Microsoft finally launched the consumer versions of Office 365 and Office 2013 this week. But, you ask, is it really worth the cost? In many cases, the answer is — surprisingly — yes.

The way most of us have used Microsoft Office over the years has stayed the same, but the software suite is changing radically, with a hard emphasis on getting consumers to subscribe. Trying to adapt to increasingly mobile consumers, Microsoft wants you to have Office everywhere you go and wants you connected to the cloud.

Microsoft’s answer to this problem is Office 365, which is a subscription version of the new Office 2013 software. Office 365 gives you subscription access to the software, and you can use it from a number of devices (up to five devices for the one-year, $100 consumer subscription; or two devices for the four-year, $80 student edition — see details below). It adds a couple of cloud-based and instant-messaging features. But otherwise, its components are the same as those of Office 2013, which is a more traditional software package ($140 and up for a permanent license that you can install on a single PC).

I’ve tested Office 2013 and the new Office 365 on a Windows 8 tablet and a Windows 7 PC, and it’s a clear evolution of the software. It addresses mobility, the multidevice lifestyle many professionals live, and connections to the cloud much better than the 2010 version of Office and the previous Office 365.

Still, you ask, why the hell should I subscribe to something when I can just pay once and be done with it? Bear with us for a minute as I explain.

Pricing and programs

First up, let’s talk about the cost and what programs you actually get with each Office option that’s being offered as of this week.

Here’s the breakdown of what you can get:

• Office 365 Home Premium: $99 per year — five devices — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access
• Office 365 University: $80 for 4 years — two devices — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access
• Office 2013 Home & Student: $140 — one device — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote
• Office 2013 Home & Business: $220 — one device — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook
• Office 2013 Pro: — $400 — one device — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, Access

With that out of the way, I can dig into why you might be better off by subscribing to 365 rather than buying a single copy of Office 2013.

New features in Office 2013

Since Office 365 is essentially subscribing for access to all of Office 2013′s programs and some bonuses, let’s talk about what’s new in 2013.

First, the suite’s polish emphasizes clean design, large fonts, and thinking of what you need before you need it. The ribbon interface first introduced in Office 2007 is still around, but it now has larger text and a way to easily minimize the ribbon if you want it hidden.

Handy features in here firmly enhance the experiences of each app. One feature that helps you through each app is a new start screen that pops up when you start Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other suite programs that shows popular template options. One feature that helps in PowerPoint is the new Presenter View, which previews slides and other info on your PC’s screen while giving a presentation. In Excel, an awesome feature called Flash Fill auto-predicts the info you’re typing in cells. And in Outlook, Peeks lets you hover to view your calendar without actually leaving the inbox.

Office 2013 is also designed to better work with touchscreens, and some elements are larger to account for tapping instead of clicking. However, between touchscreen use and using a traditional mouse-and-keyboard, I would much rather control it the traditional way. Maybe my fingers are too large, but it was often frustrating to tap the right options I wanted. Microsoft needs to work with some talented interface designers to make a completely touch-focused of this software.

Office Apps are another new aspect of Office 2013. You can install these apps to add new functionality and third-party interaction to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or more. Take a look at some of the apps you can install below.

Reasons to subscribe to Office 365 Home Premium

Here are several reasons why I think Office 365 is a good deal for $100 a year:

Multiple devices: It works on five devices, including PCs running Windows 7 and 8 and Macs running OS X 10.5.8 or later. For those of you, like me, who have multiple devices and don’t want to buy a copy for each, this is a great solution. Imagine if you have a desktop and laptop and need Outlook. Two copies of Office 2013 Home & Business will cost you $440 up front. I’d much rather pay $100 a year in that circumstance.

Office on Demand: Office on Demand is a feature that enables you to use Office on a Windows 7 or 8 PC that is not one of your five installs. For example, if you are at a friend’s house or a satellite office, you still have access to Office. Once you sign in to your Microsoft account on Office.com, Microsoft streams a copy of Office from the cloud down to that computer and you can save your work to the cloud. When you are finished with your Office on Demand session, the copy disappears and removes all traces you were there.

Cloud connectivity: Office 365 is super-connected to the cloud. When you save a document in Word or Excel, it saves simultaneously to SkyDrive and to the computer’s hard drive. That way, no matter where you access a document, you have the latest version of it on hand. Office 365 subscribers also get 60 free Skype minutes per month and a boost in SkyDrive storage from 7GB to 20GB.

Updates: While a standard copy of Office 2013 will get security updates, the software in Office 365 will continually be updated with many more features.

