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Microsoft Office 2013 End of Life: What You Need to Know

Microsoft Office 2013 was a popular productivity suite that included several essential tools such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. It was released in 2013 and was widely used by individuals, businesses, and organizations of all sizes. However, like all software products, Microsoft Office 2013 has reached its end of life, and users are now advised to upgrade to Microsoft 365, the cloud-based version of Microsoft Office.

drawing of a man holding a laptop in front of a very large laptop with "update" on the screen and a wrench in front

What Does End of Support Mean?

End of life, or EOL, refers to the point in time when a software product is no longer supported by the manufacturer. In the case of Microsoft Office 2013, this means that Microsoft will no longer provide technical support, bug fixes, security updates, or new features for this product. This makes the software more vulnerable to cyberattacks, viruses, and malware. Continuing to use Microsoft Office 2013 after the end of life date could result in data loss, security breaches, and other serious problems.

  • This means that Microsoft will no longer provide any updates or support for this software product beyond this date. Users who continue to use Microsoft Office 2013 after this date do so at their own risk.

If you’re using Office 2013, it’s probably a good time to upgrade your version of Microsoft Office.

Upgrade Options

The best way to protect yourself and your organization is to upgrade to a newer version of Office:

  • Cloud upgrade: Subscriptions to Microsoft 365
  • Box Version: Microsoft Home And Business 2021

Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 is an all-in-one cloud solution with a number of different licensing options to fit your organization’s needs. The best part about cloud-based applications is that you no longer have to worry about retirements, patches, and end of support. Cloud licenses are automatically updated with new features, new applications, and security updates. Many cloud subscriptions also include installed (or desktop) versions of the application, so you can have the same look and feel of the Office applications you are accustomed to using, but built with more robust features and benefits.

Microsoft Home And Business 2021

Office Home and Business 2021 is for families and small businesses who want classic Office apps and email. It includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook for Windows 11 and Windows 10. A one-time purchase installed on 1 PC or Mac for use at home or work.

 

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Get an early look at the new Office 365 admin center

Tracking and reporting activity in Office 365 using the built-in admin tools is about to get much better. Here’s what the revamped admin center has to offer.

Office365adminSJTechies

Gathering usage information about Microsoft Office 365 in an enterprise is limited by the available admin tools. To make matters worse, as Microsoft adds new applications to Office 365, the ability to track if, and how, users were consuming the new features has been even more difficult. But with the rollout of the new Office 365 admin center in March 2016, those limitations are quickly disappearing.

Reporting

At first glance, you may think the main activity for any Office 365 admin is adding and subtracting employees from the active roster. But a good admin should be doing much more.

As the number of applications in Office 365 has grown substantially in recent years, the need to track all Office 365 activity has also grown. This need to track activity is especially important in larger enterprises where mishandled resources can raise overall costs significantly.

For example, knowing how many employees actually use Yammer on a weekly basis, and when, could help admins predict when resources will be taxed the most. Or tracking how users are actually using collaboration tools like Skype and Delve may lead an admin to conclude that more training on those applications is needed because the apps are underutilized. These are the sort of questions the new Office 365 admin center is looking to answer.

By simplifying the interface and creating ready-to-use dashboards, Microsoft is trying to streamline the reporting process. Tracking email activity and other peak usage data is just a few clicks away. And as the new Office 365 admin center is rolled out, there will also be tools admins can use to create custom reports.

Speaking from personal experience, the new admin dashboard interface is a welcome improvement. Navigation in the new admin center closely matches the familiar navigation system of other Office 365 apps. The previous admin center, with its heavy use of linked text, looked almost tacked on as an afterthought.

officeadmin365-SJTechies

Rollout

The new Office 365 admin center is rolling out in the United States right now and will be the default reporting experience very soon. The new center will roll out to other parts of the world in April 2016.

If you’re not ready for the change, you can roll back to the old admin system during this introductory phase. On the other hand, if you’re anxious for a change, you can click the Get A Sneak Peek link at the top of the old Office 365 admin center to force the installation of the new system.

Bottom line

For most users, administering Office 365 is someone else’s responsibility, but that does not diminish its importance to an enterprise.

