Microsoft Office

Still running XP or Vista and eyeing Office 2013? Sorry, you're out of luck.

Unveiled Monday, the upcoming new Office suite won't support Windows XP or Vista, meaning users who need or want Office 2013 will have to upgrade to Windows 7 or Windows 8.

Microsoft confirmed the tighter requirements on its Office 2013 Preview Technet page. Only Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012 will be able to run the new suite.

Users will also need a PC with at least a 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM for the 32-bit version (2GB … Read more

Microsoft is aiming Office 2013 at touch-screen devices as well as PCs. So the company is starting to pull out the stops to convince tablet users that the new Office is just right for them.

In a blog post yesterday, Clint Covington, a lead program manager for Microsoft's User Experience team, explained how touch works in the new suite. Products such as OneNote and Lync have been redesigned from the ground up to fully support touch. The other applications in Office have been "touch-enabled," which means they support certain touch features but remain true to their roots … Read more

For months, the Web teemed with rumors that Microsoft would launch Office for the iPad, making it the first touch-focused platform for the cash cow productivity suite.

But when Microsoft unveiled the next version of Office this week, it was clear the iPad would have to wait.

In an interview with CNET, Office division President Kurt DelBene said Microsoft's own Windows is the priority for the newest version of Office. The new touch-friendly productivity suite will debut on Windows 8, which launches in October, in large part because the operating system is the best showcase for Microsoft's application … Read more

Microsoft today released a preview build of a new toolset codenamed "Napa," which is aimed at those building application add-ins for the coming versions of Office and SharePoint.

The Office 365 development tools (Napa) are designed to accommodate the "new Cloud App Model" in the more cloud-centric Office 15 wave of products, according to a new blog post from Microsoft Corporate Vice President Jason Zander. This new model allows apps to be hosted on SharePoint, Windows Azure Web sites or a user's own server.

The new Office apps and add-ins -- which are codenamed "Agaves" … Read more

With the newest version of Office, Microsoft is touting more flexibility regarding where and on what device you can access its key productivity software.

Office remains a crown jewel for Microsoft, and its latest revamp puts the software in line with the new Microsoft look, where it fits in with Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and the updated Xbox, among other products. While Office remains a dominant product used by most people in businesses, it faces competition from low-cost alternatives, including Google's suite of Web-based office applications.

Microsoft hopes to keep its lead going with Office and is embracing … Read more

Announced today, Microsoft's latest Office suite will try to help users collaborate more easily through social media.

Demoing the new version of Office at a press conference, Kirk Koenigsbauer, a corporate vice president for Office, showed a five-person video chat using Microsoft's Lync application. In the demo, Koenigsbauer revealed how he could drag and drop someone from his buddy list into the live meeting.

Another participant was able to drop a PowerPoint presentation onto the shared canvas for all to see. Koenigsbauer then showed how users could draw directly on the presentation via a touch-screen device, which then … Read more

Micosoft VP of MS Office Kirk Koenigsbauer showed off a new OneNote today, with a demo of the program's added features, including the ability to add media and edit quickly.

Koenigsbauer's demo shows the digital note-taking program's abilities with text, media, inking, and more, according to the CNET Live Blog from today's press event.

The program features a new "radial menu" -- a circular toolbox of sorts designed to let users easily edit the note's content -- and an ability to easily grab content to bring into OneNote. This includes using a tablet … Read more

When Microsoft was readying its Office 2010 suite, many wondered whether the company would follow Google down the cloud-first path. As Office 2010 users know, that didn't end up happening.

But with the coming release of Office, code-named Office 15, Microsoft finally is moving a lot of its focus to the cloud.

A Consumer Preview (aka public beta) of the Office 2013 client -- plus previews of a bunch of new Office service plans -- is set to be available for download as of July 16 starting around noon PT, the same time as a San Francisco media event … Read more

Microsoft's new version of Office will take heavy advantage of the cloud.

Demoing the upcoming new suite at a press conference today, Kirk Koenigsbauer, a corporate vice president for Office, explained how Office apps will sync key settings by using SkyDrive as a central repository.

After you sign in, you'll see the same settings, templates, dictionaries, and recent documents across all your Windows devices: PCs, tablets, and smartphones.

Using Word as an example, Koenigsbauer showed how users can insert pictures through the traditional Office.com clipart, through image searches via Bing, by opening something from SkyDrive, or by … Read more