OFFICE 2013 FEATURES IN A NUTSHELL

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1 Microsoft Office Upgrading OFFICE FEATURES IN A NUTSHELL The Office interface refers to the way the Office programs look and work. If you re upgrading from Office you ll notice a few differences in the way Office looks and works over previous versions you ve used. This booklet will give you a quick overview of the new features and changes introduced in the main productivity programs of Office and includes reminders of some key features that were new to the version. Topics in this booklet: the Microsoft Office Start Screen what s new in Word what s new in Excel what s new in PowerPoint what s new in Outlook University of St Andrews Page 1 The Office Features

2 UNDERSTANDING THE START SCREEN Microsoft Office Upgrading The first change you ll see with Microsoft Office is when you launch Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint or Publisher. Rather than being presented with a blank document, Microsoft now displays the Start Screen. From this initial screen, you can view your most recently accessed files, create a new document using the available templates, open existing documents, and more. Microsoft Office Start Screen The Microsoft Office start screen is useful for those who want to quickly access the files they ve worked on recently or create a new document based on one of the available templates (including the default Blank document template). All start screens, regardless of the application in which they display, comprise the same structure. See below for an example of the Excel start screen. A list of recent files displays below Recent in the coloured pane to the left of the screen, as well as a link that lets you open an existing file from a folder on your computer. The main pane of the start screen displays a gallery of templates that you can use to create a new document and a search box that you can use additional online templates. In the top right corner of the screen you ll see the account you ve used to sign in to the University domain that may in future give you access to other cloud-features (not currently enabled) as well as the familiar close, restore down, minimise and help tools. Open or browse for recent files Open new blank or from template The start screen will only display when you launch the Office application directly that is, by opening the application from the start menu or clicking on the taskbar icon if the application has been pinned to the desktop Taskbar. The start screen will not display if you open an existing file (and hence the application) directly from File Explorer. Disabling the Microsoft Office Start Screen As handy as the start screen may be, there will be some who don t like it and there is always the option to quickly disable it in each Office application. To disable the start screen for a specific Office application, open the application and display the Options dialog box (select FILE > Options). In the General settings, click on Show the Start screen when this application starts under Start up options to deselect the option. If you change your mind at a later time, simply reverse this procedure. This must be done for each application for which you want to disable the start screen at opening. University of St Andrews Page 2 The Office Features

3 WHAT S NEW IN WORD The most obvious change in Word is its new, clean interface. But, you ll soon notice Word also lets you do more with your documents. You can insert online videos, open a PDF and edit the Microsoft Office Upgrading content, and easily align pictures. The new Read Mode makes reading long files a breeze. Working collaboratively is better too with improved review features like Simple Markup and comments. Read Mode Object Zoom Resume Reading Expand/Collapse Headings Online Pictures and Videos Alignment Guides Simple Markup DESIGN Tab Open and Edit PDFs Formatting Charts Office Apps Navigation Pane Protected View The new Read Mode view makes it very easy to read documents. In this mode, the content automatically flows into columns to fit the width of your screen. You can t edit the document in this view, but you can search for content and highlight text while you re reading. You can double-click on graphical elements such as images, tables, Smart Art etc. in Read Mode to enlarge them for closer viewing. This is known as object zooming. A great new feature now available in Word is seen when you are working on longer documents. If you close a multi-page document from a page other than the first and then re-open it, a Welcome back message will appear which takes you straight back to where you left off with a simple click. Another new feature which is helpful when working on long, complicated documents is the ability to collapse and expand content based on its outline level (which are set by using Word s built-in heading styles). You can add pictures from online photo services without having to save them first to your computer. You can also insert online video in your documents from blogs, websites and other online sources. Readers can then watch these videos in Word without having to leave the document. Bright green alignment guides make it very easy to line up charts, photos and diagrams with text in a document. The new revision view, Simple Markup, provides a clean view of your document, showing tracked changes to the left of the content and all comments in the right pane. You can reply to comments using the new reply button in the pane enabling useful discussion threads. The new DESIGN tab gathers together new and improved Style Sets (into the new large Style Set gallery) and other formatting options in the one place, enabling you to easily adjust the look of your entire document. You can open a PDF document directly in Word using FILE > Open and it will be automatically converted to a Word document that you can edit and save. When you insert a chart, small buttons appear next to its upper-right corner. You can use Chart Elements to show, hide or format things like axis titles. You can use Chart Styles to change the colour or style of the chart. Chart Filters is a more advanced option that shows or hides data in your chart. You can insert Office Apps into your Office programs. For instance, if you download and install a dictionary from the Office Store, when you select a word and click on the new Define command on the REVIEW tab, the dictionary will open in the right pane listing appropriate definitions. The Navigation Pane was introduced as a replacement for the Document Map. The Navigation Pane is very handy when working with larger documents or documents that contain a lot of graphics or tables like the one you re reading! In an ever-increasing attempt to protect you from attack, documents downloaded from the internet or loaded from another source are placed in protected mode when opened. This means they can t be edited or changed until you specifically enable this. University of St Andrews Page 3 The Office Features

