Microsoft Office 2013

Microsoft Office 2013 (codenamed Office 15) is a version of Microsoft Office, a productivity suite for Microsoft Windows. It succeeds Microsoft Office 2010 and precedes Microsoft Office 2016 and it does not precede or succede Microsoft Office for Mac 2011. It includes extended file format support, UI updates and support for touch among its new features. Office 2013 is suitable for IA-32 or x64 systems and requires either Windows 7 and up or Windows Server 2008 R2 and up. Windows RT comes bundled with this version of Office. Mainstream support will end on April 10, 2018 and extended support ends on April 11, 2023.

Development of Office 2013 was started in 2010 and ended on 11 October 2012 when it was released to manufacturing. On 29 January 2013, Office 2013 was released to general availability. This version includes new features such as integration support for online services (such as OneDrive, Outlook.com, Skype, Yammer, and Flickr), improved format support for Office Open XML (OOXML), OpenDocument (ODF) and Portable Document Format (PDF) and support for multi-touch interfaces.

Office 2013 comes in twelve different editions, including three for retail outlets, two for volume licensing channels, five subscription-based editions available through Office 365, the web application edition known as Office Online and the Office RT editions made for tablets and mobile devices. Office Online apps are available free of charge on the web although enterprises may obtain on-premises installations for a price. Certain Office applications such as Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Project, and Microsoft SharePoint Designer can be obtained individually and are available in any of the twelve editions.

On 25 February 2014, Office 2013 Service Pack 1 (SP1) was released.

Development
Development started in 2010 while Microsoft was finishing work on Office 14, released as Microsoft Office 2010. On 30 January 2012, Microsoft released a technical preview of Office 15, build 3612.1010, to a selected group of testers.

On 16 July 2012, Microsoft held a press conference to showcase Office 2013 and to release the Consumer Preview. The Consumer Preview is free and fully functional but will expire 60 days after the final product's release. On 5 October, an update was issued to the Customer Preview suite.

Office 2013 was released to manufacturing on 11 October 2012, and was made available to TechNet and MSDN subscribers on 24 October. On 15 November 2012, 60-day trial versions of Office 2013 Professional Plus, Project Professional, and Visio Professional were made available to the public over the Internet. Microsoft released Office 2013 for general availability on 29 January 2013 and Service Pack 1 was released on 25 February 2014.

New features
Office 2013 is more cloud-based than its predecessors; a Windows domain login, Office 365 account, or Microsoft account can now bed used to sync Office application settings (including recent documents) between devices, and users can also save documents to their OneDrive account.

It also includes update support for ISO/IEC 29500, the International Standard version of the Office Open XML file format: in particular, it supports saving in the "Strict" profile of ISO/IEC 29500 (Office Open XML Strict). Office 2013 includes support for OASIS version 1.2 of ISO/IEC 26300:2006, OpenDocument Format, which Office 2013 can read and write. ISO 32000 (PDF) files can now be read, written, and edited.

New features include a new read mode in Microsoft Word, a presentation mode in Microsoft PowerPoint and improved touch and inking in all Office programs. Word can also insert video and audio from online sources as well as the capability to broadcast documents to the Web. Word and PowerPoint now have bookmark-like features that sync the position of the document between different computers.

The Office Web Apps were also updated for Office 2013, introducing additional editing features and interface changes.

Other features new to Office 2013 include:
 * Flatter look of the Ribbon interface and subtle animations when typing or selecting (Word and Excel)
 * New visualization for scheduled tasks in Microsoft Outlook
 * Remodeled start screen
 * New graphical options in Word
 * Objects such as images can be freely moved; they snap to boundaries such as paragraph edges, document margin and/or column boundaries
 * Online picture support with content from Office.com, Bing, and Flickr. Only images in the public domain are supported by default.
 * Ability to return to the last viewed or edited location in Word and PowerPoint
 * New slide designs, animations, and transitions in PowerPoint
 * Support for Outlook.com and Hotmail.com in Outlook
 * Support for integration with Skype, Yammer, and OneDrive
 * IMAP special folders support
 * Excel now supports new limit models

Removed features
Removed from the entire suite:
 * Microsoft SharePoint Workspace
 * Microsoft Clip Organizer
 * Microsoft Office Picture Manager
 * Office 2007 and Office 2010 chart styles
 * Ability to insert a 3D cone, pyramid, or cylinder chart (It is still possible to insert a 3D rectangle chart and change the shape after insertion.)
 * Only basic version of help files available while offline. There is no longer an option to install local help files during installation.

Features removed from Microsoft Word:
 * Custom XML markup has been removed for legal reasons
 * Older WordArt objects are now converted to new WordArt objects
 * Word 2013 no longer uses ClearType

Features removed from Microsoft Access:
 * Access Data Projects (ADP)
 * Support for Jet 3.x IISAM
 * Access OWC control
 * dBASE support suite

Features removed from Microsoft Outlook:
 * Download Headers Only mode for IMAP
 * Outlook Exchange Classic offline
 * Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 support
 * Public Folder Free/Busy feature (/Cleanfreebusy startup switch)
 * Ability to import from or export to any formats other than Personal Storage Table (PST) or comma-separated values (CSV)
 * Notes and Journal customization
 * Outlook Activities tab
 * Outlook Mobile Service (OMS)
 * Outlook Search through Windows Shell

Features removed from Microsoft PowerPoint:
 * Support for Visio Drawing.