Microsoft Corp. unveiled the customer
preview of the new Microsoft Office that
features an intuitive design that works with
touch, stylus, mouse or keyboard across
new Windows devices, including tablets.
"We are taking bold steps at Microsoft,"
Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft said at the
press conference in San Francisco. "The
new, modern Office will deliver
unparalleled productivity and flexibility for
both consumers and business customers. It
is a cloud service and will fully light-up
when paired with Windows 8."
Here's our list of top 10 features that the
new Office has to offer.
1) Touch everywhere - The new Office
responds to touch as naturally as it does to
keyboard and mouse. One can swipe their
finger across the screen or pinch and zoom
to read documents and presentations.
2) Inking - Use a stylus to create content,
take notes and access features. Handwrite
email responses and convert them
automatically to text. Stylus can also be
used as a laser pointer when presenting.
One can also add colour to their content
and erase mistakes with ease.
3) Apps - OneNote and Lync represent the
first new Windows 8 style applications for
Office. These applications are designed to
deliver touch-first experiences on a tablet.
A new radial menu in OneNote makes it
easy to access features with finger.
4) SkyDrive - Office saves documents to
SkyDrive by default, which means content is
always available across all devices tablet,
PC and phone. Documents are also
available offline and sync on reconnecting.
5) New subscription services - The new
Office is available as a cloud-based
subscription service, which means
consumers will automatically get future
upgrades in addition to exciting cloud
services including Skype world minutes and
extra SkyDrive storage. Subscribers receive
multiple installs for everyone in the family
and across their devices.
6) Stay connected - Follow people, teams,
documents and sites in SharePoint. View
and embed pictures, videos and Office
content in activity feeds to stay current and
updated.
7) Skype - The new Office comes with
Skype, which gives 60 minutes of Skype
world minutes every month. Integrate
Skype contacts into Lync and call or instant
message anyone on Skype.
8) Reading, markup - The Read Mode in
Word provides a modern and easy-to-
navigate reading experience that
automatically adjusts for large and small
screens. Zoom in and out of content,
stream videos within documents, view
revision marks and use touch to turn
pages.
9) Digital note-taking - Digital note taking
helps keep notes handy in the cloud and
across multiple devices with OneNote. One
can take notes with touch, pen or keyboard,
or use them together and switch easily
back and forth.
10) Meetings - PowerPoint features a new
Presenter View that privately shows your
current and upcoming slides, presentation
time, and speaker notes in a single glance.
While presenting, one can zoom, mark up
and navigate slides with touch and stylus.
Lync includes multiparty HD video with
presentations, shared OneNote notebooks
and a virtual whiteboard for collaborative
brainstorming.