4 WHAT S NEW IN EXCEL Microsoft Excel has been around for quite a few years and quite a few versions, so it is already feature rich. While several new features have been added in Excel, the overall emphasis Microsoft Office Upgrading has been on making things easier (well, at least quicker) to use and improving the analysis of data, both data internal and external to a workbook. Functions Chart Tools Recommended Charts Recommended PivotTable Flash Fill Quick Analysis Tools Power View PowerPivot Slicers Sparklines Enhanced in There s always going to be the odd new function or two in every version of Excel. In Excel there are over 50 of them and they cover almost every category. There is, however, a predominance in mathematical and engineering functions. Charting has been given a bit of a rethink in Excel. When a chart is selected three tools appear to the right. These tools provide easier access to most of the things you ll ever need to do with a chart. They are consistent with other changes made to the graphical aspects of the Office suite such as working with pictures. Recommended Charts analyses your current selection and provides you with a gallery of likely charts. It provides a quick and easy way for creating charts. Like Recommended Charts, this feature attempts to analyse the data you currently have selected and offers several PivotTable layouts for you. Again, it is designed to enable quick creation of PivotTables which, truthfully, can be a bit difficult for some users to create. Arguably the darling of the brand new features. Flash Fill is great for manipulating existing data in a list or a table in a worksheet. It allows you to tidy up data, extract values from existing data, and build concatenation strings in a breeze. The Quick Analysis tools as such aren t new tools but rather an easy access point to tools and features that Microsoft have discovered aren t used as much as they d like. When you select a range in a worksheet in Excel a new icon appears at the bottom right of the selection this is the Quick Analysis icon. When the icon is clicked, a floating interactive menu with five tabs appears. Each of the tabs represents an existing feature Sparklines, Charting, Tables, Totals, and Formatting. Each tab contains options which, when hovered over, use Live Preview to show how the data will look or change. If you like the option you can click it, otherwise move on to the next one. This feature was available in Excel but you needed a Masters in IT to fire it up. So we re calling it new in because it works, and works brilliantly. Basically, Power View is a tool for analysing largish chunks of data of the type you d see in lists and tables. It enables you to easily create the dashboard effect (with multiple charts and tables) that seems to be the current flavour in computer circles today. This feature was also available in Excel and again the Masters degree would have been handy. In Excel it is truly mind-blowing. Basically, it is PivotTables on steroids with a powerful back-end Data Model for dealing with data in huge volumes. This is the analysis tool for corporates who don t want to get their hands grubby with IT hassles. It even understands fully relational databases and maintains the integrity of the relationships when the data is imported into Excel uh oh, watch out Access! Slicers provide easier filtering and interpretation of PivotTable data. Originally introduced in Excel, Excel has a new addition the Timeline slicer which creates a timeline using date fields. Sparklines are mini cell-based charts that provide a visual representation of data in a cell. They are great for spotting exceptions in a sea of data. University of St Andrews Page 4 The Office Features

