Review by Sam M. Tannenbaum

More and more, it seems that reviewing new software means addressing two issues: the software proper, and the publisher’s distribution model. The most notable example is Adobe’s Creative Cloud, which amounts to a subscription-only service that doesn’t give users an option to buy the program outright. Microsoft’s new distribution model isn’t quite so problematic, but it still raises some concerns.

However, the most important part of any software is how it performs, and Office 2013 is a champ in that regard. For some reason, the collective public backlash against all things Microsoft makes it impossible for that company to do anything without taking a ton of harsh scrutiny, so the prospective buyer will doubtless hear about all kinds of problems with Office 2013 (some real, some imagined, some big, some little), but all you need to know is that these are the best and most refined versions ever of this software suite. The ribbon interfaces have been improved and the various applications’ new features are, for the most part, sensible and welcome. In particular, PowerPoint is a MUCH better performer, with graphic effects that compete with Apple’s Keynote for variety, dazzle and fluidity.

It’s hard to know where to start when trying to communicate how the latest version of Office products perform because people have such disparate subsets of experiences with the family of programs (I know plenty of people who still use Office 2003 as their primary productivity tools). As a broad comment, though, these programs are intuitive and feature-packed; they’re a logical evolution from earlier iterations, and new users will pick up the basics quickly.

Now onto that distribution model… in a nutshell, the way it works is that when you buy this, you’re buying an unlock code that grants you use of one instance of the software. Because you have to download it and activate it online, offline/duplicate activations are essentially impossible. It’s Microsoft’s way of ensuring that everyone who uses the software pays for it.

Look, the bottom line here is that you either like this approach or you don’t. I think it’s garbage. I think the reasoning behind such controlled distribution is ideologically wrong-headed, and on top of that, I resent having to be online to get the software I’ve paid for. I have a studio machine that has never, and will never, be connected to the internet, and I have to use an older version of Office on it.

Having said all that, this is the way Microsoft is going with their wares. It’s probably not going to change, and if you want to use their products, this is how you’ll do it. There are a number of free or lower-cost alternatives, none of which have all the perks of using Office, but all of which cover the bases of functionality. The bottom line is that prospective buyers should focus on the software experience and not the purchase experience, because if they do it correctly, they’ll only have to tangle with it once, and after that, it’s all about the user experience.

I suppose that, ultimately, how strongly you feel about the distribution issue will determine whether or not you choose to play Microsoft’s game. If you decide to, you’ll be rewarded with powerful, intuitive software that, in spite of all its publisher’s issues, is still the best in its class.