Jane Atkinson-Weller | 21 March 2013
Now, I am well aware that the title of this blog post may make me sound a little over-excitable. But it is true, I do love a bit of business application geek-ary now and again and the new version of Microsoft Word has got me in a bit of a tizz!
Word is an application that practically every office worker
uses, and updates and new features tend to have a lasting and
far-reaching impact. In a world of iPhone apps, touch screen
technology and panel interfaces, we all expect our office
applications to be just as intuitive, easy-to-use and innovative as
the apps we use at home. So the pressure is on Microsoft to make
sure that Word 2013 delivers the goods.
Well, there really are lots of exciting new features and here
follows my personal top 5.
Automatic bookmarking
A nice, simple little feature in Word which remembers the last
place you were working in a document when you closed it. When
you then reopen that document (on any computer or device), Word
will show a pop-up on the right hand side of the screen, allowing
you to click and go to the last edited portion of the document.
This allows you to continue working or reading from where you were,
without having to scroll through various pages to get to that
point. Simple, yet very useful.
The new Design tab
Word now has a new Design tab as part of the standard tabs found on
the Ribbon. This tab contains document themes and formatting to
make the overall look of your document much better.
Ability to open and edit pdf files in Word
Have you ever opened a pdf doc, spotted a mistake, and not been
able to correct it? Very frustrating. Well, Word 2013 now allows
you to open and edit PDF documents. Simply open the PDF from the
File tab and it will display in an editable view. It retains all
the formatting and tables that may be within the document, and
allows you to edit as needed.
Inserting pictures and video from the internet
Word 2013 gives you the ability to insert pictures and videos from
anywhere on the Web. If you have a Microsoft account then you can
even insert pictures from your Sky drive or Flickr accounts,
amongst others.
Online pictures can be inserted via the Online Pictures button from
the Insert tab. The Online Video button is also found under the
Insert tab under the media grouping. Online video can be inserted
by embedding the videos, rather than actually inserting the video
into the document.
Contextual spell checking
Do you know your
their
from your
there
? What about your
were
versus
where
? I am sure you do, but how easy is it
to mistype when you are in a rush? Spell check never picked these
errors up. Well, now it does.
Proofing has been enhanced in Word 2013 with contextual spelling.
This helps ensure you are using the right word in the right place.
Text appears with a blue wavy underline and right-clicking opens a
menu of alternatives. Ingenious.
Now this is by no means an exhaustive list of new features - just
my personal favourites! To learn more about what Windows 8 and
Office 2013 can offer your business, look at our new
Experience Windows 8 and Microsoft 2013 New
Features
course and Word 2013 courses:
Microsoft Word 2013 Level 1
,
Microsoft Word 2013 Level 2
,
Microsoft Word 2013 Level 3
.