What Office Home & Student 2013 features are unavailable in Office Home & Student 2013 RT?
Across multiple applications
Macros, Add-Ins, Forms, and Custom Programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
In other versions of Office you or a software developer can use tools such as Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to write and run macros and other custom programs in Office. VBA is not available for the applications in Office Home & Student 2013 RT.
To use macros, add-ins, forms with custom code, or other custom programs in Office documents, you need a version of Office other than Office Home & Student 2013 RT on a computer or tablet not powered by Windows RT. Other versions of Office cannot be installed on Windows RT devices. For example, Office Home & Student 2013 and Office Professional 2013 support these features but cannot be installed on Windows RT devices.
If you already use macros, add-ins, InfoPath forms with custom programs, or other custom programs in your PC or Mac version of Office, you will not be able to use them in Office Home & Student 2013 RT.
Send Email Features (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote)
Your Windows RT tablet does not support Outlook or other desktop email applications such as Mozilla Thunderbird or Opera. Due to this, certain email features available for Office documents in other Office versions are not supported in Office Home & Student 2013 RT:
"Send as … (attachment)" features in the Office Backstage view
Word mail merge features related to email
Sending email links to share slides using the PowerPoint Broadcast Slide Show button on the Slide Show tab
OneNote email share options and email-related options in the Tools/Options menu
Many email-related buttons in the Office Ribbon and Quick Assist Toolbar
Instead, you can open your Windows RT email app or use another email app that may be available from the Windows Store, manually create an email message and attach your document to it.
SkyDrive Sync Integration (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
Office Home & Student 2013 RT does not support automatic synchronization between personal SkyDrive documents and your local disk. Instead, you can access SkyDrive through the Office Backstage view and use the Open or Save commands to open or save your documents.
Equation Editor 3.0 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
Office Home & Student 2013 RT does not support editing equations written with Equation Editor, which was used in older versions of Office. You’ll still be able to view equations written with Equation Editor, but you cannot edit them. An improved feature to make it easier to write and edit equations was introduced in Office 2007 and is included in Office Home & Student 2013 RT. You can find it in the Insert toolbar under Symbols.
Lync File Download
Microsoft Lync is not included on Windows RT devices. As a result the “Allow Lync File Download” command is disabled and files/attachments from Lync meetings cannot be downloaded into OneNote. To use the Lync File Download feature, you need Office 365 Small Business Premium, a version of Office that includes the Lync application on a computer or tablet not powered by Windows RT. Other versions of Office cannot be installed on Windows RT devices.
Word only
Grammar checking for certain language versions of Office
The grammar checking /style checking feature in Word 2013 RT is available for the following languages only: English, French, German, Spanish, Arabic, Danish, Italian, Norwegian Bokmal, Portuguese – Brazilian, Russian, Japanese, Chinese – Simplified, Chinese –Traditional and Korean. Spell checking and other proofing components are available for more languages.
Grammar / style checkers for some of these languages were not ready in time for the preview edition, but will be included in the final edition of Word 2013 RT.
Excel only
Data Models
Excel 2013 RT does not support creating a Data Model. You can create traditional PivotTables, QueryTables and Pivot Charts. To create a Data Model, use a version of Office other than Office Home & Student 2013 RT on a computer or tablet not powered by Windows RT. Other versions of Office cannot be installed on Windows RT devices. For example, Office Home & Student 2013 and Office Professional 2013 support this feature but cannot be installed on Windows RT devices.
PowerPoint only
Slide Library ActiveX Control
PowerPoint 2013 RT does not support the SharePoint Slide Library toolbar for slide library related actions (insert/upload/etc.) Instead, you can use the Slide Reuse pane, which you can find at Home Tab -> New Slide -> Reuse Slides.
Legacy Media Formats in PowerPoint
PowerPoint 2013 RT does not support certain legacy media formats. These older formats will not play, transcode, compress, or be included when exporting a presentation to video. It is likely that other applications on Windows RT devices will be unable to support these legacy media formats.
Instead of using legacy media formats, you should use modern media formats such as H.264 and Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), which PowerPoint 2013 RT supports. You can convert to modern media formats through the Optimize for Compatibility feature found in the Backstage view of PowerPoint 2010 or non-RT versions of
PowerPoint 2013.
PowerPoint Flash Video Playback
In PowerPoint 2013 RT you will not be able to insert or play back videos from online sites that use video designed for the Adobe Flash Player.
Recording Narrations
You will not be able to use the Record Narrations feature in PowerPoint 2013 RT.
OneNote only
Audio and video recording
Recording audio/video notes from inside OneNote 2013 RT is not supported. Instead, you can record audio or video with other software, then insert it through Insert → File to add onto the OneNote page.
Import through scanner
Importing a printed document or picture into OneNote 2013 RT through an attached scanner is not supported. Instead, you can scan images through another program (for example, the default scanning app in Windows RT or another scanning app you download from the Windows Store), then import the images into OneNote.
Audio & video search
Searching for words appearing in an embedded audio or video file is not supported in OneNote 2013 RT.
