Review by Jeri Zerr

If you have a touch screen computer then I would consider adding a star and making this a 3 star product, otherwise, Office Pro 2013 is only a 2 star product in my book.

First - the graphical interface, what we users see, is awful. Someone decided to return to the stone ages in terms of screen contrast. Those with vision issues will likely find this software horrible to use due to the lack of visual contrast.

Second - the pricing scheme is awful. Check with your employer to see if their mass quantity licensing offers a deal for a ‘home use’ edition,through the Microsoft Home Use Program (MicrosoftHUP - google it!) In those cases you can usually find the legal and legitimate sourcing of this software at $9.95 - for up to three systems at home (if the rules haven’t changed in the past couple years.) The Home Use Program is often available to employees of the federal government and larger corporations. (Microsoft - what about the rest of us? We’re the ones who NEED special programs for home use!)nnThird - if you’ve already spent good money on this software (or got it cheap through the home use program), why should we have to pay extra for cloud access? Why are we forced to stare at a marketing logo within the valuable ribbon real estate? Again poor choice for us power users.

Fourth - why should I need to buy the software then rent it again in the cloud as Office 365? Microsoft - take notice - Many IT people are refusing to use cloud based programs. Many of us will remain with older, outdated programs than migrate to cloud based apps.

Fifth - There are ample open source Office type programs (such as open office or libreoffice or free office, etc.. there are quite a few legitimate options - again, google it!) as well as 2010 and 2007 still be available and very appropriate desktop solutions. For most home office use it seems wisest to use the free versions such as open office then upgrade to Microsoft when you need the extra features included in MS Office suite.

Sixth - what does 2013 really bring to the table that was not available in 2010 (or 2007 for that matter?) Other than much improved touch screen support, nothing substantial was brought to the screen. Or the desktop. Except the cloud - which many of us do NOT want or cannot use due to our employer policies.

All in all until I truly need the improved touch screen capability I would avoid MS Office 2013 and stick with the tried and true Office 2010 (or 2007 even!), at least until another version or two have been released. If I didn’t have access to those programs then I would opt for the freeware / shareware versions instead of spending a small fortune on 2013. But if you must go with Office 2013 for whatever reason, then the install is pretty straight forward. Go to office’s website /setup, login to the MS account (or create one if you have not before) enter in the product key (found inside this box when purchased). The install process is quite lengthy, but you can do other things (like update this review) while the humongous software package downloads and completes the install. Plan on a solid hour that the computer will need to be powered on and attached to the Internet (a factor for us laptop users to keep in mind!)