A good admin should be able to track what activity is taking place within Office 365 and, more important, what activity is not taking place. Knowing who uses what applications for how long, and when, is essential information. Armed with that knowledge, administrators can determine how to better allocate resources and where new training for users may be required.

With the rollout of the new Office 365 admin center, Microsoft is using feedback received from its customers to create tools and dashboards that it hopes will make the tracking of vital activity data in Office 365 an easily achieved reality.

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Surface Book: Microsoft just made the PC cool again

The Microsoft Surface Book is the computer you always wanted to have but couldn’t. So now that it is here, will you buy it?

surface-4-surface-book

The latest line of Microsoft Surface personal computers is now available from both the virtual and the bricks-and-mortar Microsoft Store. By most accounts, the Surface Pro 4 and the flagship Surface Book offer impressive performance without sacrificing style or that illusive awe factor typically missing from PCs in general.

With the Surface Book in particular, Microsoft is attempting to change the narrative of the personal computer—to change perceptions in the marketplace. The Surface Book is an aspirational computer and it is intended to inspire desire in the overall PC and computing device market.

Strategic reasons

There are some solid strategic reasons why Microsoft has brought the Surface Book to market.

Giving OEMs a reference for their own hardware and increasing participation in Microsoft cloud services and the ecosystem that goes with it are certainly notable goals of the Surface Book.

But there is even more to it than that.

Hardware

It is important to understand the hardware inside the Microsoft Surface Book. These are the technical specifications of a powerful computing device. You do not buy a Surface Book so your kids can watch movies in the car while you run errands.

With a high resolution screen, SSD storage up to 1TB, up to 16GB RAM, an Intel I5 or I7 CPU, and a customized discreet GPU from Nvidia, the Surface Book is designed for performance and productivity. This is some serious computing power delivered in a small package.

Of course, that power comes at a premium price, but that is where the aspirational part of the strategy comes into play. Microsoft knows it will not sell millions upon millions of Surface Books. That is not its purpose. Instead, Microsoft wants millions upon millions of people to want a Surface Book—to aspire to own one someday.

Microsoft wants the Surface Book to be the notebook computer you would buy if money were not an issue. It wants the Surface Book to be a status symbol PC.

Marketing

This is a bold move by Microsoft and it goes hand-in-hand with the “PC does what?” marketing campaign produced in conjunction with its OEM partners like Dell and Lenovo. These companies are trying to make PCs cool again. They are trying to steal some of the thunder so often associated with Apple.

And while the “PC does what?” campaign gets mocked, mostly by fans of Apple, it is more effective than many believe. Remember the Mac versus PC commercials? People often mocked those as inaccurate oversimplifications of fact, but they still seemed to elevate the “cool” factor of the Mac. It didn’t matter what everyone thought of them; what mattered was the perception they produced.


Bottom line

The Microsoft Surface Book sets a high bar for every other notebook computer that comes to market. Microsoft has carefully crafted a powerful computer with hardware, features, and style no other company can currently match. In a single stroke, Microsoft has made owning a PC cool again. It has made the Windows 10 ecosystem cool again.

Let’s punctuate the point with anecdotal evidence. A number of people have spent much of their professional lives complaining about Microsoft and PCs. They have been working in the Apple’s ecosystem and hating every minute of it. They have been looking for more than what Apple offers for years now. The day Microsoft announced the Surface Book, they ordered one. They haven’t been this excited about buying a computer for a decade.

With this lineup of Surface products, Microsoft has changed the tide and established market momentum. It will be interesting to see how Google and Apple respond. We should see some serious competition now. It also wouldn’t be surprised to see a resurgence in Windows 10 mobile devices later this year. It looks to be an exciting time for consumers. Hang on to your hats.

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Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book race ahead of iPad Pro and Pixel C at the high end

Microsoft gave its high-end Surface a leap forward on Tuesday with the unveiling of the Surface Pro 4 and the surprise launch of the Surface Book, the company’s first laptop.

surface-4-surface-book

Microsoft’s love affair with hardware just got more intense. If there were any doubts about the software juggernaut staying in the devices game, they were erased on Tuesday with one of the biggest and broadest hardware announcements in the company’s history.

Microsoft showed off a fleet of new and freshly updated Windows 10-powered devices in New York. The stars of the show were the Surface Pro 4 and the new Surface Book laptop, which were a potent answers to Apple’s recently unveiled iPad Pro and Google’s newly announed Pixel C.

