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.