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Archived Report:
Microsoft
Office 2013

by Michael Gariffo

Copyright 2016, Faulkner Information Services. All Rights
Reserved.

Docid: 00011452

Publication Date: 1605

Report Type: PRODUCT

Preview

Microsoft Office 2013 was the last 100 percent locally installed version of
the popular office suite to be offered by Microsoft. It has since been replaced
by Microsoft Office 2016, which provides cloud support
as well as support for multi-touch interfaces. All editions of Office 2013 shipped
with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote with additional applications included
depending on the version purchased. Office 2013 was also made part of Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud offering,
which consists of Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and Lync
Online. Available for business and consumer
users alike, Office 2013 provided collaborative and
workflow tools, content management, and enterprise search and business
intelligence tools. This report details Microsoft
Office 2013’s productivity capabilities.

Report Contents:

• Description
  

• Related Faulkner Reports
• Vendor
• Applications
• Environment
• Support
• Pricing
• Competitors
• Web Links

Description

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Microsoft Office 2013 was the company’s last edition of its local-only suite
of productivity software, which included well-known applications such as Word,
Excel, and PowerPoint, as well as additional software depending on the version
purchased. The 2013 edition of Microsoft’s suite was very much a  cloud-integrated
solution consisting of collaborative and workflow tools, content management, enterprise
search, and business intelligence tools. Office’s cloud functionality was also
extended through the online storage of documents via SkyDrive, synchronized
collaboration and note taking via OneNote, and a variety of other cloud-based
collaboration and synchronization tools. The software is also fully
integrated with Office 365, Microsoft’s cloud-based Office version, making it
possible for users to take their settings and documents wherever they go by
simply logging in with their Microsoft credentials.

Office 2013 was made available to consumers on
January 29, 2013. Although the basic components of the Office suite had remained
largely the same for more than a decade, the versions included in the 2013
edition did offer some new tricks. 

• In Word 2013, users could now:
  • Insert audio and video features
  • View in a new read-only mode
  • Collaborate in real-time or asynchronously with co-workers and
    colleagues via the Office 360 integration included with Office 2013.
• Meanwhile, Excel offered:
  • A Windows 8-styled interface mode with touch support
  • Improved multi-threading support
  • More than 50 new functions and tools for designing presentations.
• The 2013 version of PowerPoint brought:
  • Windows 8-styled interface elements
  • Office’s new integrated "Ribbon" menu system.

In addition to these revamped standard applications, all versions of Office
2013 also included OneNote, Microsoft’s cloud-based note taking and collaboration
software. All other applications are available as add-ons or as part of the
various editions of Microsoft Office 2013.

The purposes of each of Microsoft Office 2013’s individual software applications are
detailed in Table 1.

Table 1. Office
Standalone Applications

Table 2 compares Office 2013 to its 2010 and 2007 predecessors.

Table 2. Office 2013 vs. 2010 and 2007

Applications

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Like all versions of Microsoft’s productivity suite for several decades now, Office 2013
was offered for
consumers, mobile workers, students, and organizations of any size. The
software was available in several suites, including Home and
Business, Home and Student, and Professional.

These editions are detailed in Table 3.

Table 3. Office
2013 Software Editions Comparison

Environment

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Microsoft Office 2013 will not work on
Windows XP or Vista. System requirements are detailed in Table 4.

Table 4. Office System Requirements

Support

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Microsoft offers users online support for both the individual applications that make up the
Office 2013 line, as well as the various editions of the Office 2013 suites. Users can search
Microsoft’s Web site for answers to the product or suite issues. Users also receive 90 days of
free phone support, while a charge will apply for calls after the free support terms ends. Microsoft also regularly delivers updates and tools to fix issues through its Microsoft Update
service.

Pricing

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Microsoft has ceased selling Office 2013 on a retail basis, as it has been
replaced by Microsoft Office 2016. While the software can still be obtained from
many third-party retailers at the time of writing, pricing is no longer being
determined by Microsoft, and therefore can no longer be standardized. 

Competitors

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Office 2013’s top competitors include Google Apps for
Business, IBM’s Lotus SmartSuite, OpenOffice.org’s Office Suite, LibreOffice,
Zoho’s Zoho suite, and Oracle’s
Open Office.

Web Links

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• Google (Apps): http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html/
• IBM: http://www.ibm.com/
• LibreOffice: http://www.libreoffice.org/
• Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/
• OpenOffice.org: http://www.openoffice.org/
• Oracle: http://www.oracle.com/
• Zoho: http://www.zoho.com

About the Author

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Michael Gariffo is an editor for Faulkner Information Services. He
tracks and writes about enterprise software and the IT services sector, as well
as telecommunications and data networking.

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