Microsoft announced Office 2013 last week which will be touch optimized, have added functionality and of course be cloud connected.

Some of the coolest new features are:

• Touch optimization : using Office 2013 via touch is as natural as using the traditional keyboard and mouse. All of your standard gestures are supported.
• Stylus support: Office 2013 now has built in stylus support which means you can now jot down digital ink notes and send them or have Office convert your written notes to text.
• New Windows 8 apps are now built in (OneNote, Lync, etc)
• Built in PDF support (ability to edit PDFs and save docs to PDF)
• Excel has a new start screen with much more helpful template use.
• Really nice touch interface for Powerpoint.
• Outlook is the app with the most changes.
  
  • Super clean 3 pane view
  • Ability to hide ribbon
  • Outlook works very well with GMAIL now (using ActiveSync)
  • Integrates with People app on Windows 8
• You have full screen mode in most apps (aka you can hide the ribbon)
• Overall performance improvements

You can now test the early preview version of Office 2012 by checking out this link.

Office 2013 works with Skydrive so make sure you have a Microsoft (hotmail, live, etc) account.

Office 2013 will no longer work with Windows XP or Vista. If you are interested in upgrading to Windows 8 for $39, read this article.