According to Microsoft Devices lead engineer Panos Panay there are nearly 110 million devices running Windows 10. Most of the products Microsoft unveiled at Tuesday’s press event were intended to show how important mobile hardware and software integration with Windows 10 is to the company.

The event’s biggest surprise, the Surface Book, and the new Surface Pro 4 are powerful machines, and both aim to connect with both enterprise users and creative professionals. They succeed big time in the specs department. In terms of usability and adoption, we’ll know more after both are released on October 26.

The Surface Book is Microsoft’s first laptop, and it’s a fiery, ambitious device. The specs are decked, particularly given that the price is comparable to a Macbook Pro. The Surface Book starts at $1499, and comes with a full Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, 1TB of storage, 16GB RAM, and a GPU designed for gaming and multimedia editing by the Xbox team. Additionally, the 13.5-inch screen (3000 x 2000 resolution) can detach to become a stand-alone tablet.

The Surface Pro 4 tablet runs Windows 10 and, like its predecessors, can serve as a full-fledged laptop replacement. The Surface Pro 4 is, as expected, somewhat thinner and 30 percent faster than the previous model. It has 16GB of RAM, and comes with up to a terabyte of storage, and a 12.3-inch screen (2736 x 1824 resolution). Microsoft cloud and productivity apps Cortana, Windows Hello, Microsoft Office, and OneDrive are deeply integrated. The Surface Pro 4 starts at $899.

When the Surface debuted in 2012 running Windows 8, the tablet seemed like an awkward, out-of-place device. Today, the Surface Pro has been owning and innovating in the high-end tablet space. It’s become a favorite of design professionals, IT administrators, and others who want a productivity tablet.

Arguably, the success of the Surface Pro helped pull Apple and Google into the high-end professional tablet market. Google’s comparable new Pixel C is similarly powerful, features a keyboard cover, and is deeply tied to the Google cloud ecosystem. Yet, Google’s device does not feel as durable as the Surface Pro 4, and Office is still often an essential tool for business users looking for a full laptop replacement.

Apple’s iPad Pro is a powerful professional and creative tool. Apple’s high-end tablet is larger and slightly more expensive than the Surface Pro 4. Microsoft is banking that the integration of Windows 10 and universal apps will help the Surface stand on par with the iPad Pro.

Microsoft’s attention to detail with peripheral devices like the Type Pro cover and the Surface Pen stylus may lend them a slight edge in the professional tablet market. The new Surface Pro Type Cover, notable for its “precision glass trackpad” is a significant refinement over the previous generation. The cover still costs 130 dollars, but is lighter, more responsive, and features more space between the keys than the previous version.

Microsoft has worked hard to make the stylus seem useful and cool. The new Surface Pen is intended to feel like writing on paper. The stylus features a tip with 1,024 points of pressure sensitivity, an eraser (yes, an eraser!), year-long battery life, and comes in five colors. When not in use the pen is held snugly to the top of the tablet by magnets. Microsoft took great care to display the tablet tilted in portrait mode like a clipboard, with a pen resting on top. The company emphasized the tablet itself “just fades into the background” when used by office workers, doctors, architects, and musicians.

surface-book-two

As with the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book, the new Lumia 950 and 950 XL phones are powered by Windows 10, with special consideration to mobile productivity. The devices measure at 5.2 and 5.7 inches respectively, and feature an upgraded camera with a dedicated shutter release button.

The most unique and innovative announcement from Microsoft may have been the Display Doc. Intended to maximize workplace flexibility, and uncouple the enterprise user from the constraints of a laptop, the Microsoft Display Doc was initially announced at last spring’s Build conference as the Continuum docking station. The Display Doc is a small, square device that connects to any compatible Windows 10 mobile device like the Lumia 950 using three USB Type-3 ports, a DisplayPort and HDMI. When connected to a monitor using Display Doc, the phone will present a traditional Windows home screen, complete with the familiar Start button and icon tray. Though not as robust as a true desktop PC, the experience resembles desktop Windows and is able to manage productivity tasks like mail and messaging, document creation and sharing, and web browsing.

