What’s New in Microsoft Office 2013
Welcome to Office 2013! This guide will show you some of the major new features that Microsoft gives
us in Office 2013. Some of the new features are universal, across all Office applications. Some are
specific to certain programs. Each section below will tell you whether the feature is found in all Office
products, or if it is specific to a certain product.
You can click any of the links below to quickly choose the topic you would like to view:
Office 2013 New Features






Office Theme
Saving Files
Pin Frequently Used Items
Share your Documents
Templates
Resume Reading
Word 2013



Edit PDF content in Word
Read Mode
Comments
Outlook 2013




A New Look to Outlook 2013
Sneak a Peek
Inline Replies
Quickly Sort Inbox




Quick Analysis Tool
Recommended Charts
One Workbook, One Window
New Excel Functions
Excel 2013
Power Point 2013




Presenter View
Speaker Notes
Collaboration
Wide Screen Option
1
Office 2013 New Features
These enhancements are seen throughout the Office suite.
Office Theme
Throughout Office 2013, you can set the theme of your programs. Different themes allow you to customize
Office to the look and feel that works best for you.
Saving Files
To Save files in the Office suite, you will access
the File tab at the top, and then be brought to
the options menu. Select Save As and then
choose the destination to save the file. Loyola
strongly recommends that employees save
documents on the G drive; it is backed up
regularly and accessible from any on-campus
computer via your AD login, so you don't have
to worry about losing critical data in the event
of a hard drive failure or accidental file
deletion. After clicking on Save As, click on
Computer, and then select your G: drive as the
location.
2
Pin frequently Used Items
You can now Pin documents and folders to the Options menu for easier access. In the File Tab, you can click on
the Pin icon, and it will keep the document or folder pinned to the menu. The document that you are working on
is easily found the next time you need to work on it. Click the pin button again if you would like to unpin the file.
Share your Documents
As in previous Office suites, you can share documents with other users. In 2013, you can choose to send
documents as PDF for Shared Review. Clicking this button allows you to convert a document to PDF, and send
via email to a colleague for reviewing.
3
Templates
Throughout the Office suite, you will see the option in the New file screen (located on the File tab) to search for
templates. There are thousands of templates available to help you find the project or idea that you are looking
for and get your project started. You will have the option not only to search through recent templates but also
search thousands of online Templates. You can also Take a Tour to explore the new features of each of the
Office Suite programs.
4
Resume Reading
Resume Reading allows you to pick up where you left off. The equivalent of a bookmark, you can easily return
to the last place you were working or reading instantly. When reopening the program, you will be prompted to
return to the point of your last work.
Program Specific Enhancements
This section shows you new features in Office 2013 that are specific to different programs.
Word 2013
Edit PDF content in Word
You can now easily open PDF files and convert them to editable documents in Word. After opening the file, you
will be prompted to approve the file for editing. After finishing your work on the document, you can save the
document back to a PDF format. This is one of the features that has been eagerly anticipated by Word users and
will make PDF editing easy.
To use this feature, follow these steps:
1. Open the PDF you wish to work with.
2. You will see a prompt to confirm the conversion (your document may have minor formatting changes).
3. Make your edits. After you’ve completed work on the document, you can convert the document back to
PDF format in the File Tab by clicking “Save As Adobe PDF.”
4. Word converts your document back to PDF format for you.
5
Read Mode
Read mode allows you to view your document in Word with the toolbar and menus hidden so you can focus
directly on your document. Once you’ve finished reading the document, you can click on the View option in the
top left hand corner and then click on Edit Document to continue editing as normal.
Click Read Mode to view the document without the ribbon and toolbar
6
Comments
The Comments feature has been improved in Word 2013. You can now comment directly and also collaborate
on documents with the Comments feature. This allows you to reply to updates or requests and allow real time
collaboration.
Click Comments icon to see comments that have been made.
7
Outlook 2013
A New Look to Outlook 2013
The new verison of Outlook gives us a cleaner and simpler approach to the Outlook design, as well as a switch to
a Widescreen view from the traditional view which you can see compared below. You will still find most of the
items you have used before, just with a cleaner look.
New Outlook:
Compare to previous version:
8
Sneak a Peek
Outlook now allows you to grab a quick look at your schedule, just by hovering over the icon with your cursor,
rather than going into your Calendar View.
Inline Replies
Outlook now allows you to reply directly to emails inside of the email, rather than opening in a new window.
You also have the option to Lync message the person directly if they’re online. It allows for faster response to
emails.
9
Quickly Sort Inbox
You can now sort your inbox by All or Unread to quickly locate any messages that have not yet been read. Now
you can view the emails that are Unread in full to manage your inbox easily.
Excel 2013
Quick Analysis Tool
The new Quick Analysis tool lets you convert your data into a chart or table in two steps or less. Preview your
data with conditional formatting, sparklines, or charts, and make your choice stick in just one click. For more
information on how to use this new feature, visit Microsoft and learn how to analyze your data instantly.
10
Recommended Charts
Excel will now suggest the best chart for the data you are using. It will also show you how your data looks in
different charts, allowing you to choose the one that best displays the work you are trying to present.
One Workbook, One Window
Excel now allows you to have one workbook in separate windows rather than the tab view that was availabe in
previous versions of Excel. This will also make working on two workbooks easier than ever and will allow you to
better use dual monitors.
New Excel Functions
You’ll find new functions in the math and trigonometry, statistical, engineering, date and time, lookup and
reference, logical, and text function categories.
For a complete list of all the new Functions available in Excel 2013, visit Microsoft’s website on new Excel
functions.
11
Pivot Tables
Microsoft has also made enhancements to Pivot Tables in Excel. For information on the latest in Pivot Tables,
visit Microsoft’s website about Pivot Tables.
Power Point 2013
Presenter View
While Presenter View was a feature in the previous version, Office 2013 improves it. You can now control what
is displayed on the monitor during your presentation using Presenter view. You can also use Presenter View
without an additonal monitor, allowing you to practice your presentation. You can jump directly to a slide, and
you can also Zoom in on specific slides. Power Point also has the ablility to automatically sense your computer
and choose the right monitor for Presenter View.
Speaker Notes
Speaker Notes was a previous feature, but has been improved to allow you to include your own notes for each
slide, which you will see while going through the presentation. The audience will only see your slides.
12
Collaboration
You can now collaborate easily with other people on projects, using the Commenting Pane. You can choose to
show or hide comments. This feature is found on the Review tab. When you click New Comment, you will see a
comment icon appear on the slide, and the Comments Pane will open. The Comments Pane will allow you to edit
or reply to a comment as well.
Wide Screen Option
Now you can use that extra space on your widescreen projector or television. You have the option of selecting
which frame is appropriate for your application. In the image below, you can see the difference between
Standard and Widescreen.
If you have any questions as you begin using Office 2013, feel free to contact the Office of Technology Support at
x5555 or [email protected]. Visit the Training Center’s website at www.loyola.edu/training for additional
information on training at Loyola.
13