Microsoft Word 2013; What's New

Microsoft did not hold back any punches when they boldly revamped their new Windows 8 OS, the Surface tablet, and Windows Phone 8. Up next for Microsoft is the release of Office 365 for Q1 of 2013. We can expect to see similar innovations with their popular business productivity applications. Today, we will look at a few new features planned for Word 2013.

Object Zoom

You will notice right away that Word 2013 has a less cluttered design that is easier on the eyes. This clean layout is meant to make documents more readable by removing distractions, as well as providing users with a smooth touch screen experience. Object Zoom is a new feature in Word that does a nice job showing off the strengths of Microsoft's new interface. With Object Zoom, you can now interact with the media inside Word; just click or tap once on a table, chart, image, or online video, and the media will expand for greater clarity. A second click will return the media to its original size.

Simplified Sharing

You have likely heard a lot about the benefits of cloud computing for business; Word 2013 makes use of the cloud by allowing you to save and share your documents with SkyDrive or Sharepoint. Simplified Sharing is very useful when collaborating with someone on a Word document; it is now possible to allow multiple people on different devices to view the most current edition in real-time. Word even allows for multiple people to make edits at the same time. With Simplified Sharing, you can also create a link for your Word document, and send it to any platform to be viewed within a browser.

Reply Comment

If you like instant messaging, then you will love the new Reply Comment feature in Word 2013. With Reply Comment, you can leave comments and notes inside a document for whoever you are sharing the document with; this can even include an entire group, all in real-time. Reply Comment is a very clear way to communicate needed edits or new ideas pertaining to specific sections in a Word document. When collaborating, you can keep track of the discussion of everybody within the document.

PDF Reflow

You likely convert a Word file to PDF before emailing it; this is standard when sending a document. PDFs work great for sending, but they have always required additional software if you need to make an edit. Word 2013 takes care of this with PDF Reflow; you can now open a PDF in Word and essentially transform it into a Word doc. PDF Reflow allows you to edit all of the text, lists, and tables in a PDF. This feature dramatically increases the compatibility of Word with all the platforms that utilize PDF.

Do you think these new features for Word 2013 are worth the upgrade? If you would like to know more about Word or any other of Microsoft's new business applications, then call Computerware at (703) 821-8200 and help you decide what products are right for your business. Computerware can even install Office on your company's network, manage your software licenses and updates, and of course, service all of your IT needs.