view.

Microsoft Office 2013 / Online photos in your documents

If you store your photos on Flickr or SkyDrive, you can easily embed them directly into your documents through the convenient browsing feature. You can also search for photos via Bing (only displays photos with Creative Commons licenses allowing them to be freely used) or get photos and images from Office.com. There are many good free images on Office.com and they are easy to find. The feature does not yet support SmugMug, Picasa, and other photo repositories, but this may change soon.

Microsoft Office 2013 / Cut Shapes in SmartArt

If you want to place any shape (star, banner or cloud with text) in your document, you can create them using the SmartArt tool. If the library does not have the template you need, you can combine several shapes or cut one shape from another. It's certainly not a package. vector graphics, like CoreDRAW but very easy to use.

Microsoft Office 2013 / Convenient comment mechanism for documents and presentations

If you're working on a shared document, you can also add comments, not just change the content. The commenting tools in Word and PowerPoint 2013 are much easier to use than in previous versions. You can reply to comments even with free apps office web. And in Word, you can mark a comment as read and hide it so that it doesn't distract you.

Microsoft Office 2013 / Animated charts in Excel

Change the data the chart is based on and Excel animates the changes so you can see the difference. As soon as we changed the first value of $63 to $65, the bars in the chart got smaller, and then the taller bar was colored from the bottom to match the old cell value to show the difference more clearly.

Microsoft Office 2013/Excel Flash Fill

Tired of isolating key details from your credit card statement? Excel's new flash fill function can detect patterns in your data if you show it a couple of examples. We refilled the first two cells, and flash fill automatically converted all the rest (we got dollar values ​​instead of some strange numerical ratios used by the bank).

Microsoft Office 2013 / EAS support

Your smartphone uses EAS to access your email, contacts, and calendar in postal services, such as Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo! Mail? Finally, Outlook can receive the same information from any webmail service that uses EAS without installing any plugins or add-ons. you receive your address book, diary, and you'll be notified of new emails the moment they arrive in your inbox, not every 15 minutes or so.

Microsoft Office 2013 / Answer email where you read it

You have a few emails open and a couple of Outlook windows, now try to find a message that you have already started replying to. New built-in reply tools allow you to enter text directly in the body of a received email and send it immediately. You won't lose or forget anything if you suddenly jump to another email. Outlook saves the project and creates a handy reminder of it so you don't forget to finish your reply. Of course, if necessary, you can open the letter in a separate window.

Microsoft Office 2013 / Skype from Email

There's no such feature in preview, but we've seen it in action and loved it. If the person who sent you the email is using Skype, you will see a notification about this, indicating their current online status. If you'd rather call back than email, you can click on his name and make a regular or video call right from your Outlook window.

Microsoft Office 2013 / Duplicate and merge contacts, automatically add them to your to-do list

Already added contacts from Facebook to your address book? If we are talking about your friends, then you probably have a bunch of duplicates. Outlook can automatically merge contacts with the same name and description into one profile. This tool does not have advanced settings, but out of the thousands of profiles we looked at, we did not find any errors. We also found it convenient to have a window where you can quickly view a diary or to-do list without leaving your email and find out what else needs to be done.

Microsoft Office 2013 / Free Office for Mac with Windows Office purchase

Not all applications are included in boxed version, there are also free utilities that you get for iOS and Android if you buy Office with a subscription. At the moment, these are OneNote, Lync, and an instant messaging utility. You will also receive Office for Mac included with your subscription. It won't have all the Office 2013 applications, but the ability to work with SkyDrive and basic Office 2013 documents is present enough.

It is not necessary to know and use all the features of the Microsoft text editor. You can successfully complete work tasks by occasionally switching between the Home and Insert tabs. But you will work even more efficiently if you arm yourself with even a few tricks from this review.

Here is a simple example familiar to webmasters. Some experts copy the content into Notepad before transferring text from a Word document to the CMS editor. This clears the text of Word formatting that may conflict with the engine's template formats. So, you don't need Notepad. To solve the problem, just select the text in Word and click the "Remove All Formatting" button.

