Today, CEO Steve Ballmer announces Office 2013 Consumer Preview at San Francisco. Office 2013, SharePoint 2013, Project 2013 and Visio 2013 have all reached the Beta milestone and are now available for download.

“We are taking bold steps at Microsoft,” Ballmer said at the press conference in San Francisco.

“The new, modern Office will deliver unparalleled productivity and flexibility for both consumers and business customers. It is a cloud service and will fully light-up when paired with Windows 8.”

What’s new in Office 2013

• Touch everywhere. Office responds to touch as naturally as it does to keyboard and mouse. Swipe your finger across the screen or pinch and zoom to read your documents and presentations. Author new content and access features with the touch of a finger.
• Inking. Use a stylus to create content, take notes and access features. Handwrite email responses and convert them automatically to text. Use your stylus as a laser pointer when presenting. Color your content and erase your mistakes with ease.
• New Windows 8 applications. OneNote and Lync represent the first new Windows 8 style applications for Office. These applications are designed to deliver touch-first experiences on a tablet. A new radial menu in OneNote makes it easy to access features with your finger.
• Included in Windows RT. Office Home and Student 2013 RT, which contains new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote applications, will be included on ARM-based Windows 8 devices, including Microsoft Surface.

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Office 2013 Customer Preview Version

What’s New in Office 2013

Office 2013 Customer Preview FAQ

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Microsoft Office 2013 is due out in final form in the first half of next year. The exact date has not been announced and is yet to confirm by officials.

Courtesy: Microsoft News Center