How to use new features of Office 2013

A welcome new feature in Microsoft Office Word 2013 is the ability to do a lot more with PDF files right within the program itself. If you remember, in the previous version of Microsoft Office, Word 2010 only provided an option for users to save a document in the PDF format. The  upcoming Word edition lets you even edit a PDF file the way you’d edit a Word document, by opening it from right within the Microsoft Word 2013 Preview program. The Microsoft PDF Reflow feature converts the PDF document, along with all of its formatting such as paragraphs, lists, headers, columns, footnotes, tables, etc. into a Word document. Converting a 5MB PDF document within Word 2013 took between 50-55 seconds. In Word 2013, go to File > Open > Browse and locate the PDF from your computer’s hard drive or from your SkyDrive account locate the PDF and then go to File > Open in Word. 

 

 

In-line images and text wrap in the new Word 

 

To access a Word document created using previous Microsoft Office versions, including Office 2003/2007/2010 in Word 2013, you either have to work in Compatibility Mode or convert the older document to the newer Word 2013 file format. The Word Convert command clears the compatibility option if a document has originally been created in Word 2013. If the file is in .doc format, the Convert command automatically upgrades it to the .docx format. Converting allows you to take advantage of the updated features in Word 2013. To access and edit older documents inside Word 2013, go to File > Info > Convert. If you want to create a new copy of the document in Word 2013 mode, click Save As > Choose the location and type a new name for the document. Click “Word Document” in the Save as type list. Just make sure the checkbox next to “Maintain compatibility with previous versions of Word” is unchecked. 

 

 

Different document modes in Word 

 

Use touch gestures for Tablets  

Similar to Windows 8, Office 2013 also entirely supports gestures in multi-touch tablets. Based on our usage, Office 2013 on tablet devices offers several gestures including tap, pinch, stretch, slide and swipe. To get started with Office 2013 on your tablet, first you have to learn some of the basic and important touch gestures for use on touch-screen devices –  that will definitely help you get up to speed. For detailed information on basic operations and touch gestures support on Office 2013, simply log on to http://dgit.in/TLxv4V

 

 

 

Office has gesture support 

 

Office 2013 finally brings features that give the venerable program a much-needed modern feel. And one of the realities of modern offices and documents is their constant accessibility – in other words, working in the cloud. You can easily save your document files from Office 2013 right into your SkyDrive folder. Office 2013 lets you to save all of your files in the cloud by default. With the help of SkyDrive, you can easily access your documents from wherever you are. To save your documents right into your SkyDrive account, go to File > Save As > Places > SkyDrive > Browse > Save.

 

 

 

Word 2013 is not just a word processing application anymore, and Microsoft proved this by adding support for embedding online videos. You can search for and insert any online video using either Bing’s Video Search or by adding a video’s embedded code snippet offered by sites such as YouTube. Go to Insert > Media > Online Video. Once placed into your document, the videos can be run right there.  

 

 

Embed videos in word 

 

Spreadsheets are an essential tool in the business world and hence it’s important to be able to access them from wherever you are, regardless of the device you’re using. So, here’s another exciting tip for Office 2013, specifically geared towards Excel sheets. In Excel 2010, the Save & Send menu options were helpful for creating and sharing spreadsheets. Excel 2013 offers similar, organized and user-friendly options through the “Share” tab. Within this tab there are four options: you can invite people, generate a unique link, post to social networks or email the file.  

After signing in to your SkyDrive account, you can invite people to share with by specifying their names and email addresses. Go to File > Share > Invite People.

The Share feature also allows you to post unique view links or edit links of your spreadsheets with your team or friends on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Go to File > Share > Get a Link. 

You can also select parts of the worksheet you want to make shareable and then easily embed them into your social network streams using the “Export” tab.

Another way to collaborate on a workbook online is through Microsoft Lync. It allows those in the conference to take control of them. 

 

Microsoft Excel 2013 provides an update to “Fill Down”, a feature that promises to save your time and effort called  “Flash Fill”. Flash Fill intelligently follows and recognizes the patterns of your data and trends. For example, after filling in the table column with full names, you may want to enter only the first names in a new column. Before you know it, Excel 2013 automatically fills the entire column. Flash Fill  auto-completes content including formulae, macros, etc. The Flash Fill algorithm for recognizing patterns doesn’t treat numbers or digits any differently than text. 

 

Office 2013 is entirely based on time-saving features and functions. Take for instance PowerPoint 2013. To work on several projects or give presentations in business meetings, you always give first priority to PowerPoint. After all, it offers you various useful tools to use in your presentation and slides. PowerPoint 2013 takes you to an advanced level. Now, you can convert your .ppt presentation into .wmv, or .mpeg video files – a useful feature for video bloggers, project leaders. You can easily create slide presentation videos instead of using screen recording software to create and process your videos. Another interesting part of this feature is that there’s no need to add any music or sound effects after conversion. The video will carry the same music or sound effect that you added while creating the PowerPoint presentation. So, what are you waiting for? Go to File > Export > Create a Video > Configure options > Create Video. 

 

In the previous tip, we discovered the ability to make your PowerPoint presentations into videos but what if you wanted to carry your presentation, specifically the speaker notes, on print-outs? You can export your PowerPoint presentation into a Word document with the help 

of “Handouts”. Once you’re done with your presentation, go to File > Export > Create Handouts. While configuring, you’ll find several options such as “Notes next to slides”, “Blank lines next to slides”, “Notes below slides”, “Blank lines below slides” and “Outline only”. Pick the one you want, and you’ll get your entire presentation in a Word document.