Windows 10 is at the core of the new Microsoft device environment. The company also announced updates to the Windows 10 universal app ecosystem [LINK], and a launch partnership with Facebook to expand the core Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram applications.

CEO Satya Nadella closed the event by stressing the importance of Windows 10 as a unified platform. Every device Microsoft released on Tuesday is a step towards fulfilling that vision. As impressive as the devices were, the biggest thing standing in their way perhaps is the stability of Windows 10

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Patience will be the key to a successful Windows 10 upgrade

let the dust settle before you attempt the free Windows 10 upgrade.

Windows 10

With the official Windows 10 launch and Microsoft’s promise that the upgrade for Windows 7/8.1 systems will be free for the first year after launch, you’ll have until July 29, 2016, to make your move. Just because it’s free doesn’t mean you have to rush to get your copy—unless, of course, it’s a status thing.

For the ordinary Windows user, there really isn’t any immediate need to be one of the first people to download Windows 10. In fact, you’ll probably have a better upgrade experience if you hold off for a bit. Wait for the hype to die down, wait for the load on the Windows Update servers to wane, and more importantly, wait for the first wave of updates to make their way out to the masses of Windows users who had to be the first.

Besides, unless you’re a Windows Insider program participant, chances are that you won’t be able to get Windows 10 right away anyhow.

In his July 2nd blog post, “Windows 10: Preparing to Upgrade One Billion Devices,” Terry Myerson stated:

“We want to make sure all of you have a great upgrade experience, so we’ll roll-out Windows 10 in phases to help manage the demand.”

He then goes on to say:

“Starting on July 29, we will start rolling out Windows 10 to our Windows Insiders. From there, we will start notifying reserved systems in waves, slowly scaling up after July 29th. Each day of the roll-out, we will listen, learn and update the experience for all Windows 10 users.”

That last sentence hints at the fact that the Microsoft is anticipating the possibility that there may be some glitches in the first wave of the roll out.

To be sure, I’m not suggesting that you hold out for months before you upgrade—rather, I’m saying that you may want to give it a couple of weeks just to see how others are faring with Windows 10. With Microsoft’s Windows as a service model, the ongoing testing via the extension of the Windows Insider program, and the rapid update system developed during the Windows Insider preview program, the hope is that any issues that crop up in the first weeks after initial availability will be quickly resolved.

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Microsoft Office 2016: Lots of upgrade questions and some answers

Microsoft began rolling out Office 2016 for Windows on September 22. Since then, there have been a lot of questions around timing and installation techniques from those attempting to move to the latest version of Microsoft’s Office suite.

Office 2016

It turns out that not everyone has been able to upgrade to the latest release this week, in spite of Microsoft declaring the suite generally available. Instead, as many have discovered, the Office 2016 rollout is a staggered one, and one which has resulted in some OneDrive, Skype for Business and other app and service installation and compatibility issues.

While Microsoft officials did say a week ago that the company would be moving to a servicing/branch model with Office 2016 similar to the one the Windows 10 team is using, details on exactly how that would play out for Office users were scarce. But thanks to Microsoft pages and KB articles — we now know more.

Office 2016

It turns out anyone in the Office 365 First Release program was able to get the latest Office 2016 apps for Windows as of this week. The same is true of those on the existing Office 365 Small Business Premium, Business and/or Business Premium — but only for those who are buying new subscriptions, according to the chart from a Microsoft community answers post, embedded above. Automatic updates to Office 2016 for those on these three plans won’t begin until the fourth quarter of 2016..

Just to add a little more complexity to this already complex set of rules, Microsoft is in the midst of replacing its Office 365 Small Business, Small Business Premium and Midsize Busines plans with three new ones. The three: Office 365 Business, Business Essentials and Business Premium. Microsoft has pushed the suggested migration date kick-off for these new plans back from October 1 to December 1, 2015, The reason for the date change: “The renewal experience will be best for users who have the latest version of Office,” meaning Office 2016.

Those with Office 365 ProPlus SKUs — meaning Office 365 Enterprise, Midsize and Education — are on the Current Branch for Business. This means these users cannot upgrade to the new Office 2016 for Windows bits right now unless the administrators change the update branch to be used by some/all of their users to Current Branch.

