◄ page2Microsoft has officially unveiled the consumer preview of Office 2013. The new edition has a dramatically different look and feel, as well as tight connections to cloud-based services. Here's what you'll find inside.
A unified contacts list
This screen shows off several interesting new features in Outlook 2013. The simplified navigation bar at the bottom left of the screen lets you quickly change the display from mail to calendar or, as shown here, people. The My Contacts list on the left draws from email contacts and connected social media services and can easily be filtered using the search box.
Today’s weather at a glance
At the top of the new calendar pane is a customizable three-day weather forecast, with data drawn from Microsoft’s Bing service. Hover over any entry for more details, as shown here. Use the drop-down list at the left to add cities.
Inline replies in Outlook
When you click Reply while viewing a message in the reading pane, Outlook 2013 displays your reply inline, without opening a new message window. That space-saving feature is especially helpful on laptops and tablets with small screens.
Use Peeks for quick looks at other data
In Outlook 2010, a pane on the right side of the window shows your current calendar—taking up a significant amount of space in the process. In Outlook 2013, you can click or tap the Calendar, People, or Tasks links to see a pop-up view of that data without leaving your Mail view. These Peeks offer full navigation and search tools.
Contact cards provide at-a-glance info
Click or tap any name in an email message or appointment to see a pop-up contact card like this one. If you and the other person are part of the same organization, you can use Lync to send an instant message or make a phone call. The What’s New tab shows updates from connected social networks.
Presenter mode in PowerPoint 2013
When you’re delivering a slide show, your local screen shows this touch-friendly view, with the audience seeing only your slides. Speaker notes and a preview of the next slide appear on the right to help keep you on track.
Add pictures from local or online sources
Clicking Online Pictures (on the Insert tab) displays this nifty new set of options in PowerPoint 2013. You can search for an image or select from an online photo service that’s connected to your Office account: in this case, I have easy access to photos from Flickr and SkyDrive.
Variants let you customize stock themes
The trouble with out-of-the-box stock themes is that they make your presentation look just like every other slide show using that theme. The new Variants options on the PowerPoint Design tab let you mix colors and other design elements to avoid that me-too look.
Touch-friendly navigation in OneNote
On a desktop PC, the tree-style OneNote navigation pane appears in its familiar spot on the left. When you switch to full-page view, however, those navigation tools change dramatically. Tapping the drop-down list displays this list of notebooks, sections, and pages, all optimized for use on a touch-enabled device.
Embed a document in a OneNote page
You can add a document, presentation, Web link, or media file directly in a OneNote page. For Excel spreadsheets, the links are live, allowing changes and updates to appear in real time. That’s an especially useful scenario when you’re sharing spreadsheets and notebooks with co-workers.
Fast search in OneNote
The search box in the top right of the OneNote window lets you instantly find pages that contain your search term. Tools on the History tab let you find changes made by other authors in a shared notebook, zero in on recent changes, or recover previously deleted items or pages.
source:zdnet 
