Microsoft Unveils The New Office

(Newsroom America) -- Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer has unveiled the customer preview of the new Microsoft Office that will work with touch, stylus, mouse or keyboard across new Windows devices, including tablets.

He said the new Office is social and unlocks modern scenarios in reading, note-taking, meetings and communications and will be delivered to subscribers through a cloud service that is always up to date.

"We are taking bold steps at Microsoft," Ballmer said at the press conference in San Francisco.

"The new, modern Office will deliver unparalleled productivity and flexibility for both consumers and business customers. It is a cloud service and will fully light-up when paired with Windows 8."

Microsoft said Office responds to touch as naturally as it does to keyboard and mouse.

OneNote and Lync represent the first new Windows 8 style applications for Office. These applications are designed to deliver touch-first experiences on a tablet. A new radial menu in OneNote makes it easy to access features with your finger.

Office Home and Student 2013 RT, which contains new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote applications, will be included on ARM-based Windows 8 devices, including Microsoft Surface.

Office saves documents to SkyDrive by default, so your content is always available across your tablet, PC and phone. Your documents are also available offline and sync when you reconnect.

Once signed in to Office, your personalized settings, including your most recently used files, templates and even your custom dictionary, roam with you across virtually all of your devices. Office even remembers where you last left off and brings you right back to that spot in a single click.

With a subscription, you can access Office even when you are away from your PC by streaming full-featured applications to an Internet-connected Windows-based PC.

The new Office is available as a cloud-based subscription service. As subscribers, consumers automatically get future upgrades in addition to cloud services including Skype world minutes and extra SkyDrive storage. Subscribers receive multiple installs for everyone in the family and across their devices.

Yammer also delivers a secure, private social network for businesses for free and offers integration with SharePoint and Microsoft Dynamics.