Please note that the review is written for the 2013 version of Word. The current stable version of the program is MS Word 2016, released in September 2015. However, this version of the program has not yet become the main one.

How to create and save an MS Word document

To create a document, open a working folder. Press the right mouse button and select the "New - Microsoft Word Document" option.

To easily find a document, give it a name.

You can also launch MS Word through the Start menu. Pay attention to the illustration.

When launched from the start menu, you have created a new document with the default title. Name it and save it to the selected folder so as not to lose it. To do this, click on the "Save" icon or use the key combination Shift + F12.

Name the document and save it to the selected folder.

You have created and saved a document. Get to work.

How to use the features of the Home tab

The tools in the MS Word control panel are grouped together using thematic tabs. This type of interface is called a ribbon. By default, the main set of tools opens, highlighted on the Home tab.

The tasks that can be performed using the tools on the Home tab are described below.

Block of tools "Clipboard"

You can copy, cut and paste content. To use the "Cut" and "Copy" options, select the desired piece of text.

Pay attention to the insert options. You can keep the original formatting, merge formats, or keep text without formatting. Also you can use special regimes inserts.

Why is a special insert needed? For example, imagine that you need to work with text copied from another document or website. The original formatting may not match the formatting of your document.

This problem is solved with a special insert. Use the corresponding menu. In the window that opens, select the "Unformatted Text" option.

Now it will be more convenient for you to format the copied content.

Using the Clipboard menu, you can select the previously copied content and paste it into the document. To open the clipboard, click on the arrow marked in the illustration. Select the required element. Use the drop-down menu to select the "Insert" option. You can also remove the copied element from the clipboard.

You can customize the default paste options. To do this, use the menu "Insert - Insert Default".

Specify the appropriate settings and save the changes. Pay attention to the options for pasting into another document. Most users can change the default "Keep Source Formatting" to "Keep Text Only".

Font tool block

To change the default font, use the drop-down menu marked in the illustration. Please note that in order to change existing text, the fragment must be selected before choosing a font.

Through the corresponding menu, you can choose suitable size font. Pay attention to the possibility to increase or decrease the font of the selected fragment. Mark the text and use the buttons marked in the illustration.

You can select the appropriate register using the corresponding menu. Select the required text fragment, use the button marked in the illustration and select desired option.

You can make a piece of text bold, italic, or underlined. To do this, select the content and use the marked buttons. Using the drop-down menu, you can choose how the text should be underlined.

To strike out a piece of text, select it and use the corresponding button.

Using the X 2 and X 2 buttons, you can add subscript and superscript text.

Using the checked buttons, you can change the color, highlight the text with a marker, or apply effects to it.

Pay attention to the ability to configure advanced font options. To enter the menu, press the button marked in the illustration.

On the Font tab, specify the appropriate body text and heading options. Using the "Default" button, you can return the default settings, and using the "Text Effects" button, select additional effects.

Block of tools "Paragraph"

To create a bulleted, numbered, or multilevel list, use the drop-down menus shown in the illustration.

To create a bulleted or numbered list, place the cursor on new line and click on the appropriate button. Use the drop-down menu to select the appropriate marker character.

Using the Define New Marker menu, you can use additional characters.

To create a multi-level list, select the "Change List Level" option from the corresponding drop-down menu.

You can choose the appropriate list style in the library. And the menus "Define new layered list" and "Define new list style" will help you create your own list template.

You can choose the appropriate text alignment method using the corresponding menu. To ensure text readability, use left-alignment.

Change if necessary line spacing. In most cases, the standard spacing of 1.15 will work for you. If you are preparing a document for children or the elderly, increase the interval to 1.5 or 2.0. Increasing the spacing further will reduce the readability of the text.

Filling can be used to highlight a piece of text with color. For example, you can highlight a paragraph or a table cell. To add a background, select a piece of text and select a suitable color using the Fill drop-down menu.

