Microsoft Office 2013 for Windows Phone mock-up shows up

Microsoft yesterday announced the much-anticipated  Office 2013 but was mum about the Office apps for its anticipated Windows Phone devices. However, an official blog post about the company’s cloud technology also gives us some details about the mobile version of Office 2013. The blog also features a mock-up of Office 2013 on Windows Phone 8. Office 2013 is likely to offer deep integration, with all office documents syncing across platforms. This will also include reading position sync.

Office 2013 on Windows Phone…

The blog reads, “With the capabilities that we’ve built into our roaming settings service, we’re able to create new settings that will roam with you across any connected device.  For example, Word and PowerPoint make it easy to get right back into your work by remembering where you left off in each document or presentation. So, if you didn’t have time to finish reviewing an important document before you had to leave work, Word will remember what paragraph you were last reading/editing when you open that document on another machine. PowerPoint remembers the slide you were on so you don’t have to go hunting for that last edit in a long deck. These features extend to your mobile device as well. For example, your Windows Phone will show your recent files for one-touch access while you are on the go.”

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Microsoft has released the Office 2013 Consumer Preview (public beta), which can be downloaded from here. Some of the main highlights of the new Office include:

• SkyDrive - Office saves documents to SkyDrive by default, so your content is always available across your tablet, PC and phone. Your documents are also available offline and sync when you reconnect.
• Roaming - Once signed in to Office, your personalized settings, including your most recently used files, templates and even your custom dictionary, roam with you across virtually all of your devices. Office even remembers where you last left off and brings you right back to that spot in a single click.
• Office on Demand - With a subscription, you can access Office even when you are away from your PC by streaming full-featured applications to an Internet-connected Windows-based PC.
• New subscription services - The new Office is available as a cloud-based subscription service. As subscribers, consumers automatically get future upgrades in addition to exciting cloud services including Skype world minutes and extra SkyDrive storage. Subscribers receive multiple installs for everyone in the family and across their devices.
• Yammer - Yammer delivers a secure, private social network for businesses. You can sign up for free and begin using social networking instantly. Yammer offers integration with SharePoint and Microsoft Dynamics.
• Stay connected - Follow people, teams, documents and sites in SharePoint. View and embed pictures, videos and Office content in your activity feeds to stay current and update your colleagues.
• People Card - Have an integrated view of your contacts everywhere in Office. The People Card includes presence information complete with pictures, status updates, contact information and activity feeds from Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.
• Skype - The new Office comes with Skype. When you subscribe, you get 60 minutes of Skype world minutes every month. Integrate Skype contacts into Lync and call or instant message anyone on Skype.
• Digital note-taking - Keep your notes handy in the cloud and across multiple devices with OneNote. Use what feels most natural to you — take notes with touch, pen or keyboard, or use them together and switch easily back and forth.
• Reading and markup - The Read Mode in Word provides a modern and easy-to-navigate reading experience that automatically adjusts for large and small screens. Zoom in and out of content, stream videos within documents, view revision marks and use touch to turn pages.
• Meetings - PowerPoint features a new Presenter View that privately shows your current and upcoming slides, presentation time, and speaker notes in a single glance. While presenting, you can zoom, mark up and navigate your slides with touch and stylus. Lync includes multiparty HD video with presentations, shared OneNote notebooks and a virtual whiteboard for collaborative brainstorming.
• Eighty-two-inch touch-enabled displays - Conduct more engaging meetings, presentations and lessons, whether in person or virtually, with these multitouch and stylus-enabled displays from Perceptive Pixel.

With this new version, Microsoft has undergone a huge strategic shift by moving away from its PC-centric functionality to Windows 8, touch ability, mobile platform and cloud technology.