Microsoft to Announce Office 2013 Today

[Mark]

Today at 3:00 PM EDT, Microsoft is expected to announce the next version of Office. It will be a Windows 8 Metro feel (complete with menus in all caps so you can feel like your documents are yelling at you).

The real question for me is whether this release will be strong enough to stop the leak of users to Google Apps. Microsoft knows that consumers are going to be the driving force behind what the IT department of next year supports. Hopefully this isn't just another release of yet another ribbon design.

Watch the live event here

Additional Comment:

UPDATE: This is super expensive.

[AdamV]

video of it running on windows tablet
http://gizmodo.com/5926357/the-new-m...getting-better

[Namtaro]

Doesn't look all that different to me, just muted (or lack of) colors.

[Mark]

Originally Posted by AdamV

video of it running on windows tablet
http://gizmodo.com/5926357/the-new-m...getting-better

What do you think? While I am kind of impressed with the neato tablet stuff, I don't see myself using a tablet for my day-to-day any time soon. I will skip Windows 8 for as long as I can for that same reason.

[Urbanfox]

Originally Posted by Mark

UPDATE: This is super expensive.

Did you mean to link to 365?

If so, then yes, yes it is.

Not sure why we are even evaluating it here.

Unless someone is going to game the system and use one user license on multiple machines, it's a complete waste of budget money and I'd be embarrassed to requisition funds for it.

[maxgull]

Some kind of preview available on TechNet, will DL it tonight and see.

[mimart7]

There are 2 different versions, one will be Office 360, and the other version will be a stand alone for the desktop, http://reviews.cnet.com/office-suite...in;contentBody

[Urbanfox]

At this point (granted I have used it very, very little), it looks like 2010 with a different GUI...

[AdamV]

Originally Posted by Mark

What do you think? While I am kind of impressed with the neato tablet stuff, I don't see myself using a tablet for my day-to-day any time soon. I will skip Windows 8 for as long as I can for that same reason.

I'm honestly looking forward to a Windows Tablet. Having used my ipad gen1 tablet for a couple years now you easily find all its limitations and annoyances, so a fully functioning tablet will be nice. A windows 8 tablet with Office 2013 would have been so much more fun and convenient in college than lugging around my heavy laptop and power cords.

[Nagoshi]

I cant wait for them to licence their new ribbon so that companies can replace the old-school '07-era ribbon with this one. IMO it looks much better. *I'm looking at you, Siemens!*

[Odanez]

Originally Posted by AdamV

video of it running on windows tablet
http://gizmodo.com/5926357/the-new-m...getting-better

COMIC SAAAAAAAAANS!
(at 0:50)

doesn't look bad - I doubt though that I would want to use office with a touch screen environment, but luckily you can attach the KB and mouse to the windows tablet and use it properly.

[digitaldd]

Linkage to the Ars write-ups:

http://arstechnica.com/information-t...in-the-future/

http://arstechnica.com/information-t...-onenote-2013/

http://arstechnica.com/information-t...ok-excel-2013/

http://arstechnica.com/information-t...ook-word-2013/

http://arstechnica.com/information-t...-outlook-2013/

http://arstechnica.com/information-t...werpoint-2013/