Microsoft Office 2013 cloud features detailed

Microsoft has generating quite a few blog posts on Office 2013 since it was officially announced on Monday. That includes information on how Office 2013 apps will work and how app creators can make third party Office 2013 software add-ons.

Today, in the newly launched Office Next blog, Microsoft gives more details on how the cloud-based features of Office 2013 will work. Your Office 2013 settings are saved in the cloud and will roam with you on a variety of devices. Microsoft states:

For example, when you launch Word, it will show you the list of the documents you've accessed recently on this computer or on any other connected device. If you have a favorite template, you can pin that to the Start Place, and Office will roam with you across devices so you always have that template available to you.

When you purchase Office 2013 you will be able to install a copy on up to five Windows or Mac PCs. In addition, Microsoft will offer a new feature called Office on Demand. The blog states, "Office on Demand streams and launches a temporary copy of your personalized Office application without installing it permanently, and when you close the application, it and the files you were working on are gone."

If your product has a web browser, Microsoft will also allow people to access their Office 2013 documents on web-based apps. Microsoft says that the new web apps will allow for co-authoring in the web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. In addition, the blog post states that editing in web apps should be much better. It says:

... the Word Web App has an all new page layout with much greater formatting capabilities. PowerPoint now supports creating transitions and animations. Excel has dramatically improved chart rendering and an all-new Interactive View that brings the power of Excel to any table of data on the web. OneNote has better navigation and search.