Office 2010 or 2013?

[weese237]

Looking for opinions on the two versions of Office (2010 and 2013). I'm currently using 2003 at home and 2010 at work. I was thinking of upgrading my home computer to match the one from work (2010) or perhaps going to 2013. I actually like 2003 and wonder if it's actually worth upgrading. I think that 2010 can do some things easier than 2003, but...

Let's see if I can get a good debate going!
Thanks

[HansV]

One factor is availability - Microsoft doesn't sell the 2010 version any more, only Office 2013 and the subscription version Office 365.
You may still be able to get Office 2010 from other vendors - I see that Amazon, for example, still lists Office 2010.

Another factor is Windows - if you think of upgrading to Windows 8 anytime soon, take into account that Office 2003 doesn't work well on Windows 8 - some features won't work correctly.

If you use Office 2010 at work, you know that it has a radically different interface than Office 2003 - the menus and toolbars have been replaced with the ribbon. The ribbon takes getting used to, but once you become familiar with it, it works well, although many tasks take more mouse clicks than in the menu/toolbar interface.

Office 2013 has more or less the same interface as Office 2010, but a different color scheme - everything is stark white.

[Jay Freedman]

If you're not in the 30% or so of Office 2003 users who hate hate HATE the ribbon, it's worthwhile to upgrade simply because mainstream support for Office 2003 has already ended (http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=2488). Office 2010 has another 2¼ years left, and Office 2013 has 5 more years.

Given a choice today, I think I would stick with Office 2010, which has had a lot of its bugs fixed. Office 2013 is still working through its teething problems. If you get Office 2013 as part of one of the Office 365 offerings, though, fixes and possibly new features will be rolled out much more frequently than the once-every-year-or-so schedule of the Service Packs of previous versions. I'd hope that in another year Office 2013 will be as stable as 2010 is now -- and 2010 won't have improved much if at all.

Those teething problems I mentioned are largely due to the fact that Office 2013 uses a rewritten rendering engine that's faster, and in some ways simpler, than the one in 2010 and earlier. As I heard it, the old engine had a lot of special cases and tweaks to make it produce the same output as any of the versions before it; the new engine dropped a lot of those cases and just does "the right thing" according to its design. The tradeoff is that if you have to match an old document exactly, 2013 might not be able to do it unless you drop into Compatibility Mode. There are also some edge cases where the design missed accounting for some reasonable requirements, and those are being treated as bugs.

[weese237]

Hi Hans!

Didn't know that about Windows 8! Wasn't thinking about upgrading anytime soon but it's good to know! Have you upgraded to 2013 yet?

[HansV]

No, I'm staying with Windows 7 and Office 2010 for the moment, since we use those versions at work too. I frequently edit 'work' documents at home, so it works best if I use the same version at home and at work.

[weese237]

Hi Jay,
At first I didn't like the ribbon at all. Didn't have much choice at work so I had to get used to it fast. I did "tweak" it to my liking though.
From what I've read, I am leaning towards 2010 and not 2013.

Thanks for your input! Keep them coming!

[weese237]

Hi Hans,
That's my thoughts exactly. I'm also looking at the expense. In another few years, hopefully I'll be able to retire and whatever version I have at the time will be it!

[Argus]

I did something similar recently; i.e. upgraded the last PC from 2003 to Office 2010 (and I also have a copy of 2013). I don't want to bash MS or their products, but the best I can say about 2013, seen so far (and it's going stay that way) on a test machine, is that it's got a clean user interface; but that same UI has lost several things. I would recommend 2010, if available.

It has been said that MS were extra quick this time to discontinue sales of the old Office version; and the popularity of Office 2010, amid discussions and rumours about the license agreement for the retail version of Office 2013, meant that some vendors raised the price of some Office 2010 versions. See for example: https://www.computerworld.com/s/article ... geNumber=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(I got a copy of Home and Student, retail, FFP, with license for three installs, for more or less the same price of a similar edition with OEM license and only one install; the last copies sold like hot cakes, it seemed, early this spring.)

The first license agreement for the retail edition Office 2013 when it was released this year was different compared to previous Office versions; first and foremost, the software could no longer be transferred to another PC (as if it would have been an OEM copy); the same applied for downloaded copies. This was something we had not seen for retail editions!

Then in March, after having received criticism, MS changed their mind; now Office 2013 has the same transfer rights as those in the 2010 retail license agreement.

I really like Office 2010; also compared with Office 2007, though I have limited experience of that version; at first I didn't like the ribbon, and I followed most of the changes at the UI blog during beta of Office 2007, but I think it's changed to the better in Office 2010. Still some things take some extra steps, as you may know when comparing. Jay mentioned the rendering engine, when discussing 2010 and 2013; but if you compare to Office 2003, and you thinking of an upgrade even if as you say you like Office 2003 (and so did I) the changes in Office 2007 and later versions are quite big if you look at charts etc.

And as you also know from your work, there is a change in the file format.

As Hans said, Office 2003 doesn't work well on Windows 8; on the other hand, Office 2013 doesn't work at all on Windows XP, (which has less than year left on extended support, as does Office 2003; both end on 8 April 2014); so, also in that perspective is an upgrade a good idea.

[weese237]

Thanks Argus! I think I'll do some shopping for 2010. I think, as Hans said, I can get a copy from Amazon or I may look at what is available on eBay.