ity New Details About Office 2013 for Windows RT: Limitations and Availability

If Windows 8 is an x86 operating system hidden behind a Modern UI interface, the ARM version is a completely new software platform for the Windows world, suffering from a number of limitations and whose success depends on the Office 2013 suite of applications.

A rival for platforms like Android, iOS or BlackBerry Tablet OS, Windows RT will provide a working desktop but not in its ability to run applications written by third parties, who will have to settle with a Windows RT development for the Modern UI.

Limited, however, by the lack of software for ARM, Windows RT has the advantage to run the Office 2013 suite in a more optimized environment for productivity than Modern UI. Installed along with other products such as Notepad or Paint, it will be the only application that will run on the Windows RT desktop mode.

Microsoft offered, yesterday, a number of details about the upcoming version of Office 2013 for Windows RT. Compared to the Windows 8 version, it will suffer a number of limitations imposed by the modest hardware resources offered by tablets on which it will run. The only version that will be offered will be Office Home & Student 2013 RT, this would include products like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, and it will be widowed of support for macros or add-ons based on ActiveX. It will also have limited compatibility with PowerPoint formats and the Equation Editor will provide limited support for data models in Excel and it will remove the audio / video in PowerPoint and OneNote.

According to the information provided by Microsoft, Office Home & Student 2013 will be available at the launch RT launch but only in the version for testing, just like the Office 2013 desktop alternative, a free update to full version will be released somewhere between November 2012 – January 2013, depending on the location.