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I have been installing Microsoft products since the early 80's. Have been a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer since 1997. I have been through thick and thin with Microsoft, but never have I seen a product so ill conceived in my 30 years of being in IT. From installation, to setup, to the ever changing features and functions that drive my clients crazy, Office 2013 has been a perpetual nightmare. The only thing I can thank Microsoft for in this case is that enough people like me in the IT world will howl enough that a competitor will arise and slowly begin removing the stain that is "Office". If you are a small company, let's begin with the purchasing experience. Don't, whatever you do. buy it from Microsoft, and if you have to, don't whatever you do use the download installer. You can expect hours of grief, partial installs, failed installs. Then you will spend hours on the phone if you ever succeed in finishing with the "helpful" activation service, typing literally 108 numbers into your phone and keyboard before you can begin working. During that time you can enjoy reading helpful error messages like. "Something went wrong." (yes I bought your crappy software). With a link which will lead you to any number of pages with helpful hints like reinstall your Office installation. Sure will if it would install to begin with... Once installed, forget about how you used to do things. In order to justify the 3 year upgrades Microsoft wants you to buy, you will have to relearn the interface each time to do the EXACT SAME THINGS that you used to do. Also, did you ever customize your applications, use templates, Macros, VBA scripts, etc. Well count on fixing those, and count on important functions that used to work to no longer perform. Oh, and the bugs that were in the product since Office 2.0, most of them are still there. After all fixing them is less important than confusing their users with a New Improved Design with yet another way to hide functions that took you hours to find when you upgraded last time. Microsoft, and their hoard or trainers can't wait to milk companies training veteran users the new way they have made simple things in previous versions incomprehensibly more difficult. Apparently Microsoft must make money by the click, because functions that used to take one or two mouse clicks now take four or five, and they used to call this class of software "productivity applications". I can go on, but it is pointless. Millions of people are already subjected to this hell. Your best bet is to avoid Office 2013, maybe they will fix it (I have my doubts, it is clear that they barely test this stuff or for that matter, use it) when they get around to fixing the things everyone hates about Windows 8.