Office 2013 for one
For individuals looking to buy stand-alone software, the choices start at around $169 for Office Home and Student 2013, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. For around $259 Microsoft adds Outlook to the Office Home and Business 2013 suite. The Office Professional 2013 suite adds Publisher and Access, and costs $599. Office 2013 integrates with SkyDrive for online file storage, but not editing. Stand-alone packages include a single-user license for installation on one PC plus six months of download and installation support. Editing Office documents stored in SkyDrive requires the Office Web Apps browser add-on, which also helps facilitate sharing by emailing or posting links on social sites.
For university students, Microsoft makes an offer too good to refuse. For the cash-strapped collegiate crowd, there's Office 365 University, a four-year subscription to all the Office modules installable on two PCs or Macs (with Office for Mac 2011) plus certain Windows Phone devices, for $79.