“For Office 365 ProPlus subscribers, administrators can opt to upgrade by manually rolling out to their users with Office deployment tools available today, September 22. Automatic updates for Office 365 ProPlus customers will begin early next year,” a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed when I asked.

Here are some more links that might help those interested in making the move to Office 2016:

Microsoft made the Office 2016 for Windows release available to MSDN subscribers on September 22. Volume licensees will have access to the new release via the Volume License Servicing Center (VLSC) as of October 1.

DreamSpark users got access to Office 2016 on September 22. Microsoft Action Pack and MPN subscribers will get access on October 1. And Home Use Rights for Office 2016 for Windows and Mac, both, will be available as of October 7, according to Microsoft.

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Now Microsoft Office 365 tackles ‘fake CEO’ email spoofing attacks

Microsoft is rolling out a host of new email security features for Office 365 later this quarter, as it looks to thwart hackers and criminals.

‘Insider spoofing’ or faking the CEO’s email address to trick the CFO into transferring millions to criminal bank accounts is big business. Now Microsoft is using big data and reputation filters to try and squish the threat.

According to the FBI, between October 2013 and August 2015, 7,066 US businesses have fallen prey to ‘business email compromise’, netting criminals an estimated $747m.

Non-US victims lost a further $51m over the period, with the FBI estimating a 270 percent increase in identified victims since January 2015, when it first released figures about the threat category.

As Microsoft notes, when a corporate email domain is spoofed, it makes it hard for existing filters to identify the bogus email as malicious.

However, Microsoft reckons it has achieved a 500 percent improvement in counterfeit detection using a blend of big data, strong authentication checks, and reputation filters in Exchange Online Protection for Office 365.

It’s also rolling out new phishing and trust notifications to indicate whether an email is from a known sender or if a message is from an untrusted source, and therefore could be a phishing email.

The company is also promising a faster email experience as it vets attachments for malware and new tools to auto-correct messages that are mis-classified as spam. The aim is to boost defences without impairing end-user productivity.

Malicious email attachments remain a popular way for attackers to gain a foothold in an organization and, as RSA’s disastrous SecurID breach in 2011 showed, a little social engineering can go a long way to ensuring someone opens it.

Microsoft’s new attachment scanner, called Dynamic Delivery of Safe Attachments, looks to reduce delays as it checks attachments for potential threats.

Currently it captures suspicious looking attachments in a sandbox with a ‘detonation chamber’ where it analyses it for malware in a process takes five to seven minutes.

Microsoft hasn’t figured out a faster way to analyse the attachment, but instead of holding up the email as it conducts the scan, it will send the body of the email with a placeholder attachment. If the attachment is deemed safe, it will replace the placeholder and if not, the admin can filter out the attachment.

The feature is part of Microsoft’s Office 365 Exchange Online Protection and Advanced Threat Protection services.

The company is also tackling false-positive spam, or legitimate messages that are mis-identified as spam, and vice versa, with a new feature called Zero-hour Auto Purge, which allows admins to “change that verdict”.

“If a message is delivered to your inbox and later found to be spam, Zero-hour Auto Purge moves that message from the inbox to the spam folder; the reverse is true for messages misclassified as spam,” Microsoft notes.

Microsoft is testing this approach with 50 customers and says it will be rolled out for all Exchange Online Protection global clients in the first quarter of 2016.

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Surface Book pre-orders sold out at Microsoft’s online store

If you were still thinking about placing an order for a new Microsoft Surface Book, then you will have to look somewhere other than the Microsoft store.

surfacebook

While there doesn’t seem to be a massive supply issue with the new Apple iPhone 6s smartphone, in the past we have seen Apple products sell out quickly and deliveries move from days, to weeks, to months. It seems that Microsoft’s new Surface Book may be generating more interest than planned.

Last night I went to the online Microsoft Store to place an order for a base model Surface Book. I found that the only available status when choosing that model was, “Email me when available.” I jumped through the other four models and discovered the same thing. It seems Microsoft is sold out of pre-order stock for all models at its online store.

We reached out to Microsoft to try to find out more about stock status and when buyers could expect to place pre-orders. I also asked if there will be units in Microsoft retail stores on launch day, 26 October. Given that units are sold out online, we may even see people queue up for possible stock in stores.

