Recently, I was able to download Microsoft Office 2013 onto my personal computer (a 15” Toshiba Satellite aka Littleun), through my job, at an unbelievable discount.  Here is my review.

I AM UNHAPPY.

Right now, at work, we have version 2010.  It has a lot of bells and whistles that 2007 doesn’t have.  I was hoping for something better with 2013, but instead, I feel cheated.

Since I use Word the most, I’ll complain about that particular program.

1.  No color schemes.  I am not kidding.  Only blinding, eye-scorching white, light gray, and dark gray.  That’s it.
2. Ugly interface.  The ribbon, the desktop icons, and the header all look flat and cartoonish. It’s optimized for Windows 8 (please) and Windows phone.  No one I know is excited about Windows 8.
3. When I type, the cursor sliiiiiiiiiiiiiides across the screen in a very annoying way.  It almost looks as if it will slide right off the page.
4. No Office button (I knew this would be the case).  In 2010, the File tab opens a page that lets you print, save, etc.  2013 has a huge white page with all the document properties on it, and it’s ugly.  The white hurts my eyes, and there is no way to change it.

Ick. Ick ickety ick.

Now that I’ve bitched about it, I’ll say some good things.

1.  My documents look the same.   I save everything in 97-2003 Compatibility mode, because my color printer is hooked up to an ancient Best Buy Insignia desktop with a Pentium IV inside (aka Old Wheezy).  It runs Office 2003.  When I take a flash drive back there to print something, it has to open on that computer.

When it dies, I’ll move my 17” Satellite laptop running Vista (aka Biggun) back there and it won’t be an issue.  It has 2007 installed and everything that opens on Littleun opens on him.  I hope it doesn’t; Wheezy is still running Windows XP and I have a game that won’t play on anything else.

Someone really needs to remake this game. It is awesome.

Image:  Wikipedia

2.  Everything works the same.  And the dialog boxes look the same when you open them, thank God (see picture below).
3. As you can see in the picture, all the commands, buttons, etc. are in the same place.  It’s not the same adjustment we had to make moving from 2003 to 2007, dealing with the new ribbon.

Still ugly.

Speaking of the ribbon, I’ve gotten so used to it now that when I have to do anything on Old Wheezy in 2003, I can’t deal with it.  I won’t be taking advantage of the cloud features.  Sorry, but I just don’t trust someone else with my data just yet.

Maybe someday I’ll get used to this new interface.  And here’s hoping Microsoft releases a service pack with some theme colors in it.  There are some cool things, so I’ll just keep busy playing with those.

Related articles

• 5 Tricks To Disable Annoyances And Improve Office 2013 (makeuseof.com)
• Microsoft Office 2013, Office 365: 10 Features That Make It a Smart Buy (eweek.com)