Students get a killer deal: Office 365 University is a fantastic value for students at $80 for four years. You only get two device installs, but Office on Demand means you can use it on many other PCs. (Like the university computer lab.) Microsoft says it will let students renew the deal a single time, which helps if they need extra time to get their degree or go to grad school.

Using Office 365

In several days of using Office 365, I’ve rather come to like it, although I experienced a few hang-ups. Installation was not hard and only took a few minutes on my Windows 7 desktop PC over a wired connection. While it was still finishing the installation of the programs, Office immediately let me use the majority of those programs if I was seriously impatient.

Using Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and the other programs was reminiscent of using older versions with thoughtful additions. As noted above, the new features in Office 2013 are handy, and after using certain tools, it would be hard to go back. After using Form Fill in Excel, I can’t imagine ever trying to do serious spreadsheet work in something other than Excel. I don’t use spreadsheets often, but I’m sure those that do will love Excel 2013. If you’re a someone who gives a lot of presentations as part of your job, you’ll likely get a kick out of PowerPoint 2013 because it offers more features and the Presenter View is smart.

I tested Office on Demand on a Samsung ATIV PC running Windows 8. It actually didn’t work as well as I wanted because my wireless Internet connection often wasn’t fast enough to download and stream the programs. After waiting for several minutes for Word on Demand to open up, it finally started letting me write a document. While I was writing the doc, it would sometimes become unresponsive while it was loading data. When I had a strong Internet conneciton, the service was more responsive and was easier to use.

Overall, Office 365 works smoothly and mostly as advertised. Once small businesses can get in on the action (more on that in a bit), it could be a compelling option for them if they aren’t already aboard the Google Apps train.

Reasons to skip Office 365

While we think Office 365 is generally a good deal for those who need powerful productivity software, I have some good reasons for you to skip it.

First, if your needs for productivity software are extremely simple, you have no reason to invest this much money in Office. You can easily use Google Docs or OpenOffice for free and get basic document, spreadsheet, and presentation editing. But if you want the most features and versatility, Office programs like Excel and PowerPoint are much more powerful.

Second, being tied to a subscription service could make some folks nervous. What if your subscription expires? Will your data and programs disappear? As ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley points out, Microsoft will notify you that your subscription has not been renewed and will permit the download of any documents in the cloud to your hard drive. The Office programs themselves will enter a “read-only reduced functionality mode,” so you won’t be able to fully use them like you once did until your renew.

Another reason to skip? You truly only need a single copy of Office and don’t want to be on the hook for subscription costs. Let’s say you have just one home PC and you only need Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote for your productivity needs. It would be better to purchase a single copy of Office 2013 Home & Student for $140, and you’ll have it for life.

Finally, if you already have a copy of Office 2010, you probably don’t need to jump on the Office 365 bandwagon just yet. However, give it a few more years and you might want to get in. Those who have Office 2007 or before actually should consider the upgrade since there have been so many improvements since that release.

What’s next on the Office front

Microsoft plans to announce pricing and details for Office 365 for small businesses on Feb. 27. The company hasn’t explained how it will differ from Office 365 Home Premium yet, but we suspect it will offer various group editing and collaboration features in the cloud.

We also expect Microsoft is hard at work on full-fledged touch-based applications for iOS, Android, and Windows 8/RT platforms. Microsoft has routinely denied that native iOS and Android apps for Office are coming, but leaks and rumors suggest otherwise. We will see.

Wrap-up

Office 365 is the right move for Microsoft and shows a willingness to give a lot in order to attract subscribers. For $99 a year, you get access a constantly updated version of Office that accounts for having multiple computers and the chance you’ll need to use Office on a PC that isn’t yours. We think a lot of consumers and business folks will dig it.

Check out more images of Office 365 and Office 2013 below:

After teasing its launch for many months, Microsoft has finally released several consumer-focused versions of Office 365 and Office 2013 to 162 markets.

After Windows, Office is arguably Microsoft’s most important product and helps the company make a lot of cash. Office programs such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook are staples around the world for productivity, and while compelling alternatives do exist, these apps are still the standard for how we get work done.

But times have changed since Office debuted in 1990, and Microsoft is trying to adapt to how we work now. We’re much more mobile, we have more devices, and we’re more likely to subscribe to software at a reasonable price than pay a ton upfront. (Adobe has noticed these trends too.)

So Microsoft is offering different plans for the newest version of Office and trying to coax consumers and students with a relatively decent subscription deal. Or you can get into Office “the old way” and buy a single copy for a single PC.

Here are the details on how Microsoft is now offering up Office 365 and Office 2013.

