Office Newswire: a glimpse of Office 2013 on Windows RT tablet – 6.13.2012

With Microsoft’s Tech Ed, and Apple’s WWDC going on, this week is proving to be a news bonanza! The keynotes for these events are always worth your attention given their marque status. In case you missed them, you can watch them at your leisure:

• Tech Ed Day 1 Keynote
• WWDC Keynote

This is a busy job I have here keeping up with Office, Office 15, Office 2013 RT, Office for iPad, and Office 365… It’s an exciting job too.

A good number of my news sources seem to think Microsoft will provide us with betas of Office and SharePoint as early as this month. Many thought the beta release would coincide with Tech Ed. So far, that is not the case but the week is not over. I’m licking my chops because when the beta hits, we (the Add-in Express team) will tear it apart and give you our insights and opinions regarding the new features and development scenarios.

For now, we’ll try to glean what we can from what Microsoft reveals to us and from what they don’t tell us. It’ll be fun.

All the news this week is placing a strain on my Newswire filters. But good has already come of it. The New York Times claims they include “All the news that fit to print.” Well, I have a new tagline for the Office Newswire:

“More news than you can shake a stick at.”

I know the tag line ends with a preposition. I view it as a tribute to my West Texas roots.

Office news & editorials!

• Microsoft offers glimpse of Office 2013 on Windows RT tablet :: During the Tech Ed’s Day 1 Keynote address, MSFT gave a demo that included the next version of Excel. Mary Jo Foley (MJF) has the details. If you want, you can see the logo for Office 2013 here.
• It’s war: Google + Quickoffice vs. Microsoft Office everywhere :: Two in a row from MJF! I must meet her. How does she do it? She is a journalistic writing machine. Here, MJF discusses the impact and implications of Google’s recent purchase of QuickOffice.
• Tech Ed opening keynote rocks the Windows and Office world :: Steve Fox (MSFT’s Office and SharePoint evangelist extraordinaire) penned his thoughts on the keynote. If you don’t like to watch video and prefer the written word… I included this item for you.
• Hey Microsoft! Why not merge Outlook with SharePoint? :: Any interesting idea. After reading this article, I am not compelled. I like them separate but integrated. Still, an interesting and creative idea. So creative, in fact, I feel like throwing up.

Office tips, tricks & tools

• SharePoint document workspaces :: SharePoint is so much more than “‘web-ified” file share. But this fact doesn’t prevent most of us from using SharePoint for nothing more than that. This tip explains how to use a SharePoint document workspace to aid in the authoring of a complex document.
• New Comments Manager for Excel – Comments encouraged! :: From our sister-site, Ablebits.com, this newly released product simplifies commenting within Excel worksheets.
• Introducing SPTools: A GUI for performing batch tasks on SharePoint lists :: A free tool that could prove useful. As the developer states, the tool is an alpha build so try it out on test SharePoint site.
• Using calculated columns to add color coding to your SharePoint lists :: This is so simple and incredibly clever. Learn this skill and impress your friends… uh… co-workers.
• How about Documents and Metadata using SharePoint 2010? :: Good question… what about it?! Before I give you the highlights of this item, I have to ask… what kind of headline is that? I want to say it is terrible but I’m including it in today’s Newswire… so it can’t be too terrible now can it? Anyway, this items explains how to set default meta data values, how to inherit metadata, and how to do something else related to meta data.
• How to use the Microsoft Office Ribbon :: This is for anyone who recently upgraded from Office 2000 or 2003 to Office 2007 or 2010. If this is you, don’t be afraid. The ribbon will not bite you.
• Why use styles in Word? :: There is a short answer to this question. The fact is you can’t avoid using styles in Word. The question is really… do you want to learn to use styles effectively or do you want to continue to be a Word styles noob?

Office developer items of note

• How I stopped writing awesome code :: In last week’s Office 365 Newswire, I included an item about that explained signs you are a good programmer. This article takes a different tack. While I’m on the subject, might as well throw this article into the mix too.
• Another reason you should lean to code: Python for Excel :: Wild. Some MIT students created an Excel add-in that supports Python scripting. There is a video demo along with the article. Wild.
• Goodbye Ribbon – going full screen Metro Style with SharePoint :: Why wait for the next version of SharePoint, when you can implement the metro style today? I like the Metro UI but I think it is going to be way overexposed and commercialized.
• Facebook Web Parts for SharePoint 2010 :: Available on Codeplex, this is a set of web parts that integrates Facebook with your SharePoint site. Install and watch office productivity plummet as everyone starts sharing pictures of their cat.
• VSTO vs. classic VBA, questions on development and other things :: From the forums. This is a the Office developer’s version of “To be, or not to be?”.

Cutting room floor

• Top 10: easy DIY gifts my dad would dig
• How Windows 8 will work for your business ::
• A gesture-driven Windows Phone to-do application
• Malcolm Gladwell on entrepreneurship: history will remember Bill Gates, forget Steve Jobs
• Running the SharePoint 2010 IW Demo VM under Windows 8 :: Eric White everybody!