{"id":827,"date":"2013-01-30T10:33:10","date_gmt":"2013-01-30T15:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=827"},"modified":"2013-01-30T10:33:10","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T15:33:10","slug":"decoding-microsoft-office-which-office-version-does-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/01\/30\/decoding-microsoft-office-which-office-version-does-what\/","title":{"rendered":"Decoding Microsoft Office: Which Office version does what?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Decoding Microsoft Office: Which Office version does what?<\/h1>\n
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Once upon a time, bright boxes of the latest Microsoft Office pleaded for your attention in big box stores. Now, as with music albums and bestselling books, Office is going the way of the download. With the debut of the new Office on Tuesday<\/a>, Microsoft is pushing Office as a subscription service rather than as a physical product plucked from a shelf.What this means is that there are even more versions and sub-versions of Office to choose from. Read on to cut through the cluttered branding and understand what each product is and does.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Which version of Office are you using now?<\/figcaption><\/figure>
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The New Office<\/h2>\n

The “new Office” is how Microsoft describes this year’s release of a raft of products. The new Office encompasses Office 365 and Office 2013 and more, bridging the gap between software on your hard drive and your services and data in the cloud. Rather than leave you dependent upon Office software and docs tied to your PC and hard drive, Microsoft \u00a0aims for you to have Office wherever you need it: at work, at home, on your PC, on your phone, on your tablet, whether online and offline. To get this experience, you’ll sign in with your Microsoft identity, which follows you wherever you use Office.<\/p>\n

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Compare Word 2010, at left, with the new Word 2013, at right.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Office 2013<\/h2>\n

What you probably used to think of as Microsoft Office is now just the desktop software component–think Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and friends<\/a>–of the new Office. Buy Office 2013 in a box, and all you’ll get is a printed product key (only developing countries will get a disc in that box).\u00a0You can either purchase Office 2013 local software alone or get it bundled along with an Office 365 subscription. Here’s\u00a0PCWorld’s detailed review of Office 2013<\/a>. If Office 2013 is all you want, you can get it three ways:<\/p>\n

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  1. Office Home & Student for $139.99 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote)<\/li>\n
  2. Office Home & Business for $219.99\u00a0(adds Outlook)<\/li>\n
  3. Office Professional for $399.99>\u00a0(adds Publisher and Access).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Alternatively, you can get the applications within one of several Office 365 subscriptions, below. If you’re one of the few people who works off the grid, Office 2013 is best for you. Can you imagine working without Internet access? Me neither. So, for the majority of users, Office 365 offers more practical options, and its options tend to be a better deal.<\/p>\n

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    Office 365<\/h2>\n

    Office 365 is the umbrella brand<\/a> covering both Office 2013 software and its related online tools. It\u2019s cloud-connected and always on, with updates rolled out on a rolling basis. By default, you save your data to the cloud; consumers share to the SkyDrive storage service, while businesses stash and share data via SharePoint. For Apple aficionados, Office 365 includes Office for Mac.<\/p>\n