Office 2010 or Office 2013?

If that's the case/your experience then either your system is at fault, or you have installed software/utilities that are preventing correct operation of your system, discounting a user issue of course.

Do not under any circumstances choose Office 2013.

I cannot believe Microsoft foisted this rubbish on its customers. I got it pre-installed on a new laptop. Now trying to downgrade to Office 2010 but it seems there is no way to do this.    

You cannot directly "upgrade" from 2013 to 2010. 

If you try to install and activate 2010 on a computer that has an unactivated 2013 trial on it the activation system will get "confused" and tell you the product key is not valid.

You have to Uninstall the 2013 factory installed trial, then install and activate a valid Office 2010 license / product key.

Do not under any circumstances choose Office 2013. It is a complete nightmare. It takes minutes to open or save any document of a reasonable size. Scrolling takes forever. Even making a simple one-line change to a document of 100 plus pages is hellish. I cannot believe Microsoft foisted this rubbish on its customers. I got it pre-installed on a new laptop. Now trying to downgrade to Office 2010 but it seems there is no way to do this.

They are very similar. The most obvious difference is the user interface. The 2013 ribbon has been "dumbed down", it uses fewer colors and shades than earlier versions.

Whether you go 2010 or 2013 really depends on your context. If you are working with others, say in a company, you may want to go with the same version they have. 

2013 comes in "local install" vs 365 install formats:

What is Office 2013 vs 365 - video

http://blogs.office.com/b/office_blog/archive/2013/04/29/office-15-minute-webinar-questions-answered-on-office-365-home-premium.aspx

• 15 minute video

Office 365 and Office 2013 – what’s the difference?

http://office-watch.com/t/n.aspx?a=1851

2013 01 29- Decoding Microsoft Office: Which Office version does what?

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2026552/decoding-microsoft-office-which-office-version-does-what-.html

Office 2103, Office 365, Office for Mac, Office RT, Office for Win phone 8, Office Web Apps, Office on Demand

Subscription price trap

http://office-watch.com/t/n.aspx?a=1835

Even the New York Times falls for Microsoft’s spin on Office 2013/365 prices

Why Microsoft's pushing Office subscriptions

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2029559/why-microsofts-pushing-office-subscriptions.html#tk.nl_pcwbus

http://www.worldstart.com/why-is-software-being-sold-as-a-subscription/ - a generic view on the question, but same answer “MORE MONEY”

How many machines do you want to use your license to install with? 2010 "retail" (one-time purchase price) license allows 2 computers, 2013 allows only 1.  But 2013 / 365 rental license allows you to install on up to 5 (one article I read calculated the "break even point is using it on at least 4 machines).

Office 2013 on sale - Is it Worth Getting?

http://office-watch.com/t/n.aspx?a=1812

2013 01 29 - Microsoft Office 2013: Is it worth the upgrade?

http://www.itpro.co.uk/645322/microsoft-office-2013-is-it-worth-the-upgrade

What’s New in Office 2013 – Your Unofficial Overview

http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/whats-new-in-office-2013-your-unofficial-overview   (password = makeuseof)

27 page PDF

Office 15 reviews 2012 07 16

http://office-watch.com/t/n.aspx?a=1733 – “Overview” review – I like it because it agrees with my biases

http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/16/3156636/office-2013-screenshots-features-preview - good 5 minute video review, plus good review article

http://www.winsupersite.com/article/office-2013-beta2/office-2013-public-preview-screenshot-gallery-143708 = screenshot gallery

http://download.cnet.com/2300-18483_4-10012954.html - screenshot gallery

http://www.winsupersite.com/article/office-2013-beta2/office-2013-public-preview-features-office-143698 New Features in Office

http://news.cnet.com/1606-2_3-50127999.html?tag=nl.e019 – 4 minute youtube by MS showing features

http://www.zdnet.com/a-new-microsoft-office-a-new-microsoft-office-division-7000000978/  Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft execs aren't yet ready to talk Office 15 packaging or pricing specifics. In fact, there are lots of specifics about all the different components of the next Office release that won't be disclosed in full today at the San Francisco Office 15 unveiling. Little will be shared on July 16 about the new Office Marketplace, for example, officials told me, though they will be discussing the Office 15 add-ons codenamed "Agaves," and now known officially as "Office Apps." Microsoft officials are planning to provide more deep-dive details on all the apps and services through August and into the fall, Kapner said.