A Microsoft spokesperson provided the following statement, “We’ve seen strong demand for Surface Book and have sold out of pre-order supply for October 26 availability. We will have limited quantities of Surface Book available in store on October 26 and will be updating online availability with new product ship dates soon.”

UPDATE: Microsoft updated its store and is no allowing customers to pre-order the five Surface Book variations. What you will find instead of an email me when available button is updated delivery expectations, ranging from five to six weeks for three models and seven to eight weeks for two models.

While I was disappointed that I couldn’t purchase a Surface Book through Microsoft directly, I found that Best Buy and Amazon will also be selling this new computer. Best Buy did not appear to be taking pre-orders, but I was able to purchase the Intel Core i5, 8GB, 128GB model from Amazon for $1,499.

The Amazon website does not appear to carry the 256GB i5 without dGPU or 256GB i7 models. The 256GB i5 with dGPU looks to be the only other model available for pre-order. The 512GB i7 model is on the site as an option, but redirects you to the Microsoft Store for purchase and it’s not avaialable there.

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First look: Five Office 2016 preview apps

At the Microsoft Ignite 2015 conference last month, the company showcased the latest iteration of its Office suite. Here’s a quick look at what you can expect.

Office 2016

Each month I compile lists of five apps that fall into various categories, such as apps to save you airfare, process monitors, and tools for protecting online privacy. This time around, however, I wanted to do something a little bit different and give you a glimpse of five applications that will eventually make up Microsoft Office 2016.

1: Word 2016

Microsoft is introducing two versions of Word 2016: a feature-rich desktop version and a lightweight, touch-optimized version. The desktop version looks and feels a lot like the previous version (Figure A), but Microsoft is introducing some new features, such as real-time co-authoring.

Figure A

Word 2016 Desktop Version

The touch-optimized version of Word (Figure B) is currently available only for use on the Windows 10 preview. It contains the essential features that users most commonly need to do their jobs, with a clean interface that’s ideal for touch screens, small screens, or for anyone who is intimidated by the desktop version’s exhaustive feature set.

Figure B

Word 2016 Touch-Optimized Version

2: Excel 2016

As is the case with Word, Microsoft is releasing two versions of Excel. The desktop version (Figure C) is much more feature rich and will likely be the best choice for hard-core Excel users. It includes new capabilities, such as business intelligence integrated directly into Excel and some data loss prevention features.

Figure C

Excel 2016 Desktop Version

The touch-optimized version of Excel (Figure D) is similar to its Word counterpart, in that it’s designed to be lightweight and includes only the most commonly used features. Although more capable, this version of Excel reminds me a lot of the version that is included with Windows Phone 8.1.

Figure D

Excel 2016 Touch-Optimized Version

3: PowerPoint 2016

The PowerPoint 2016 preview doesn’t seem to have changed all that much from the previous version, either (Figure E). The most noticeable change to the interface is the addition of the Tell Me bar, a Cortana-like interface that will be shared by all of the Office 2016 applications. It allows users ask Office how to perform a particular task.

Figure E

PowerPoint 2016 Desktop Version

As with Word and Excel, Microsoft has also created a lighter weight, touch-optimized version of PowerPoint (Figure F).

Figure F

PowerPoint 2016 Touch-Optimized Version

4: OneNote 2016

On the surface it is difficult to tell what, if anything is new in OneNote 2016 (Figure G), beyond the enhancements that exist for all the Office applications. Web searches for OneNote 2016 features have as yet failed to reveal anything significant. I admit that I don’t use OneNote often, so it is entirely possible that new features exist and I simply have not found them.

Figure G

OneNote 2016 Desktop Version

Although the desktop version of OneNote seems to be similar to OneNote 2013, the touch-optimized version (Figure H) has an intuitive interface that’s easy to use. The touch version is more full-featured than the version that was included with Windows Phone 8.1, but it doesn’t contain all the features of the desktop version.

Figure H

OneNote 2016 Touch-Optimized Version

5: Sway

Microsoft PowerPoint has been around in one form or another for what seems like forever. During that time, it has become more refined, but it’s still basically just a slideshow tool. In Microsoft Office 2016, Microsoft is introducing Sway (Figure I) as a next-generation alternative to PowerPoint.

