Today I’m going to write up my first impression on Microsoft Office 2013.
The whole interface has been redesigned by Microsoft to pursue their Windows 8 design philosophy; Minimalistic Metro design.
By default, the whole inteface is bleached in white. Not really a consumer friendly theme, it really burns my eyes if I have to stare at it for long period of time. However, I’ve change the Office theme to dark grey accessible at FILE > Account, and I feel much better eyeing on it now.
One thing I’ve notice is that Microsoft decided to “yell” at me every time I look at the ribbon menu by using all caps menu text. I have to say that I’m not a fan of this new design decision.
Figure 1: Windows 8 Profile picture
Figure 2: Aggressive ribbon menu title is aggressive
Figure 3: New Office design with dark grey theme
One great feature that I noticed is the typing animation. It makes typing looks smoother, and gives me an inspiration to continue writing by watch the typing animation. I’m not sure if it customizable or not, but I like it so far.
The new Office is integrated to your Windows 8 user account. Once logged in, you will see your Windows profile picture on the upper right corner. No worries if you leave your file at home, this new Office uses SkyDrive to store your office files on the cloud.
Finally, the license. It’s a controversial decision from Microsoft to sell the license based on yearly subscription. This means that you have to pay Microsoft every period of time to use Office programs.
That’s it. I’ll be using Office 2010 instead of this version once the trial expired. This might change if I could find a way to like Office 2013.