Office 365

Office 365 Home Premium — $99/year — 5 devices

Programs: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access

Microsoft is prioritizing Office 365 Home Premium as its top offering for consumers. With it, you can install a copy of the software on five different devices, including PCs and Macs. The software ties itself to one Microsoft account and lets you use that account to manage it in the cloud.

Office 365 Home Premium is cloud-connected in several ways. For example, when you save a document in Word or Excel, it saves simultaneously to SkyDrive and to the computer’s hard drive. That way, no matter where you access a document, you have the latest version of it. Office 365 subscribers also get 60 free Skype minutes per month and get a boost in SkyDrive storage from 7GB to 20GB.

Additionally, subscribing to Office 365 gets you an ingenious feature — Office on Demand. Essentially, whenever you are on a Windows 7 or 8 PC that is not one of your five installs (let’s say you’re at a friend’s house or a satellite office), you will still have access to Office. Microsoft actually streams a copy of Office from the cloud down to that computer and you can save your work to the cloud. When you are finished with your Office on Demand session, the copy disappears and removes all traces you were there. (We wish this worked on Macs too, but hey, can’t win ‘em all.)

“We want to drive the most demand for this,” Jevon Fark, senior marketing manager at Microsoft told VentureBeat. “This is easily the most ambitious version we’ve ever offered in the 25-year history of Office.”

Office 365 University — $80 for 4 years — 2 devices

Programs: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access

The company will also offer a version of Office 365 aimed squarely at college students. It is basically the same offering as Office 365 Home Premium, but it comes at a better overall price and only lets you install the software twice. You’ll also get the convenience of Office on Demand, which could come seriously in handy in university computer labs, which may not have the latest version of Office installed.

Frankly, Office 365 University looks like a killer deal. Microsoft says it will let students re-up on the $80-for-four-years offer a single time, which helps if they need extra time to get their Bachelor’s degree or go to grad school.

Office 2013

If you’d rather pay a large amount upfront and not have to subscribe to get your software, Microsoft also is offering Office 2013 Home Premium in three other versions. Think of these versions as a more traditional approach to Office. If you just want a single copy that can only be installed on one PC, this is your software.

Keep in mind, Office 2013 is not as cloud-connected as Office 365. You don’t get Office on Demand and your documents don’t save simultaneously to SkyDrive and your hard drive. You can, however, save your documents just to SkyDrive if you want.

Office 2013 Home & Student — $140

Programs: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote

Office 2013 Home & Student will be the overall least expensive offering in the new Office family because you get the most basic Office programs and simply pay $140 for the life of the product. It offers the bare bones package though.

Office 2013 Home & Business — $220

Programs: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook

Small businesses that want to approach Office from a more traditional perspective of buying a licence or two for those who need a new copy might want this version. Office 2013 Home & Business is targeted at smaller companies rather than medium-sized companies and enterprises.

Office 2013 Pro — $400

Programs: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, Access

If you’re a serious Office aficionado and need the full suite of Microsoft tools, Pro is your version. Unless, of course, you’d rather have the same programs and get extra goodies by subscribing to Office 365. Chew on this: Pro costs $400 and only lets you install on one device, while 365 Home Premium lets you install on five devices with more cloud features. If you use Office 2013 Pro for four years, only then do you make up your investment when you could have paid the same for four years of Office 365.

Interestingly enough, Microsoft isn’t shy to admit that paying $400 for Pro isn’t a good deal. “My understanding is that we don’t want people to buy Pro for $400 — we want people to subscribe to 365,” Fark told us.

How it runs

The final copy of Office 365 Home Premium runs quite similar to what we saw previously when testing Office 2013. This is the Office you’ve known (and maybe liked) for years, but it has a more compelling design and more features. One feature that really stuck out was PowerPoint’s new Presenter View, which lets you preview slides and other info on your PC’s screen while giving a presentation. (You can partially see Presenter View in the top photo.) Another feature is a new start screen that pops up when you start Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more that shows popular template options.

What makes the latest version of Office a bit different besides the cloud-connected features is that it’s also built with touch in mind. Microsoft wants you to use this software on its Windows 8 tablets like Surface as well as Windows 7 and 8 PCs. You can change the settings that optimize icons and options for touch. But exclusively using touch can be a recipe for frustration — I found it challenging to input lots of numbers or prepare a presentation. I’d much rather use these programs with a mouse and keyboard.

More business support coming

Next up, Microsoft will launch the latest version of Office 365 for businesses on Feb. 27. The company hasn’t divulged details on how it will differ from Office 365 Home Premium yet, but we suspect it will offer various group editing and collaboration features in the cloud. When we find out, we’ll let you know.

Check out more views of the new Office 365 and Office 2013 in the slides below.

