What’s New In Microsoft Word 2013? [Review]

With the recent launch of Office 15 at a media event, new trends have surely been set. The flurry of Windows 8, its metro user interface and a clean and resourceful look has brought in criticism from around the world, but the overall balance is being seen in Microsoft’s favor, as it embarks upon technology integration, cloud-connectivity, and modern, touch-friendly outlook. In what follows, we will inform you exactly where Microsoft Word 2013 from the Office 15 Suite aims to reform your experience with documents. It is surely time to embrace text-flow, PDFs, collaborations, and the world wide web through a resourceful Office App Library for the better. A cleaner discussion thread and Microsoft SkyDrive integration promise a unique experience for the novice as well as advanced users.

The overall Office experience has been revamped with a new logo, faster loading time and a landing page enhanced with user friendly themes and templates. To access features like document sharing and remote access, you are required to create a Microsoft Office account online, as it will be used as a default account for sharing and accessing documents from remote locations.

Integrated Account Management & Connected Services

The landing page provides you with a sleek interface organized into three sections: the navigation sidebar, account information and product information. The navigation bar allows you to access essential word processing functionalities including sharing, exporting and return buttons. The overall Word interface is highly responsive obeying the click, instantly. As illustrated below, Word 2013 comes with a customizable themes (that can be selected from the Office Background dropdown menu boasting multiple attractive themes). Moreover, understanding the power of social media and its penetration in generating viral content, Microsoft has decided to ride the wave by offering Connected Services that virtually allows you to access documents from any device on the go. Just use your Microsoft or SkyDrive account or connect using Youtube. Still not satisfied with the feature? Why not Add a service and connect your work to your favorite online hot spots. The Product Information on the left allows you to Manage account or analyze the overall subscription of the Office Suite with update details.

When adding a new service, Word 2013 allows you to link your existing Microsoft account with another online service like LinkedIn. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, just click the Join Now button on the top right corner to create one. You can specify the access duration and upon approving the link, the new service will get connected to Word, successfully.

Object Placement beyond the right click

In all previous versions, placement options relevant to objects like pictures, figures, etc. were accessible from the right-click menu. You may have used the Wrap Text feature, placement and adjustment with text, re-sizing and rotation utilities. In Word 2013, a simple click reveals all relevant functionality with the layout options floating on the right, while re-sizing buttons on and around the object. Options can be easily expanded by clicking See more. Double click on the picture to zoom for a better view of the target. With live layout and alignment guides, you can drag your image wherever you want with the text adapting in real-time, accordingly.

Enhanced templates directory

A comprehensive template directory comes to view upon clicking New. It is advisable to load the Welcome to Word document for a quick tour of Word 2013. A large number of useful and popular templates are organized in the New tab as user-friendly tiles. Moreover, the search bar allows you to browse, view and select from hundreds of online templates in the Office Library.  Suggested searches enhance the searching experience by highlighting frequently used categories.

Office Apps: Redefining Creativity

Office Apps are a new way of adding creative and useful applications to Microsoft Office 2013 suite. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary and eFax app for Word 2013 are useful ways of increasing productivity while creating and managing documents. Moreover, there are loads of free featured apps and a huge collection in the Office Store awaiting your click. You can manage your apps and refresh to keep track of any updates.

 Insert Pictures From the Web, Instantly

The Insert tab on the ribbon reveals some new and useful additions. One such feature is the option to insert online pictures. Microsoft has updated its Royalty Free Photos and Illustrations directory that can be accessed using the search bar in the Insert Pictures window. You can also browse your online SkyDrive storage for clipart stored in the cloud. Too often do we use our Image Search to identify relevant photos in the web browser to paste into Microsoft Word. Now, you can use the Bing Image Search and Flickr account to hunt and insert online pictures for good from within Word 2013.

Insert Online Videos And Interactive Content Easily

In an attempt to promote dynamic content in documents, Word 2013 presents to you the option to add online videos may it be from social media sites like Youtube, search engines like Bing Video search or videos from any other website (using embed code). To insert a video successfully, type a keyword in the relevant search bar to view results.

Word 2013 displays all results, mentioning the total number of links. Just click the result to preview the video before actually inserting it into the document. Similarly, multiple video results can be added by selecting, previewing and inserting, accordingly. Text Reflow allows you to fit the interactive content in the most appropriate manner.

Simplified Markup View For Better Collaborations

Working with text had never been so interactive. Online Pictures and Videos already added color and dynamic content to the Word document ensuring fast track follow up on relevant topics. Now, with a simplified markup view meant to highlight changes in your document in a neat, effective manner encourages you to focus on collaborating work. The left sidebar indicates changes while a small cloud on the right indicates comments at the respective places. With Word 2013, you can instantly reply to comments in an organized manner to give rise to useful discussion threads. With Microsoft SkyDrive and SharePoint, working on projects and documents online as a collaborated effort could have never been simpler. These markers and comment threads allow you to highlight necessary details, corrections and pointers for the rest of your team to keep in mind. Similarly, keeping track of the activity around your workspace has thus, been made possible.

Say Goodbye to PDF Readers & Editors

All of us use PDF documents, but we often rely on third party tools to extract pictures or specific pages from the overall structure. Using Word 2013, you can easily open a PDF file like any other Word Document. Editing text, tables or lists, re-sizing pictures, adding, removing and highlighting information are all possible as well.

By default, when you open PDF file in Word 2013, it shows you the protected view, preventing your system from getting infected by virus-injected PDF documents. However, you can click Enable Editing to open your PDF document in Word 2013 editor, and edit not only text, but also tables, images, margins and other elements.

Concentrate, in the improved Reading Mode

Special focus has been directed at improving the Reading Mode in a manner that all relevant utilities like the toolbar, ribbon, and scrollbar disappear from view unless they are needed. This cleans the interface, allowing the user to fully concentrate on reading. Double click on any picture and it will zoom to view, fading out everything else. To activate Reading mode, click the relevant option in the View tab and enjoy the experience.

Understand the impact, definitely

The Review tab has a new Define feature that presents definitions of words and phrases, instantly using the relevant Word Apps like the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Results and displayed on the right sidebar as soon as you select the text. Say goodbye to right-click menu and dictionary access when your results are displayed at a single click. Now, you can truly understand the impact of your content.

Verdict

It is always beneficial to look at new features objectively. Microsoft Word 2013 has indeed come with new tidings for progress in the area of word processing. You are now in a position to present documents online to people who do not have the latest version of Microsoft Office, how? This can now be achieved using the cloud-based storage and synchronization of documents for access, wherever needed. Just provide your team members with the respective link that can be pasted in browsers for viewing. Thus, with a modern, polished and internet-friendly Word 2013, the new life spells out productivity for us all.

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Abdullah Saqib

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