Office 2013 Features Will Arrive on Windows Phone 8 Too

On Monday, Microsoft unveiled to the world its brand new Office 2013 productivity suite, set to become commercially available sometime in the beginning of the next year.

The application brings along a brand new user interface, along with various features based on cloud connectivity, and new social capabilities.

Designed for use on desktop PCs, as well as on tablets running under the new Windows 8 platform, the application will arrive on Windows Phone 8 handsets as well, though in a completely different form.

In a recent blog post explaining some of the main cloud features of Office 2013, Microsoft also noted that some of these capabilities would be delivered to Windows Phones as well.

One thing that is certain at the moment is that Office 2013 will be connected across devices, so that users could easily access documents wherever they might go.

For example, Word and PowerPoint will remember where you were with reading a document, and will enable you to return exactly to that page.

This feature will be available on all devices where one user has Office installed, including handsets that are powered by Windows Phone 8.

“For example, Word and PowerPoint make it easy to get right back into your work by remembering where you left off in each document or presentation,” John Jendrezak, group program manager in Office, explains.

“So, if you didn’t have time to finish reviewing an important document before you had to leave work, Word will remember what paragraph you were last reading/editing when you open that document on another machine.”

John Jendrezak also notes that “these features extend to your mobile device as well. For example, your Windows Phone will show your recent files for one-touch access while you are on the go.”

Microsoft did not offer further details on what office will include on Windows Phone 8 devices, and even used a Windows Phone 7.5 handset to demo some of the features in the new application, WMPoweruser reports.

Chances are that existing users will get a taste of these enhancements as well on their smartphones as soon as Windows Phone 7.8 arrives, though this is only a supposition for the time being.