The Borders menu allows you to control the borders of cells in tables. Highlight the cells you are interested in. Use the dropdown menu to select the appropriate action.

Block of tools "Styles"

Use the Styles menu to select the appropriate text style. If you want to apply it to existing content, select the appropriate fragment and define the style. To use the style for created content, place the cursor on a blank line, and select the appropriate design option. For example, you can use the appropriate style for headings.

Block of tools "Editing"

Using the "Search" menu, you can quickly search for content that interests you. Note the drop-down menu access to advanced search options.

The "Replace" function is convenient to use while editing text. For example, you can automatically replace the word "copyright" with "copywriting" in the text. To do this, use the "Replace" menu, specify the desired words in the "Find" and "Replace with" fields.

Click the "Replace All" button. After processing the request, the program will report the number of replacements performed.

Use the "Highlight" feature to quickly highlight content. For example, you can select all text in two clicks, select arbitrary objects, or select fragments with the same formatting.

With the Collapse Ribbon feature, you can hide the program controls. Only tabs will remain on the panel.

To return the tools to the panel, expand any tab and use the "Pin Ribbon" option.

How to use the features of the "Insert" tab

The "Insert" tab contains tools with which you can insert various objects into an MS Word document.

Block of tools "Pages"

You can select a template from the Cover Page menu title page for the document.

With the help of the " Empty page” and “Page Break”, you can create a blank page or go to a new page. For example, if you need to insert a blank page between paragraphs, place the cursor between them and use the Blank Page feature.

Block of tools "Tables"

Using the Table drop-down menu, you can insert or draw a table in your document. This can be done in several ways.

To quickly add a table, use the graphical tool. Select with the mouse cursor the required number of cells in the table. After that, place the cursor on the selected area and press the left mouse button.

The Insert Table feature allows you to manually specify the number of rows and columns. You can also choose how the column widths are defined.

The "Draw Table" function allows you to perform the appropriate action. Use it to create custom tables. For example, you can draw a table with a different number of cells per row.

To define the properties of the drawn table, use the corresponding menu.

Using the menu "Excel Spreadsheets" can be inserted into an MS document Word tables from MS Excel. In the Express Tables menu, you will find table templates.

Block of tools "Illustrations"

With the Pictures feature, you can insert an image from your computer's hard drive into your document. The "Images from the Internet" menu allows you to find suitable photos on the Web.

Search results prioritize photos licensed under a Creative Commons license.

The Shapes feature will help you add a template shape to your document, such as a heart, star, or arrow. To use the tool, use the drop-down menu to open the catalog and select the appropriate shape.

Use the mouse cursor to determine the size and position of the shape in the document.

Decorate the shape using the Fill, Outline, Effects functions.

The SmartArt feature allows you to insert into your document graphic objects. Use the drop-down menu to select the type and appropriate pattern.

Place the cursor on the drawing elements and add text.

Notice the ability to change the color of SmartArt objects.

You can add charts to your document using the Chart menu. Pay attention to the possibility of choosing the type of chart.

Insert the required values ​​into the data table.

Using the Snapshot menu, you can take a screenshot of an area of ​​the screen and paste it into your document. To do this, use the drop-down menu to select the "Screen Cutout" option, and use the mouse cursor to select the area you want to capture.

Block of tools "Add-ons"

In add-ins, you'll find the Office app store. It has paid and free tools for solving special problems. To choose suitable application, click on the "Shop" button and use the search. You can also browse tools by category.

For example, using the MailChimp for MS Word application, you can create Email campaigns right in the document. To use the application, click the "Trust" button. The features of the tool will become available after authorization.

The My Apps menu displays a list of installed apps. You can remove unused tools and add new ones.

The "Wikipedia" function allows you to search for information on the corresponding resource directly from the MS Word document. You can also quickly insert images from Wikipedia into your document.