After numerous rumors and leaks, Microsoft has finally unveiled Office 2013, a versatile version of the well-known suite that tentatively embraces the future.

I was able to get my hands on the software running on a Samsung-made Windows 8 tablet a few days ago and have been tinkering with it since. In many ways, Office 2013 reminds me of Windows 8, Microsoft’s upcoming OS that stresses versatility and works decently well whether you use it on a desktop, laptop, or tablet. Microsoft, sensing that Windows 8 won’t be a big hit initially (or at all) with enterprise, has mostly decided to keep the 2013 apps as regular desktop apps instead making them Metro apps. That way, the apps will behave more like previous versions of Office and make for easier multitasking on desktops.

All of the programs you’ve known for years — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and more — have been redesigned with an eye toward a fresh and modern look. While Office 2013 retains many elements we know from previous versions of the software, it has also been given a touch-focused infusion so people using Windows 8 on tablets can use it. The familiar ribbon interface that was introduced in Office 2007 is still around but has larger text and a way to easily minimize the ribbon if you want it hidden. (That can save screen space on your tablet.)

Many of the ways the apps have been tweaked make the life of the user easier. One big change is the inclusion of a helpful start screen (see above) that pops up when you start Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more that shows popular template options to start a new document. Another is the constant connection to the cloud via Office 365 and Microsoft SkyDrive cloud storage. Ideally, whenever you are connected to the Web, Microsoft’s apps will be connected to your entire organization and a personal account that can be accessed no matter what device you’re using. Files are saved by default to your SkyDrive account for access anywhere, but you can save files locally, too.

After using many of the programs on a tablet, I can safely say that I’d much rather use these programs with a mouse and keyboard than relying on my hands. Using Word for typing a document was fine, but for almost any other program that needs constant formatting changes — Excel, PowerPoint, etc. — using touch can be tough and frustrating. Inputting a ton of numbers into Excel was especially agitating. The icons at the top of the screen that make up the “Quick Access Toolbar”, such as New, Open, Save, Undo, or Redo, are awfully small and difficult to tap with large fingers.

But using the software with a keyboard and mouse was a different story. With a mouse and keyboard setup either on a desktop or connected to a tablet (as you can see in the photo above), the software works quite well. Everything I did was responsive and snappy. The design is clean and the ribbon interface works just as a well as it does in Office 2010.

If I was managing a large enterprise that uses 2010, I’m not sure 2013 would be enough to convince me to upgrade. However, if your company is still using 2003 or 2007, Office 2013 could be a worthy step up that will help get your company ready for tablet and hybrid computing. The software will be especially relevant to companies considering adopting Windows 8 for tablets.

Office 2013 only works for Windows 7 or Windows 8, so if you’re still using XP or Vista, you’re out of luck. Microsoft has not yet disclosed pricing or expected availability for Office 2013, but if it reveals that information at its Office event today in San Francisco, we will update this post.

Check out the slides below to see more screens of Office 2013.

Microsoft has finally announced Office 2013, a modern, touch-friendly, and cloud-connected version of its widely used productivity suite.

The next 12 months will bring major changes for Microsoft, which will release a new version of Office, its Windows 8 operating system, Windows Phone 8 for smartphones, Xbox 360′s ambitious SmartGlass software, an updated Windows Azure with IaaS support that will take on Amazon Web Services, and more. But today is all about Office 2013.

And Office 2013 is all about the cloud. “Your modern office thinks cloud first,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said at a press conference in San Francisco today. “We use cloud to help you remember what you were doing and where you were.”

“We are transitioning the office business as a cloud business,” added Kirk Koenigsbauer, Microsoft’s corporate vice president, who took the stage shortly after Ballmer.

The modern office also includes increased support for Windows 8 and integration with social enterprise networking systems like Yammer, which Microsoft acquired this June. “Yammer will accelerate our position in the social networking space,” Koenigsbauer said of the $1.2 billion acquisition.

All of the programs you’ve known for years — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more — have been reimagined by Microsoft in a way to move the software forward without changing it enough to be alienating. It will work across desktops, laptops, tablets, and phones; like Windows 8, it is trying to be more versatile in how it can be used than ever before.

Koenigsbauer announced an update to Microsoft SharePoint to include more social and collaborative features, such as contact information aggregated from your social feeds and recommendations of documents to read and share based on your interests. For the first time, a Skype service will be integrated into Office to start video calls in seconds.

Microsoft claims that the new version of Office was made with Windows 8 in mind, but most of the new apps are disappointingly not built with the company’s full-screen Metro design. Only OneNote and Lync have been built as Metro-style apps, while all of the other apps are meant to be used on the standard Windows desktop. However, all of the apps have been built with touch in mind, so the programs can work well with tablets running Windows 8, such as Microsoft’s Surface.