Figure I

Sway (Next Generation Alternative To PowerPoint)

There are two main differences between PowerPoint and Sway. First of all, PowerPoint is linear. A PowerPoint presentation has a first slide and it has a last slide and usually, a number of slides in between. In contrast, Sway is designed to be more organic and allow for more free-form presentations.

The other major difference between PowerPoint and Sway is that Sway is designed for Web content. A Sway presentation can include photos, YouTube videos, and items from Facebook, Twitter, OneDrive, etc. Some have argued that Sway is like OneNote because it aggregates information. However, OneNote is more of an organizational application, while Sway is designed for presentations.

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Pro tip: Sort table data in a Word document

sort word

Microsoft Word

 

Sorting data in a Word document isn’t something you routinely do. On the other hand, presenting list and table data is, so the potential exists that one day you’ll want to sort something. The good news is that it’s easy to sort data in a table or a list. In this article, I’ll show you how to do just that. We’ll work through a few simple sorting examples. You can use most any table, or you can download the example .docx or .doc file.

Behind the scenes

Word relies on paragraphs when sorting, which seems a bit odd within the context of a table (or list). The paragraph formatting mark determines where one paragraph ends and the next starts. As you can see in Figure A, there’s no paragraph mark in a table. The end-of-cell markers denote the end of each cell’s content. The similar marker at the end of each row (outside the right border) is an end-of-row marker. These markers also contain cell and row formatting. When sorting a table, Word relies on the end-of-row marker to identify where one row ends and the next begins, the same way the paragraph mark does. (To see a document’s formatting symbols, click Show/Hide in the Paragraph group on the Home tab.)

Figure A

Table end-of-row markers are similar to paragraph markers.

Sort by the first column

We’ll start with the simplest sort possible; we’ll sort a table by the values in the first column. To do so, select, the table by clicking its move handle (the small square in the top-left corner). If you don’t see this handle, check the view. It’s available only in Print Layout and Web Layout. With the entire table selected, do the following:

  1. Click the contextual Layout tab. In the Data group, click Sort — or click Sort in the Paragraph group on the Home tab. In Word 2003, choose Sort from the Table menu.
  2. The resulting dialog does a good job of anticipating the sort. Notice that the Header Row option (at the bottom) is selected. As a result, the Sort By field is set to Species — the label in the first column’s header (Figure B).
    Figure B

  3. This is exactly what we want, so click OK. Figure C shows the sorted table.
    Figure C

Before we move on, let’s discuss the Type and Using options to the right. We didn’t need to change either, but sometimes you will. The Type options are Text, Number, and Date. Word usually defaults to the appropriate data type. You can force a specific type by choosing a different option other than the one Word assumes (but you’ll rarely have reason to do so). The Using options defaults to Paragraph — we talked about that earlier.

Sort by the second column

That first exercise was easy. Let’s complicate things a bit by sorting by the second column. Fortunately, it’s just as easy as the first. Repeat steps 1 and 2 from the first exercise. Then, do the following:

  1. In the resulting dialog, click the Sort By drop-down.
  2. Choose Common Name, the header label for the second column.
  3. Click OK. Figure D shows the results of sorting by the second column.
    Figure D

That wasn’t any more difficult that the first sort. Tell Word which column contains the values you want to sort by and click OK — that’s it!

Sort by multiple columns

With only two sort tasks under your belt, you’re beginning to see how simple the sorting process in Word can be. Let’s complicate things a bit so you can see how flexible this feature truly is. Let’s sort by the Class column and then sort the bird and mammal groups in a secondary sort. Repeat steps 1 and 2 from the first two exercises. Then, do the following:

  1. To sort by the Class, choose Class from the Sort By drop-down.
  2. To further sort each class group, click Common Name from the Then by drop-down (Figure E). You could add a third column to the sort if the results warranted the additional grouping.
    Figure E

  3. Click OK to see the results shown in Figure F.
    Figure F

What about lists?

You might be wondering how to sort the same data in list form. Word handles the list sort the same way — the exact same way. Highlight the list and click Sort in the Paragraph group on the Home tab. In the resulting dialog, check the header option and set appropriately (if necessary). Then, determine the sort order by choosing the fields (columns), appropriately.Figure G shows the result of sorting the same data in list form.

Figure G

Sort a columnar list the same way you sort a table.

 

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