5 WHAT S NEW IN POWERPOINT Microsoft Office Upgrading With PowerPoint, Microsoft has added a few new features like widescreen templates and a new video format, as well as enhancing several older features such as Presenter view and commenting. Even displaying templates on the new start screen (rather than opening with a blank white slide) makes it much easier and more intuitive for users to create attractive presentations. Online Pictures, Videos & Audio Bookmark Last Position You can add pictures, videos and audio files directly from the internet without first downloading them to your computer. Like Word s Resume Reading feature, PowerPoint automatically bookmarks your last position in a presentation. When you re-open it and click on the bookmark message or icon, you go straight back to where you left off. DESIGN Tab The new DESIGN tab gathers together the Themes gallery, the new Variants gallery and other formatting options in the one place, enabling you to easily adjust the look of your entire presentation with just one or two clicks. Theme Variations Themes now come with a set of colour variations available when you create a new presentation from the start screen or later from the DESIGN tab. Eyedropper tool Using the eyedropper you can pick a colour from an object in the presentation and apply it to a shape on the slide for a more consistent look. Merging Shapes Improved Video and Audio Support Widescreen Capability Presenter View Smart Guides Commenting Online Presentation Service Animation Painter Although you could create custom shapes by combining several existing shapes in, you had to first add the Combine Shapes tool to the Quick Access toolbar before proceeding. Now the new Merge Shapes tool is on the ribbon. PowerPoint supports more high-definition content and more multimedia formats, such as MP4 (video) and Advanced Audio Coding (AAC). PowerPoint now has built-in support for widescreen monitors. On the new DESIGN tab, you ll see Slide Size is set to Widescreen for all themes by default. If you have two monitors connected to your computer (one for the audience and one for you), when you start your slide show, it automatically displays in Presenter View. In this view the audience s monitor displays the full-screen slide show, while the speaker s monitor shows the current slide, a preview of the next slide, the speaker notes, and more. Not only do smart guides help you align objects and text in a slide, relative to each other, they now also let you space objects evenly and resize objects so that the edges of two shapes line up exactly. In Word inserting a comment automatically opens the new Comments pane. You can also respond to comments in a threaded manner. You can deliver presentations to anyone, anywhere, using the free Office Presentation Service and they can follow along on their web browser. You will just need a free Microsoft account to use this service. This feature was introduced in PowerPoint but it was known as Broadcast Slide Show. Similar to the Format Painter, the Animation Painter allows you to copy any formatting and effects applied to one object to another object. Reading View Reading View was introduced in to enable you to view your presentation as a slide show (including animations and transitions) in the PowerPoint window rather than in full-screen mode. Backstage Accessed via the FILE tab (which was also new in Office ), the Backstage is where you save, print, preview and close your presentations. Equations Although you were able to insert mathematical equations using the Microsoft Equation Editor for several versions, the Equations tool was introduced in to make inserting equations easier. Using this tool you can choose from a range of equations in the Equations gallery or build them from scratch. University of St Andrews Page 5 The Office Features

6 WHAT S NEW IN OUTLOOK Microsoft Office Upgrading Outlook, like the rest of the Office suite, has a spruced-up look. It also has some new features that will make your life easier and help you keep organised. For example, you can see your upcoming meetings using the new Calendar peek, delete unwanted s from the message list, and the attachment reminder MailTip might even save you from potential embarrassment. Inline Replies Quick action commands Attachment Reminder MailTip The Reply, Reply All and Forward commands appear at the top of the message in the preview pane making it easy to reply to a message, even if the ribbon is minimised. Instead of opening a new message for your reply, clicking on one of these commands lets you reply directly in the preview pane. In addition to flagging incoming messages in the message list (new in ), you can delete them using the new Delete command in the message list or mark messages as read or unread by clicking to the left of the message. If you mention words like attachment or attach in the body of a message and then send it without attaching a file, the attachment reminder MailTip will display asking whether you ve forgotten to attach a file. Companies using Exchange Server can use the new Policy Tips to notify users if their messages contain information that violates the company s information management policies. Peeks Although it s easy to switch views, Outlook has introduced Peeks. Peeks let you take a quick look at your calendar, contacts or tasks without switching views by pointing to the feature s label in the Navigation bar. You can pin peeks to the Outlook window to keep them in view if desired. Navigation Bar To make it easier to navigate to the various features in Outlook, a Navigation bar with clear textual links now sits above the status bar. As part of this change, the old Navigation pane is now called the Folder pane. People Card The contacts area in Outlook is called People in and its default view is the new People Card. The People Card collects all key information about a contact including their phone number, address, company information and more. Weather Bar Check today s and tomorrow s weather using the Weather bar in the Calendar (can be disabled!). Quick Steps Quick steps let you manage and rapidly respond to messages. Because you often need to do more to a message than just read it and leave it in your Inbox, you can define common repetitive tasks that can be executed with a single click as a Quick Step. Conversation View Schedule View Calendar Preview Conversation view condenses multiple messages in a discussion (those with the same Subject) and displays them as single line item even if some of the messages are located in other folders. Use the Clean Up tool to delete all redundant messages in a conversation and keep only the latest message. Use the Ignore Conversation tool to send an irrelevant conversation, and any future messages in the conversation, to your Deleted Items folder. Schedule view slices a group of calendars horizontally letting you see what each person is scheduled to do, determine when they re available, and schedule a meeting or appointment. When you receive a meeting request, a calendar preview will appear automatically in a calendar snapshot. This lets you read the request and check the date on your calendar at the same time. University of St Andrews Page 6 The Office Features