To use the tool, click the button marked in the illustration and highlight the word or term whose meaning you want to find. The tool requires internet access.

To insert an image, click on the plus sign marked in the illustration.

You can also insert a text quote from Wikipedia into the document. To do this, select the desired fragment and click the plus sign.

Media tools

With the help of the "Internet Video" tool, you can insert the appropriate objects into the document. To use the feature, click the Web Video button, search for the video using YouTube or Bing search, select and paste the item.

The video can now be viewed in an MS Word document. This will require access to the Internet.

You can watch videos in Word

Links feature

The Links drop-down menu lets you insert hyperlinks, bookmarks, and cross-references into your document. To paste a hyperlink, copy the URL of the web page to your clipboard. Then select a piece of text that will become the anchor of the link.

The Bookmark feature allows you to quickly jump to marked sections of text. To add a bookmark, select the desired piece of text, and in the "Links" drop-down menu, select the "Bookmarks" option. Name the bookmark and click Add.

To quickly navigate to bookmarked content, select the Bookmark menu, select the desired bookmark, and click Go.

Note function

The Notes feature is useful when group work with document. To add a note to the text, select a piece of text and click the marked button.

To edit, delete or mark a note as ready, place the cursor on it and open the context menu with the right mouse button. Select the required option.

Block of tools "Headers and footers"

Using the tools in the Headers and Footers group, you can add headers, footers, and number the pages of your document to pages.

To add page header, use the corresponding menu. Select a header template.

Enter text. Close the header and footer window to save your changes.

To remove or change the header, use the appropriate options in the Header menu.

You can work with the footer in a similar way.

Using the Page Number function, you can number the pages of a document. To do this, use the drop-down menu to select the location and numbering template.

Block of tools "Text"

The Text Box feature lets you highlight a piece of text in a document. Use it if you need to arrange a sidebar, quote, definition. To use the tool, use the drop-down menu to select a text box template.

Add text and save changes.

The View Quick Blocks feature allows you to insert AutoText, document properties, or a field. For example, you can insert the date of publication, the name, address and phone number of the organization, and other data.

Using the Add WordArt menu, you can add visually appealing text to your document. To do this, use the menu marked in the illustration. Select the appropriate object and add text.

The Add Drop Cap feature lets you style paragraphs with a bold capital letter. Place the cursor at the beginning of a paragraph. Use the appropriate menu to select the location of the capital letter. Pay attention to the ability to change the parameters of the drop cap. You can choose the font, height and distance from the text.

Add a digital signature line to the document. To do this, use the menu marked in the illustration. In the window that opens, specify necessary information and save your changes.

The "Date and Time" function will help you add the current date and time to the document. Click on the corresponding button, select the date display format and click the OK button.

The Object feature allows you to insert objects or text from a file into your document. To paste text from a file, select the appropriate option from the drop-down menu. Find the file on your hard drive whose text you want to insert into the document, and click "Insert".

Block of tools "Symbols"

The "Equation" function will help you insert a mathematical formula into your document. Use the dropdown menu to select standard formula or go to the constructor. Add the required values ​​and save the changes.

Using the "Symbol" menu, you can insert characters that are not on the keyboard into the document. Note the ability to insert additional characters from the dialog box.

How to use the features of the Design tab

You can change the appearance of a document using the tools on the Design tab. If you want to change the default settings, start by choosing a theme.

To undo your changes, use the "Restore Template Theme" option or select the "Standard" theme.

Choose the style you like from the Styles menu.

The Colors feature allows you to manually adjust the font color for body text, headings, and hyperlinks. You can choose a standard set of colors or specify colors for different style elements yourself.

Using the Fonts menu, you can quickly set the font for headings and body text. You can choose standard pairs or specify the font manually.

The Paragraph Spacing menu can be used to change the corresponding settings. It is possible to remove the interval, select standard or set your own values.

Use the Effects menu to select additional design effects. The "Default" feature is useful if you want to apply design settings to new documents.

