In what way does it suck? (Yes, I'm serious - I want clarification.) So far, I have so found that it does NOT suck - in any sort of way. I tried the C2R version first (as I was one of the original testers of the C2R version of Office 2010 - which would become Office365) - I chose the ProPlus SKU (again, the same SKU I usually use of Office 2010). C2R 2013 is usable far sooner than C2R 2010 (advantage 2013). Once the streaming install is complete, it's faster than even a locally-installed 2010 (that is actually confirmed via the TechNet forums, and is the opposite of similar posts regarding C2R 2010 vs. locally-installed 2010). So far, 2013 is opening a can of YKW on the 2010 version. Next came a local install - so off with C2R 2013 *and* locally-installed 2010 (which can co-exist, and except for Outlook, can be run side-by-side), followed by a reboot (so 2010 can finish uninstalling) and then the install of 2013 locally. New feature #1 - themes carry over via Microsoft Account - If you register/activate online (the default), your Office Theme settings go with you (even to and from VMs). I have every reason to suspect the same is true regarding settings in the rest of Office (let alone individual applications). New Feature #2 (Outlook 2013) - Finally - window settings are retained after exit! That is the one problem I had with any application in Office 2010 - and it was only the case with Outlook 2010; it would insist on re-opening in full-screen. New Feature #3 (Word 2013) - *Native* PDF editing. This feature is a great big (Godzilla-sized) win for everybody except Adobe. Word 2010 let me Save As PDF; 2013 one-ups that and lets me edit PDFs. Because Adobe Reader is my default PDF viewer, I can proof my edited or created PDFs for visual accuracy right away (identical to my setup with Word 2010). Improvements - Performance and stability is up throughout Office; however, Word and Outlook are still the standouts in the fastest Office to date (they were the standouts in 2010 as well - again, what makes it all the shocking is that, in both cases, we're talking the x64 version. So far, a lot of pluses, and nary a single minus.
This is how I`m understanding your statement. The files i save with 2013 will not be compatible with previous editions unless i save them as documents that are compatible with previous editions. But why wouldn`t previous editions be able to read these files?...Its not like office 2013 allows us to save as whole new documents... why would compatibility be such an issue with the modern versions of office?? ...
As far as I can see, 2013 has NOT changed document formats from 2010 - the bigger issue is that 2010 and earlier can't edit ODF/PDE files, and only 2010 can save/create either ODF or PDF files. If the Office365 expiration issue worries you, save your files locally and/or go with a locally-installed version of 2013. In my case, I saved the 2013 local-install .EXE file, along with my key, to a thumb-drive.
Actually, you've been able to save as entirely new documents with *any* version of Word (or even Word's competition) - what won me over to Word 95 from Word Perfect for Windows was, oddly enough, better compatibility with Word Perfect for DOS files vs. WordPerfect for Windows - and that was before the WordPerfect/Novell merger. For instance, I have never (as in ever) saved a Word document to the post-2003 DOCX format - not even the ones that never left my PC. My default was the old Word 97-2003 .DOC format - which Word still supports; I use this format because it has the widest cross-compatibility - especially as a multi-boot PC user that runs operating systems other than Windows (Linux distributions, OS X, even Solaris); since 2010 I've added PDF format for read-only files (same reasons).
@both of you, I didn't mean to imply that Office 2013 does save in a format not compatible with previous Office versions. What I really meant was that I had no idea if it was capable of saving files in a format not compatible with older versions, so I wanted to make a blanket statement that if you used Office 2013 to save in a format not supported by a previous version that you could only access them again after it expires by purchasing Office 2013.
I saved 17 of the excel templates from O'2013 in a .xls format & use them on my other PC that has O'2010 installed, no problemento (AS). I have previously had trouble when saving a .xls in O'2010 & opening it in O'2007 though.
oh ok, thank you for clearing that up! When i load up Word 2013 and sign in, it tells me that no office products have been found on my account. How do i solve this problem??
I'm using the offline Office 2013, hopefully someone who's using the online version will know the answer for your question.