News - Microsoft Office 2013 Customer Preview announced

[HEXUS]

Brings support for touch and stylus and enters the cloud.

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[Spud1]

Ewww..I should not be surprised but that looks awfully "metro-ised"..the video doesn't really say but do we know if that is the metro only version of office, rather than the full "Productivity" version?

I can see how the bits of UI they display would work on a tablet for consumption and note taking, but as a desktop office suite? (which is surely where they make their money anyway) Not so sure.

It's another suck it and see product from MS I guess following their recent trend - the complete lack of any screenshots of the new Word UI worrys me somewhat - but time to fire up my VM and install it, fingers crossed they have not done anythign too stupid!

[dangel]

Running it now, seems OK to me so far - it's very er.. 'white'

[markini6]

Same, nothing special so far, but no UI guffs that make the experience unpleasant

[Spud1]

Running it now, seems OK to me so far - it's very er.. 'white'

:S I can't install it until tonight...thats worrying - is it as white as the new-look GMail? I don't get this facination with having a lot of wasted space/white on screen..must be a sign that I am getting old ;D

[Hicks12]

Installing now, whats with the install limits? I hate things like this , i tend to find im stuck as for some reason i tend to format my pcs after i mess something up (work) and then it always takes an activation on things, hopefully this isnt the same and i can remove it(get back an install) before i ever format.

be interesting seeing how it looks, assuming it will be very metroy but that cant always be a bad thing!

[OilSheikh]

Metro is a fail. Microsoft need to stop pursuing it.

[AGTDenton]

I dont have any audio in the office but watching the video, when the man leaves the kitchen it looks like the woman is about to snoop on him.

I've only just got used to 2010 after using 2003 for what seemed like decades.
It does look OK with the metro style but as ever I usually skip a version so it will be Office 2016 (if the 3 year rule still applies) before I change.

[dangel]

Metro is a fail. Microsoft need to stop pursuing it.

I think you'd better accept they're doing it - the design language is now embedded in four MS platforms. Metro != Start Screen also..

Anyway, some oddities - i've noticed the office tabs are capitalised which is usually a UI no-no since it takes humans longer to read capital letters and the choice of 'theme' seems largely irrelevant since everything is er.. white. It's quick and smooth though and I have to say the skydrive stuff is pretty neat.



Have to say, I like the 'clean' look to it though - i'm surprised.. if this is how the desktop will look in the release i may even give up my precious translucent windows borders after all..

[TheAnimus]

Same as dangel, my only complaint is that the tab text is capitalised and hard to distinguish.

Seeing as I normally run with the ribbon in collapsed (have been since 2007 beta versions) I like the full screen OS not in the way interface, metro keeps making the less important stuff less in your face.

[Hicks12]

need to use it more but im quite suprised about the white background, i can understand it but the only customisation we get is a little image/design (i picked the circuit like yours dangel haha) i hope to god they give an option to change the colour, i have no idea why but white messes with my eyes to a level i struggle with it , some white with grey is ok but this is like 100% pure white and bad, i have my normal office with a black background and is lovely to my eyes.

Apart from that im liking it so far, havent had much hands on as surprisingly enough no work to do but one thing i noticed immediately is that typing is smoother, not sure how to describe it other than that it just seems better and ive compared it between 2010 and it certainly is different and scrolling is better. And yeah i also noticed the silly capitalised tabs, hopefully this is just an oversight and will be changed along with adding colour backgrounds!.

[dangel]

need to use it more but im quite suprised about the white background, i can understand it but the only customisation we get is a little image/design (i picked the circuit like yours dangel haha)

Obvious choice was obvious

i hope to god they give an option to change the colour, i have no idea why but white messes with my eyes to a level i struggle with it , some white with grey is ok but this is like 100% pure white and bad, i have my normal office with a black background and is lovely to my eyes.