Block of tools "Page background"

The Watermark feature allows you to select a standard watermark or customize a custom watermark. To set the parameters manually, use the "Custom background" option.

With the "Page Color" function, you can change the corresponding setting. Pay attention to the "Fill Methods" option. With it, you can add texture, pattern, and drawing to your pages.

The Page Borders feature allows you to add borders to pages. Use template or custom settings.

How to use the Page Layout tab features

The tab tools allow you to change the page layout of a document.

Page Setup Toolbox

The Margins feature allows you to select standard margins or specify your own margin options. To set custom values, use the Custom Fields option.

The "Orientation" function allows you to choose the portrait or landscape orientation of the sheets of the document. Using the "Size" menu, you can change the size of the sheets. The default size is A4.

In the "Columns" menu, you can specify the number of columns per sheet. The "Breaks" and "Line Numbers" functions allow you to adjust page breaks and add line numbering, respectively. The "Hyphenation" menu makes it possible to turn on word hyphenation from line to line by syllables. This feature is disabled by default. Do not change this setting unless necessary.

Block of tools "Paragraph"

With the "Indent" function, you can adjust the indent from the left or right edge to a paragraph. To use the function, place the cursor at the beginning of the selected paragraph and set the indent value.

Using the Spacing function, you can change the spacing between selected paragraphs. To do this, place the cursor in front of the selected paragraph and set the values.

Tool block "Organization"

The "Position" function allows you to set the position of the object in the text. To use the tool, select the selected image and use the drop-down menu.

The Text Wrap feature lets you choose how text wraps around an object. To test the tool, select an image and use the drop-down menu.

Using the "Selection area" button, you can display a list of objects in the task area. The Align, Group, and Rotate functions allow you to perform appropriate actions on selected objects.

How to use the features of the "Links" tab

Tool block "Contents"

The "Add Text" function allows you to add or remove the current heading from the table. The Refresh Table feature allows you to include new sections in the table of contents.

Footnotes toolbox

Using the "Insert footnote" menu, you can add the corresponding element. Select the text fragment to which the footnote refers, and click the button marked in the illustration.

With the Insert Endnote feature, you can add a footnote to the end of a document. Use the Next Footnote drop-down menu and the Show Footnotes feature to quickly jump between footnotes.

Block of tools "References and bibliography"

Using the Insert Link menu, you can link to a source of information, such as a book. Place the cursor next to the fragments of text to which the link refers. Click the appropriate button, enter the required information in the window that opens and save the changes.

With the "Manage Sources" function, you can edit the list, sort and delete sources.

The "Style" drop-down menu allows you to select the style of the links. Using the "References List" function, you can insert relevant information into the document.

Block of tools "Names"

The Insert Title feature lets you add a title or caption to images, tables, and formulas in your document. To use the tool, select the desired object and press the button marked in the illustration. Add information and save changes.

With the "List of illustrations" function, you can add relevant information to the document.

Block of tools "Index"

The Mark Item feature allows you to add items to the index. To use the tool, select an object, such as a piece of text or a picture, use the appropriate menu, and fill in the information.

Use the Index menu to customize the display of the index in your document.

Block of tools "Table of links"

How to use the features of the Mailings tab

The tab tools help organize physical and email distributions.

Block of tools "Create"

The "Envelopes" function allows you to correctly add information to paper envelopes. To use the tool, click the marked button and add the required information. Now you can print the data on the envelope. Pay attention to the "Submission" field. This shows how the envelope is fed into the printer.

The "Stickers" function will help you correctly print information on stickers for parcels, envelopes, CDs.

Toolboxes "Start Merging", "Compiling a Document and a List of Fields", "Viewing Results" and "Completing"

The "Start Merge" feature allows you to send a message to multiple recipients. For example, you can send a letter or email. To do this, click the "Start Merge" button and select the "Merge Step by Step Wizard" option. Follow the prompts in the task pane.

