Different Office editions explained

After months of previews and development, Office has finally been released by Microsoft, with a variety of editions to suit a range of needs.

The software firm says the release is a reinvention of the company’s flagship Office product line for consumers.

“This is a major leap forward,” said Kurt DelBene, president of the Microsoft Office Division. “People’s needs change rapidly, and Office 365 Home Premium will change with them.”

Home & Student 2013:

Costing $293, Home & Student 2013 covers the core Office applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote1. The program is applicable for one PC only.

Home & Business 2013:

Also applicable to one PC only, Home & Business 2013 costs $425, offering users core Office applications including Outlook - covering email, calendars and tasks etc.

Professional 2013:

At the higher end of the Office programs, Professional 2013 retails at $859, offering the same features as Home & Business 2013, plus the addition of desktop publishing and databases through Microsoft Publisher and Access.

Office 365 Home Premium:

Designed to offer the best value across five devices (PCs and Macs), Office 365 Home Premium has been chiefly promoted by the Microsoft PR team.

Offering everything above, the program also includes Office on Demand, allowing users to stream Office apps to any internet-connected Windows PC and Skype, coming with 60 minutes of calls each month to phones in 40+ countries.

Further Skype benefits include +20GB of storage, to save documents online for easy access and sharing virtually anywhere.

But where Microsoft hopes to be a point of difference in the market, and where it believes it can excel is through the annual subscription, scrapping the set product price of previous years.

Costing $165 per year for one household capable of covering five devices, Microsoft believes Office 365 Home Premium to offer the greatest value, with ongoing product and service upgrades included, ending the traditional three-year cycle of product releases.

Office 365 University:

Following the lead of Office 365 Home Premium, Office 365 University offers the exact same features, with the added incentive of a four-year subscription costing $145 per year.

Designed to cover the length of a university course, the program is available across two PCs or Macs and can be renegotiated depending on the length of a student's course.

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