[ms office - 2013] 2013 - when will you be making the switch?

[mrbios]

I'm considering upgrading all our PCs to office 2013 this summer, seeing as the vast majority are going to be reimaged anyway....does sims support for it come out with the summer release?

 

We're already on 2010 so the interface is relatively well known to our staff now, when will you guys be upgrading?

[SYNACK]

Just pushing it out in our images as they happen now. Better integration with O365 when we get that going and just generally quicker.

[jallsop]

Just pushing it out in our images as they happen now. Better integration with O365 when we get that going and just generally quicker.

 

Hmm. Not sure i'd agree on quicker. We've had some issues with it opening network documents via wifi connection. Sometimes taking the absolute p in terms of time. 2-3minutes for a 150 to 200K document. Wifi connection is fine with other apps etc, so its not this. Plus some horrendous glitches opening old office 03 files.

[laserblazer]

Our office staff had a few issues with SIMS reports into Excel because of enabling macros. As I could see it, the only option was to allow all macros. There was no option to prompt first. If I've got that wrong can someone let me know please.

[localzuk]

I dunno if we'll be making the switch any time soon. Don't really see much of a point, considering 2013 has various usability issues (lack of contrast for the ribbon/document area, shouting menu titles etc...).

 

We skipped Office 2007 too, so maybe we'll skip 2013 and go to 2016 when it is released instead...

[Sylv3r]

We've currently got it installed in our Sixth Form study - no issues up to now - may look to rollout ready for September 2013 if everything goes well.

[Modey]

Not planning to roll it out here any time soon as we only recently went to 2010. To be honest I don't like 2013. Installed it on my home machine, then got rid and went back to 2010 pretty quickly. It's just odd using it, the way it even renders text as you type is a bit weird!

[burgemaster]

We are doing a 2nd larger trial with admin staff over the next 6 weeks. We are on 2007 so its a big jump.

 

Dependant on how the next 6 weeks goes we will be upgrading all computers over the summer when we move to windows 7.

 

With the smaller trial the usability comments werent very positive. But if m$ listen and add a few more themes in SP1 this would be a vast improvement.

[jamesfed]

Planning to put it in at my new place as part of a new build install

 

Going to need some serious GPO action to rip out the SkyDrive features though...

[JonThompson]

We've trialled it on a few PCs in the office but we've all decided that its just not ready yet. We're going to wait for SP1.

[Arthur]

Going to need some serious GPO action to rip out the SkyDrive features though...

I found the following website was a good starting point...

 

Office 2013 Customization « Aaron Parker

[Michael]

For schools who have upgraded to Office 2010, there are little advantages. By all means, if have a license agreement install it, but I certainly wouldn't recommend buying new licenses. Wait until 2016/17 for the next version.

[mattianuk]

We won't be this summer, users still recovering from last years network rebuild. Will look to plan OS and office upgrades next summer.

[fromtheinternet]

the way it even renders text as you type is a bit weird!

 

I love that! It's wonderfully smooth

 

I'm trying to work out the merits of upgrading. There's no direct costs involved, just the time to do it. The compatibility with 2003 documents is a little worrying, however.

[Meldrew]

Not planning to roll it out here any time soon as we only recently went to 2010.

 

Ditto. Don't see a good reason to upgrade.

[howartp]

Does sims support for it come out with the summer release?

SIMS support for 2013 starts with the Autumn release - they don't seem to think about schools who do all their large upgrades such as Office during the summer holidays, and therefore set the 'support from ... release' to be two months after the summer.

 

I haven't seen much of Office 2013 yet, but if it's anything like Office 365 or Exchange 2013's OWA interface, I won't be moving yet.

 

I don't like the flat design that Microsoft and Apple have started to use; I prefer more skeumorphic layouts. (Sorry, learnt that word with iOS 7 and I kinda like it!)

 

Peter