One of the main new additions to Windows 8 was the new version of Microsoft Office; Office 2013. It will look very familiar to anyone who has used Office 2007 or 2010, but with a few new features and some existing features more tightly integrated into the system, I thought I would share some of my favourites that you might not have come across.
Online Accounts
Office 2013 has the advantage of being able to save documents directly to online storage so they can be accessed from any computer. When saving something you'll click on SkyDrive (it's actually just been renamed as OneDrive, so we'll call it that from now on to avoid any confusion!) instead of your computer, and use the email address that you normally use for Microsoft products. If you also use SharePoint this will integrate within it.
You can also use the online version of Office at office.com, then click on My Office on the top menu. You can also link your account to LinkedIn, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter to share resources.
Touchscreen Mode
In the top left corner you can toggle between mouse or touch mode. Touch mode lets you scroll through the document by swiping vertically with your finger, allows for multi-touch gestures, and puts more space between icons so you can select them more easily. Tip: If the finger symbol is not there just click on the tiny down arrow and select Touch/Mouse Mode from the list.
Edit a PDF
A nifty little addition is the PDF editing option. It's now possible to open and edit an Adobe PDF document, whereas before you could only save a file as a PDF. Now when you open a PDF it will convert to a Word document, and after you've made your changes it can then be saved back into a PDF.
Insert Options
The Insert tab of the ribbon tool bar now lets you insert media from online sources such as Bing search, OneDrive or a Flickr account.
Online meetings
You can attend online meetings using a very similar interface to Skype. You can also share Office documents, and other meeting attendees can see the files, even if they don't have Office installed.
How to request a read/delivery receipt
As one final bonus tip, I thought I would share with you the answer to a question I get asked a great deal; how to request delivery receipts for messages you have sent. This can be a very useful tool, especially if you are sending important documents and want to know that they have safely arrived with the recipient.
To do this, open a new message, or click on Reply/Forward, then click on the Options tab at the top. Under theTracking section you will have the following tick boxes:
You can tailor the settings further if you click on the arrow highlighted above. This will bring up the following window:
To track all messages and change detailed settings for all mail, navigate to File > Options > Mail, then scroll down to Tracking.
To track receipt responses, go to the Sent Items folder and find the original email that you sent with a request for a delivery or read receipt. Then, in Office
2013 go to File > Info > Message Delivery Report.
In Office 2010, on the Message tab in the Show group click Tracking.
One thing to note: tracking doesn't appear until at least one receipt is received. After you receive the first receipt in your Inbox, it might take several minutes before the Tracking button is available.
I hope that's given you a good introduction to Office 2013, there are some great new features, so have fun!
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