Microsoft Office 2013 SP1 Pro + Visio + Project + 15.0.4737.1001 July 2015

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Last updated 10/6/2015: Microsoft's next iteration of Office will be known as Office 2016 and its development is well underway. Both Mac and Windows users are able to download the preview version for a quick spin with Microsoft committing to updating it fairly regularly. While no dates have been set for a launch, expect it to be launched within days of Windows 10 (whose launch date has been set for 29/7).

Note that there will be three different versions of office: the traditional, client one, one optimised for touch and one for mobile devices. Also, you won't be able to use Office 2016 and Office 2013 concurrently. You can check our Office 2016 preview here as well as a handy 50-tips guide.

Buy Microsoft Office 365 Home Premium 32-Bit/x64 (English) Subscribe 1 Year Eurozone Medialess at Gameseek for £75.62

Since this article was last updated (October 2014), Microsoft has issued more than one hundred updates for the various components of Office 2013. Learn more about those updates - including some security-related ones - here. June however saw a whopper one with more than 50 updates (yes 50) in one release cycle, albeit for all the various Office SKUs. The original review is below.

Office 2013 is the latest refresh of Microsoft's near ubiquitous business suite. The latest version sees it get the Windows 8 treatment, with a touch-friendly interface and a sparser look, as well as new features in every application.

As part of the launch, Office has also reached a new landmark by going into the cloud with subscription pricing, on-demand installation and automatic syncing of settings and documents you save online rather than offline. It's called Office 365.

That particular method of purchase ensures you're always up-to-date, even if the software changes - check out our Office 365 review.

While the main thing you'll notice with Office 2013 the new look, there are some really interesting features under the hood - though sadly not for Windows XP users, who are now excluded. Office 2013 is strictly for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users.

As usual, there are multiple versions of Office 2013, but this time around the different editions are not just about whether you're using them at home or in a business or which applications are included.

Although Office 365 Home Premium might also sound like a great deal for a small business, it's not licensed for commercial use (Like the Windows RT versions of Office 2013) unless you already have an Office business licence. Instead, you need one of the Office 365 business subscriptions.

These include the new Office 2013 versions of Exchange, SharePoint and Lync Online, which are already available to run on your own servers. It's taking some time for Microsoft to upgrade Office 365 to run these new server versions, which explains the later availability (there are a number of issues in SharePoint the Office 365 team is working on). We've tried these out with the Office 2013 applications (and we looked at SharePoint Online 2013 in more detail here).

If you're looking for five or more copies of Office 2013 and you don't want the Office 365 services at all, you can buy Office Standard 2013 (with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook with Business Contact Manager, Publisher, the Office Web Apps and limited Lync, SharePoint and rights management services) or Office Professional Plus 2013 (with the full range of desktop Office programs and server features) through volume licensing.

We've already looked at the final (RTM) version of the Office 2013 applications. Now we've been able to try out the Office 365 Home Premium service with the new Office.com site, where you can download some of the new Office apps (although the apps for Outlook won't work until you have Exchange 2013).
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