Microsoft launches preview of new Office 2013

16.07.2012
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer today unveiled the next version of Office as the company launched previews of the suite for consumers and businesses.

"This is designed from the get-go for Office as a service," said Ballmer as he kicked off a news conference held in San Francisco. "It's Office as a service first. [And] it's the most ambitious release of Office that we've ever done."

As expected, Microsoft named the new edition Office 2013, although during the new conference, Ballmer and others called it "the new Office" or "the new Office 365," the name of the that it's been offering to small businesses.

Microsoft also debuted previews of several editions of Office 365 today: Office 365 Home Premium, Office 365 ProPlus, Office 365 Small Business Premium and Office 365 Enterprise.

All the previews include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access.

The Home Premium Preview lets users install the sneak peak on up to five devices -- Microsoft said PCs or Tablets -- running either Windows 7 or Windows 8. Although the latter has not yet been formally shipped, users can try out the Office preview on the Windows 8 Release Preview that launched May 31.