One of the more notable changes is that many apps, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, have a handy start screen that shows popular template options. Another big change is the ability to save documents directly to your SkyDrive folder in the cloud as a default — that way your docs are stored in the cloud and accessible across several devices tied to SkyDrive. It’s also cloud-connected with features from Office 365.

SkyDrive is fundamental to the new release as it’s where Microsoft will be storing all your documents (photos, videos, images and more) in the cloud.

Check out our full hands-on impression of Office 2013 to get a better idea of more software changes.

Microsoft has not revealed when it will be releasing this new version of Office, but we expect it to be ready to go for the release of Windows 8 in late October. Pricing details for Office 2013 were also not disclosed.

Christina Farr contributed additional reporting to this story.

Take a look at the slides below for more looks at Office 2013:

SlideRocket allows users to create slideshows in which viewers can post comments and answer polls in real time, turning a stale presentation format into a collaborative meeting tool. Presentation authors can invite people to attend presentation-centered meetings remotely through the Web as well as in person.

SlideRocket’s launch comes at a time when business collaboration programs have become increasingly important, but more fragmented.

Of course, remote Web meetings are a commodity feature available through Cisco’s WebEx and Citrix’s GoToMeeting. But those are largely used today to present conventional PowerPoint slides: The presentations take place over the Web, but they don’t otherwise make use of the medium.

SlideRocket users can pull live data from the Web like Google Docs and Spreadsheets for their presentations, so when the documents are updated the presentations are, too. Users can embed video and Twitter streams and other forms of media through the SlideRocket interface with plugins for YouTube, Flickr and other sites. SlideRocket offers tools for third-party application developers to create new ways to integrate content in SlideRocket presentations.

SlideRocket also has a marketplace with stock photos, video and sounds to help users spruce up their presentations — for which SlideRocket takes a small cut of the revenue.

Presentation authors can get some feedback as to how long users spent on slides and the responses to various polls and what kind of comments users left on slides. Premium users have access to a dashboard that presents analytics on viewer feedback to help presentation authors tailor their slideshows to their audience. The subscription service costs $24 per user per month to have access to analytics. SlideRocket also has a free version that gives users access to all the presentation tools.

The San Francisco, Calif.-based company was founded in 2006 and has raised about $7 million from a seed round and its first round of funding. Dietrich said more than 100,000 companies use SlideRocket, including a number of the largest companies in the world on the Fortune 100 list — though he wouldn’t specify which companies.

Here’s a screenshot of SlideRocket in action:

What do you think? Does PowerPoint need a reboot? Leave your thoughts on the ideal presentation tool in the comments.

A survey of early testers found that the typical Liaise user sends and receives more than 100 emails per day, and that more than 75 percent of those emails either assign a task or offer an update on that task. If that information is left in an email, it’s easy to forget.

Liaise, which works as a plugin for Microsoft Outlook, pulls that information out, turning a sentence like “Anthony, please send me the report by Wednesday” into a task assigned by and to a specific person with a due date and a priority level. Those details are determined by Liaise’s language processing technology, but users can tweak the tasks themselves if they’re not quite right. Liaise also integrates with Outlook’s calendar, so users can be reminded as deadlines approach.

Another startup called Producteev says it can help turn emails into tasks. Its approach involves less automated task generation, but it is appealingly simple.

Liaise first announced its product at the DEMO conference co-produced by VentureBeat last year, where won the Best Enterprise award. It then opened to the public in December, but the product was still in testing, and the company wasn’t charging any of its users. That’s changing today, as Liaise unveils its subscription plan. The plugin now costs $50 per user per year, after a 30-day trial period.

If you’re an Outlook owner and want to try Liaise for yourself, the company is offering a free one-year subscription to VentureBeat readers who sign up here.

Co-founder and chief liaison Sidney Minassian told me the company has also added some features for this new version. There’s a new dashboard for managing individual and team tasks. There’s also a new feature called Liaise Lists, which moves the product beyond email — now it can capture action items from freeform notes, such as meeting minutes.

I really like the concept, so as a Gmail user it’s a drag that the Liaise Manager only works with Outlook. However, from the company’s perspective the Outlook user base is a big enough audience to start with. In terms of moving to new platforms, Minassian said the company’s main interest is in developing applications for smartphones.

Liaise has raised funding from Southern Cross Venture Partners and is also a participant in Microsoft’s BizSpark One program for startups. It’s preparing to raise a new round of funding.

[top image via Flickr/Jim Epler]