Apart from that im liking it so far, havent had much hands on as surprisingly enough no work to do but one thing i noticed immediately is that typing is smoother, not sure how to describe it other than that it just seems better and ive compared it between 2010 and it certainly is different and scrolling is better. And yeah i also noticed the silly capitalised tabs, hopefully this is just an oversight and will be changed along with adding colour backgrounds!.

Colour - yeah I think they'll be more to it by release (just like there was in 8 between DP and CP builds). Performance - definitely agree it's super smooth. Contentious question but.. do you think dropping XP means they can make it smoother? It could be talking to Direct2D for example..

[Hicks12]

It most likely is to do with optimisation and using newer technologies, the problem with keeping compatibility with older systems/software is that you limit your progress and have to make cuts to optimise it for both old and new, either spend a crap ton of money or just reduce the effectiveness of the overall upgrade. With dropping the older systems (XP and even vista i think? ) it should mean MS have a solid foundation to provide a greatly superior experience, its looking like they have as well .

Just tried powerpoint, looking through an old presentation im quite happy with the changes its alot of superficial changes as far as i can tell but it certainly looks nice and its GREY! Win, as you mention it would probably be like the W8 beta with the options so if its like that im happy, but grey for now is certainly unfaultable . Oh and its also silky smooth, scrolling is that of a mobile device, and please no one take that as a bad thing as I know W8 gets lots of flak for that (understable in some case), this is the absolute pro of mobile devices as for some reason we have good scrolling but desktops have this horrid clunky scroll and its now gone , if only the web browsers would take note (Google Chrome!).

Overall im liking the designs, im someone who very much just does what he has to on his own, theres alot of templates in the office but I always forget to use them but now things like excel you open it and you are immediately given a large selection, easy to make a blank one but its also nice to see all the options that are actually useful.

Ah even Outlook is looking good, god damn I must be going mad but im actually impressed ... since thunderbird has had its official support cut I think I will certainly be jumping back to outlook in 2013.

The only thing i question is cost, how much will this cost from 2010 -> 2013, if its £30 like I paid for 2010 pro plus im happy but i cant justify spending a lot more, I know its not much compared to retail price but im a cheap student, free Windows and all my software needs means I get very tight-fisted haha.

[Spud1]

I have been using the beta for a week now..time to report back as brief as I can.

In short, my earlier fears have been squashed - it's actually really to use, the UI tweaks work really well and it's not been "Metrofied" to death (YET). Only major complaint is the capitilised menu options but I strongly suspect that these are just placeholders for now.

Sadly I can't really try out Outlook 2013 as my company are still stuck on exchange 2003 And support for this has now been dropped.

Quite impressed with the streaming version too - works much better than I expected.

I am curious how the cost model will work on this - I would guess that MS are going to head down both the capital and subscription models - I would pay £5-£6 a month for office 365 if it included the ability to install+use office - and this would mainly be for the new weboutlook which is really nice Plus the skydrive integration seems to work well - much better than it does on my Windows Phone anyway!

I wish the design team that worked on this office verison would be utilised elsewhere in Windows - I am impressed with what they have done and it would be great to ge them applying this sort of logic elsewhere..maybe fixing Metro so it's not fugly would be a good start

[dangel]

I'm surprised too - it's definitely a lot better and that was much harder to say about 2010 vs 2007 for example. It's a very slick product and i'm looking forward to the final release.

Remember that the 'metro' look for Windows 8 desktop proper will be in the RTM build (the previews still have the aero theme) which will probably make this stuff look a lot more coherent.

[Spud1]

Little things like the new cursor animations in word, or the way the cell selector works in excel just make all the difference.

Win 8 is the next big risk - I am still on the developer preview as I have not bothered to upgrade yet with the RC due out on technet in a few weeks, but just as with office there are some risky things going on there..the loss of Aero will be a huge shame (going to miss transparency..its so useful) but they surprised me here, they can do the same with Win 8 RTM I hope