The Step-by-Step Merge Wizard combines tools from the Start Merge, Compose Document and Field List, View Results, and Finish groups of tools.

Use the Review tab to edit and rate the document.

Block of tools "Spelling"

Using the button marked in the illustration, you can launch the standard MS Word tool to search for errors and typos. Please note that the program does not "see" all errors, and sometimes offers corrections where there are no errors.

The "Define" function will help determine the meaning of unknown words. Please note that in order to use the tool, you must select a dictionary from the app store and install it. The Thesaurus menu allows you to select synonyms for the selected words. The "Statistics" function shows the number of words, characters, paragraphs and lines in a document or its fragment.

Block of tools "Language"

The "Translate" menu allows you to automatically translate the selected word or phrase. Select the content you are interested in and use the button marked in the illustration.

The "Language" feature allows you to select the language of the spelling checker, as well as adjust the language settings.

Block of tools "Note"

You can use the block tools to add, view, edit, and delete notes. Please note that notes can also be created from the "Insert" tab.

Blocks of tools "Record corrections" and "Changes"

With the help of the "Corrections" function, you can track the changes made to the document. Pay attention to the "Scan area" menu. It allows you to choose how the list of changes is displayed: at the bottom or on the side of the document.

Changes block tools allow you to accept or reject changes, as well as move to the previous or next revision.

The Compare feature allows you to compare versions of documents and merge revisions from multiple users. The "Block Authors" and "Restrict Editing" functions protect the document from unwanted actions of other users.

How to use the features of the View tab

Tools on the View tab allow you to customize the display of your document.

Block of tools "View modes"

Using the block tools, you can select the page view mode. For example, you can view the structure of a document.

Block of tools "Display"

With the group tools, you can turn on the display of the ruler, grid, and navigation pane. The last function allows you to quickly jump to desired section document.

The New Window function opens the current document in a new window. This is useful if you are editing content and want to refer to the original. The "Organize All" feature combines multiple documents in one window. The "Split" function is necessary in order to work with different parts of the document in one window.

With the Side by side feature, you can arrange two documents in the same window next to each other. This is useful when you need to compare content.

Using the "Go to another window" function, you can quickly switch to other open documents.

The Macros feature automates frequently performed tasks. To use the tool, you must create a macro. For example, imagine that you often need to make text bold and italic. To perform this action automatically, create a macro. Proceed like this:

• Select an arbitrary piece of text. In the "Macros" drop-down menu, select the "Record macro" option.

• Choose how to run the macro: using a button on the toolbar or a keyboard shortcut.
• Set a keyboard shortcut to activate the macro.

• Click the Assign button and run the commands you want to include in the macro. To do this, go to the "Home" tab, select bold and italic.
• Return to the Macros menu and stop recording.
• Check the macro. To do this, select a piece of text and press the specified keyboard shortcut.

Additional tricks to improve your efficiency with MS Word

Below you will find a list of life hacks with which you can quickly solve standard tasks when working with MS Word:

• Use the context menu. It is invoked by clicking the right mouse button.

To select a paragraph, triple-click on any word with the left mouse button.

To insert placeholder text on a page, write the following characters: =lorem(2,2). Use the numbers in brackets to determine the number of paragraphs and placeholder lines. If you replace "lorem" with "rand", random text will be used as a placeholder.

• To quickly create superscript or subscript text, select right word and press the keyboard shortcut "Ctrl +" or " Ctrl Shift+" respectively.
• To select a sentence, press Ctrl and place the cursor on any word.
• Choose the type of file to save. For example, you can save the data in PDF format. To do this, select the "Save as" option and select the desired file type.

• To create a horizontal line, type three hyphens in a row and press the Enter key.
• To print a dash, use the combination Alt keys + 0151.
• To quickly move a piece of text, select it, press F2, position the cursor at the insertion point, and press Enter.

Hello friends! As a person who still uses Microsoft Office 2003 and considers it the most convenient :), it was interesting for me to study the new version a little and see what's new Microsoft company added to the new office. Judging by the Windows 8 operating system, with which Office 2013 came out, there should be a lot of innovations.

