Among the offered programs of Microsoft Office 2013, we can say that Word can be considered as one of the bests on its package. Well, Word 2013 is really dedicated to touch screen looking to its interface.
You will be amazed with its all new feature called as Read Mode. There is also a promising fading ribbon menu when not needed which is highly optimized for touch screens and Windows 8.
With this, we can say that Word 2013 is very dedicated to Windows 8 users. Still, there are also vivid changes and improvements for users of Windows 7 powered computers and laptops.
The Read Mode Feature
The Read Mode feature is all dedicated to tablet owners. Yes, this is true. If you will try to open Word 2013 on a tablet PC and running Windows 8, you will encounter 2 columns of screen. The first column is for the editing tools and the second one is for the Word 2013 writing screen. This will be perfect for 16:9 sized tablets and in a landscape mode. If you wanted to turn the screen into the next page, just use your finger, swipe or flick it. You can even pinch to enlarge or zoom-in.
If you are a Word 2013 user who loves to read on documents, you can also use the Read Mode feature. With the help of Read Mode, it can allow you to bookmark a particularly part of or the last document you just read and go back to it when you wanted to continue reading it. You are also allowed to re-open it on a different PC. Pretty cool, isn’t it?
Under the Read Mode feature, there is another helpful option called as the Object Zoom. With the help of Object Zoom, you can try to have a closer look on embedded tables, charts, graphs, photos, etc on the Word 2013 document by clicking anywhere on it. However, this is quite a confusing option since once you clicked it, the program itself is also unsure if you are just going to have a closer look on it or you need to edit it. Hopefully, when Microsoft will finally launch its full release, they have fixed this flaw beforehand.
Read Mode is a default option on both tablet and PC or laptop users. However, for PC or laptop users, Read Mode is not much helpful. With this, it is an expected move for Pc or laptop users that they will just settle with the Normal Mode and opt out from Read Mode.
Improved New Template
With Word 2013, if you are going to start a new document, you will notice a big change. There is a noticeable new Start Page. Typically, on the older versions of Word, once you opened the Word program, you will be welcomed by a new blank document. But with regards to Word 2013, you will be introduced by 2 columns of quite helpful lists. On the left pane, there will be the list of recently opened documents or templates and on the right pane, the list of default templates which you can use.
If ever you did not find any pleasing default templates included on the right pane, you can always rely on the official website of Microsoft. It can provide more choices of predefined templates and for sure, even just one of those templates will perfectly fit the needs of your project. Also, you can take the added feature of Word 2013 in which you are now allowed to have an option in inserting an additional space on a single spaced template. Actually, this has never been possible with Word 2007.
Also, if you are typical user of Word versions, with Word 2013, you will notice that there is a smoother glide on the cursors. This means that it does not “jump” on every character but, it transfers “smoothly”. However, some of the users found this distracting and some also found this marvelous. Whatever it is, you can never turn off this feature.
The All-New Document Look
For the previous versions of Word, you will see them very typical. You can easily input characters and words. However, as there is a growing needs for advanced embeds on a document, we can say that Word 2013 has leveled up. As of now, it is not just a typical word processor but can be considered as a publishing program as well. It does not just help you to put words on it, but also embeds things which can make the content more effective.
With the help of Live Layout, you can now put or drag an image around the group of text, intelligently piling up the sentences and words leaving no space. You can use the green guidelines which can help you to drag the images and put them on their right location. You can arrange the images on the top of paragraphs, middle, side, or wherever you like to make your whole project look organized.
If you will notice, on the Insert Menu, there will be 2 added options: the ability to embed online photos and online. Word 2013 supports several popular online photo sharing sites including the Clip Art collection from Microsoft official website, Bing photos, Flickr, SkyDrive. Now, Word 2013 have brought back Bing as its official search results provider and allows photos to be retrieved as long as it is released under the handling of Creative Commons. However, if you are going to pursue on this feature, you will repeatedly get a pop up message urging you to read the license for each photo being searched before successfully embedding it into a document. If you are asking a way to get rid of this pop up messages, then there is no way for you to do so.
For the second option which allows you to automatically insert online videos, it supports videos coming from Bing and YouTube. It even allows you to conveniently have a quick look on a video through preview clips before embedding it into the document. You are also allowed to just embed the video URL of a YouTube video on a particular document. Although you are also allowed to resize the size of the embedded video, once the viewer clicked on the “Play” button, it gains almost all the screen which topples the other included object and texts. Also, for the viewer to access the video, he should be connected to the internet or else, the video will be completely useless.
Although the feature of embedding online photos and videos on Word 2013 is really a breath of fresh air, there are some lay-outing flaws which hopefully, Microsoft will have the chance of taking a look on this and fixing this before the program’s final release.
Ability to Edit and Review PDF Files
Well, people who usually receive and crate PDFs will surely be delighted with what Word 2013 can offer to them. On the previous versions of Word application, you are allowed to view PDFs but in an “ugly” and “disorganized” look. You can also edit PDFs but there is a tendency that you are limited to use the fonts only provided by your Word app, which is sometimes, far different with what the PDF file used. With this, Word 2013 having a huge improvement with this, it is really a promising feature.
Word 2013 on tablets have become an enjoyable experience since you re now allowed to perform Start Inking and even draw handwritten notes on word documents. You can also include annotations which is very similar with what OneNote could do.
Word 2013 is now perfect for collaborations. Word 2013 has now allowed the comments system. With this, if in case you have created a PDF file and wanted to get comments and views from your co-workers, you can allow them to do so and even allow them to embed their comments inline. Now, you can mark each comment “done” once you have taken their suggestion or comment into reality.
Now, you don’t have to worry since comments will never ruin the whole created PDF. There is the Simple Markup look dedicated to Tracked Changes. This means that all the edits and comments will never do harm to the PDF unless done by you. All the edits will be market with a red ink or line located at the left part of the document beneath the margin. Once you clicked it, you can see the changes done. The comments are put with a bubble which means that the comment has been noted already by the author(s).
Keep in mind that the collaborations in creating and editing PDF files will always be suggested to be done on SkyDrive or SharePoint which allows more than 2 users to participate. To make sure that there will be no confusions when it comes to the Tracked Changes, it is advisable for you to assign a password before a particular participant can edit a document.
Also, with Word 2013, it allows you to have an online presentation by sending a link to the users who wanted to watch it. You can even allow them to see it scrolling up or down, similar with what you do on your computer. You can also talk to the viewers through a phone patch. The great thing on this is that they can view the Word 2013 presentation without the needs of installing the same program. Just send them link and they are off to go.
All in all..
Microsoft indeed put a lot of their intelligence and effort to come up with the best Word version so far. Also, most of the changes seen are for the better.
However, some discrepancies can be considered “unstoppable” Just like with how a user tries to differentiate how to work on Word 2013 through a tablet and on a PC or laptop. For tablet users, you will highlight a particular text and tapping on it will reveal a horizontal menu. Now, try to use a mouse pointer. Highlight a text and right click on it. After it, there will be a dropdown menu which is in a vertical position.
There is also a disappointing fact that once you tapped the screen, the onscreen keyboard will appear. When you tapped a particular character, the onscreen keyboard just disappears. Also, some of the tabs and menus for tablets are too small for you to tap it conveniently. If you are going to use Word 2013 on tablets to create and edit documents most of the time rather than viewing them, it is advisable for you to have an external keyboard or the Microsoft Surface tablet.
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