Microsoft also won't be talking delivery dates today. But my sources -- who were right about the public beta of Office 15 hitting in July -- have said Microsoft's goal remains to release to manufacturing the final Office 15 client, servers and services before the end of calendar 2012, possibly around November.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/259248/microsoft_unveils_office_2013_ready_for_tablets_web.html

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/259260/microsoft_office_2013_preview_first_impressions.html

On the usefulness front, you can now import a PDF directly into Word, edit it as a Word doc, and then save it as either a Word doc or a PDF. Not only do imported files retain all of the original documents' formatting--including headers, columns, and footnotes--but elements such as tables and graphics can be edited in Word as such.

When you're collaborating with other people on a document, being able to track the changes that each person makes is critical. This becomes much easier to do in Word 2013, thanks to a new feature called simple markup view.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/259287/microsoft_word_2013_hands_on.html 

Normally when I fire up Word, it just opens a blank document, but Word 2013 it takes you to a landing page. The page is similar to what you'd see in Word 2010 if you start a new document from a template: In a pane on the right, it hosts various thumbnail images illustrating the different templates; and in a smaller pane on the left, it lets you select from recent Word documents or open other existing files.

Microsoft is pushing users strongly to work with the cloud. Win8 encourages users to log in with a Microsoft ID, as opposed to a local Windows account; the ID connects you to your associated SkyDrive storage, and enables your Microsoft programs to sync settings and information. In Word 2013, you can choose to save files locally--or wherever you want--but SkyDrive is the default storage location.

http://www.infoworld.com/d/microsoft-windows/first-look-microsoft-office-2013-197802

The Status Bar at the bottom of each Office app has been restyled to match the general Metro look of the suite. Not bad, but as is often the case with Microsoft products, some familiar elements have been arbitrarily yanked. The shortcut to Draft mode in Word, for instance, isn't there anymore. This was annoying for me since I use Draft mode constantly with most documents.

When you switch to the File tab and elect to open a document, you're given not only a list of recently opened documents but a list of locations (folders, network paths) where documents were recently opened. For someone like me, who's constantly squirrelling around in the same directories for different files, this is a godsend.

the new Design tab is where all the document-theming controls live now. These used to be jammed into a subset of the Page Layout tab and were consequently hard to find.

One widely touted feature in Word 2013 is the ability to open and edit PDFs -- which amounts to Word having a native filter that converts PDFs to Word documents. It's useful, but limited: The simpler the PDF, the more likely it is to survive the conversion with its formatting intact.

I fed Word a few book-length PDFs just to see what would happen. They were mostly preserved, but certain kinds of formatting elements -- the positions of page breaks, the lengths of lines with tabs, and headers and footers -- were regularly mangled.

In the run-up to Office 2013's preview release, speculation flew fast and far about how much the new Office would be beholden to Win8. Most widely argued was whether or not the suite would be Metro-centric, or at least have certain elements deployed on top of Metro.

Microsoft decided not to go that route, and the reasons seem twofold. One, all signs hint that Win8 is not going to displace the existing market for Win7; instead, the two OSes will sell side by side (shades of Windows XP and Windows Vista). This means making any significant amount of Office functionality Metro-only would be a mistake.

Two, Metro is an environment designed for what others have called "lean-back mode." It's a consumption environment, not a production one.

Instead, Microsoft has given Office 2013 a Metro-style makeover without making it an actual Metro app. The word "Metro" doesn't even appear in the reviewer's guide handed out for testers of the beta. Microsoft also added a few key touch-centric features -- again, just enough to make Office useful on a touch system without forcing people to rely on it.

http://www.winsupersite.com/article/office-2013-beta1/office-2013-public-preview-office-demand-143697  Office 2013 Public Preview: Office On Demand

you can trigger a web-based install of Office 2013 and start using any one of the applications in under two minutes? It sounds incredible, I know. But it’s true.

The key to this engineering feat is a new feature called Office On Demand. It’s really an improved version of the Click-To-Run technologies Microsoft employed in Office 2010, and like Click-To-Run, it uses Microsoft virtualization, “computer within a computer”,  technologies and Internet streaming to blast Office onto your PC at speeds that will leave your head spinning.

http://www.winsupersite.com/article/office-2013-beta2/office-2013-public-preview-screenshot-gallery-143708 = screenshot gallery