I think many will agree with me that Microsoft has begun to apply new strategy to your products. New design, integration of social networks and cloud services. And all this is correct, because technologies are developing, and competitors are not standing still.

Microsoft Office 2013 was added not so long ago, and came out with Windows 8, and the new office gathered as much noise around it as the new operating system.

If you want to buy the new Microsoft Office 2013 and get to know it in more detail, then go to the online software supermarket and get acquainted with the product. If you are not ready yet, then read the review further.

The desktop version of Office 2013 does not differ much in its interface from latest version. But still there are changes. The new office looks good in Windows 7, Windows 8 and on touch devices that run on Windows RT. It is possible that working with documents on tablets will become more convenient, although judging by the reviews about the touch interface of Microsoft Office 2013 convenient work hard to name.

Tight integration of the new office with cloud storage skydrive. Another important and modern feature. Many write that Google service Docs has been haunting Microsoft for a long time. Therefore, the new office got the opportunity to save documents to the cloud, which allows you to work with documents, for example, from different devices, in different places and for different people.

And a few other nice changes. Office has learned to open PDF documents, now you won't need to install special programs. There is also integration with such popular social networks as Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, etc. This means that documents can be shared immediately in in social networks. Added the ability to embed YouTube videos into documents.

Conclusion

The new Office received few major changes compared to Office 2010, but in this version, Microsoft applied its main strategy, namely to allow the user to work on multiple devices.

The latest version of the Microsoft office suite provides convenient features, which can significantly speed up the work with documents, as well as simplify access to them for teamwork. How can you effectively use the new tools of its applications? This is what we'll talk about today.

At first, sales of MS Office 2013 have already passed a lot of time, but not everyone is familiar with the new version of the office suite. Microsoft is positioning this product more like a corporate one, paying a lot of attention to online functions. In addition, many are confused by the options Office applications 365, assuming a subscription form of use. At the same time, the basis of this package is MS Office 2013 with all its traditional programs. In addition, Office 365 includes online services such as cloud storage and features sharing and work on the created documents. By and large, this is still the same familiar appearance and familiar options that have long become the standard in the industry.

Ribbon menu interface, which appeared back in Office package 2007 has become much more convenient compared to the original version, it has added new tools and functions. In addition, it can be switched to a version optimized for touch screens. Saving documents directly to the "cloud" made it possible to provide access to files at any time and from any device. Many of the innovations introduced in Office 2013, such as saving the cursor position when closing a document, quick access to templates, and inserting images from the web, simply add convenience, and therefore speed up your work. Obviously, this is one of the main advantages of this package over its predecessors.

Network Integration

You can improve work efficiency different ways. For example, using quick access to files, synchronizing settings, or using templates and social networks.

Quick access to files and settings

Users are offered to store data in SkyDrive by default. Using the standard dialogs for saving and opening files, you can easily work with documents that are hosted in the "cloud". This provides several advantages, the main of which is quick access to current version file. In addition, the "cloud" service allows you to save lists of opened documents, ribbon interface settings, and even the cursor position after closing the file. If you are not yet ready to work online, go to the "Save" menu section, check the "Save to computer by default" checkbox and specify the desired folder.

Home screen customization

All major MS Office 2013 applications have received a new start screen. It shows the latest files that were worked on, and it is also possible to select a template for creating a new document. Here you can pin files and folders, quick access to which is necessary all the time. If you prefer to see the window for creating a new document when loading, go to the program options and in the "General" section, uncheck the box next to the "Show home screen when starting this application.

Choose a template of your choice

Templates have been used in MS Office for a very long time, but never before have they been found and downloaded so conveniently. IN new version many templates are available for the office suite, and, of course, they can be viewed online, without downloading. Popular templates are placed directly on the start page of applications, and all the rest can be found by keyword without leaving the program window. It is worth entering "resume" or "invitation" - and you will be offered dozens of templates with different designs. After you select the desired option, it will be downloaded from the Microsoft website and you can work with it. To access templates, go to File | Create".

