14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has just released a preview version of Office Touch for Windows 10, a new flavor of its productivity suite that’s specifically designed to run on devices with touchscreens.
Presented by Joe Belfiore at the Windows 10 event on January 21 at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, the new Office Touch is specifically designed to run on Windows 10, so in case you haven’t installed the Technical Preview until now, you won’t be able to get this new productivity suite.
All apps, namely Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, are available through the new Store Beta that’s included in Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9926, so yes, you need to update your TP version to receive this new release as well.
Coming on phone and tablets in the next weeks
With today’s release, Microsoft finally provides users of Windows 10 with a version of Office that was already available on rival platforms, including Android and iOS, so it’s easy to figure out how important this new version of the software solution actually is.
Office Touch brings the power of Office right in the Modern UI of Windows 10 and is specifically designed to be used with touch, so you’ll find big buttons, large icons, and options that could be easily accessed by simply tapping them.
A mouse is not required, but you might be disappointed to hear that some features are missing from the three apps, so the touch version isn’t as powerful as the desktop sibling. Obviously, it takes time and lots of development work to bring the desktop Office in the Modern UI, so Microsoft has promised to further improve all these apps in the coming months.
Currently in preview form, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Touch will all debut together with Windows 10 later this year. Microsoft says that they will be preinstalled on all new tablets and phones that come with Windows 10, while the other devices can get it from the store.
And yet, it’s pretty clear that they weren’t created to be used on a PC, despite the fact that Windows 10 can now run Metro apps in window mode. Still, if you want to give them a shot on your Windows 10 TP build 9926 computer, use the download links below to get them right away.
Download Word Touch for Windows 10 Download Excel Touch for Windows 10 Download PowerPoint Touch for Windows 10