Social media integration

Office 2013 introduces support for many popular web resources, so you can, for example, quickly attach a file to a message in Facebook feed or use photos from your Flickr account to design your presentation. In addition to the services mentioned, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube are supported. To connect them, open the menu «File | Account", and to publish a link on a social network, use the "Sharing" section

Convenient control and new functions

MS Office 2013 is the first version of the office suite, which is comfortable to work with not only on the keyboard, but also using the touch screen.

In Office 2013, the menu ribbon has been redesigned: the buttons for navigating through the tabs are flattened, and their names are written capital letters. For tablet screens, it became possible to activate the touch control mode. In order for the button to enable it to appear on the quick launch panel, go to the menu “File | Options | Quick Access Toolbar" and add the command "Touch or Mouse Mode" in the right field.

Insert media from the web

The functionality of inserting graphics and video files in the new package is significantly expanded: in addition to Office.com, many other sources are now available. Firstly, you can search for images in Bing, and secondly, you can use the Flickr photo service. In addition, you can insert images from your own SkyDrive storage. For videos, MS Office now works well with YouTube and the less popular Bing Video service. When you try to play such a video in a document, the window becomes larger and is placed on top of the main text.

Manage Graphics and Video in MS Word

In the new text editor MS Word 2013 has made it much easier to manage wrapping. When you insert an object into a document, an icon appears next to it, when you click on it, you can select one of six wrapping options. So, you can set "Move the object along with the text" or, conversely, turn on the "Fix position on the page" mode.

Edit PDF files in Word

Now Word can not only save texts in PDF, but also fully work with such documents. When a PDF file is opened, it is parsed, and if text is found in it, it is converted to Word format and becomes editable. After making all the edits, the document is converted back to PDF.

Document Collaboration

Office 2013 introduced the ability to view corrected text, with notifications about where the changes were made displayed in the margins. In addition, the latest release allows you to manage the display of notes, as well as respond to them.

New reading mode

Word 2013 can also be used as a "reader". You can turn pages using controls or a gesture, which is convenient on touch screens. Also in this mode, auto-selection of the font is used.

Fast work with data

Table processors have not yet learned to work instead of the user, but they can already perform routine operations for him.

Excel 2013 introduces a feature to automatically complete a set based on data that has already been entered. It works in cases where there are cells with the same type of information, on the basis of which the user manually creates new cells. So, already on the second cell or immediately after identifying a pattern, the program will offer to complete the data entry.

Automatic chart type selection

A good choice of chart affects visual presentation information. The new "Recommended Charts" feature, which is located on the "Insert" tab, can help with this. Just select the required data and the program itself will suggest which charts are best used to visualize them, and generate different viewing options. The user will only have to choose the most successful one.

More Topics in PowerPoint

PowerPoint 2013 contains many additional templates, and some of them are presented for the first time in several variations. This means that several different documents can be created based on one template. When choosing a theme for a new presentation, you can see its options with different fonts and colors. It's also worth bearing in mind that PowerPoint 2013 is optimized for widescreen monitors.

Handling vector shapes

If there are multiple graphics on a slide, they can now be grouped for moving or deleting. When creating new vector shapes, you can use guides to help you line up objects. To select a color in PowerPoint 2013, you can use the eyedropper, a very handy tool with which you can specify an exact shade sample.

Apps for Office

In Office 2013, add-ins returned under a new name - "apps". Go to the "Insert" tab and find the "Apps for Office" button. By clicking on it, you will see the most popular add-ons for office suite programs. Many of them are free, but there are also commercial ones. The full catalog can only be opened in a browser. To install this or that application, you will need to specify your account Microsoft, after which it will appear in the corresponding program in the "My applications" section. Among the available utilities are a calculator, a free calendar for quickly inserting the current date, etc.