Office productivity suite updated with Touch Bar support

Oct 30, 2016 03:51 GMT  ·  By

Apple and Microsoft are most of the time fierce rivals, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t see the potential of each other’s products and work at full speed to support some of their latest tech.

This is what is happening right now with the Touch Bar, a feature that Apple presented earlier this week and which is essentially a touchscreen placed at the top of the new MacBook keyboard that can be configured to perform a wide variety of tasks depending on the app.

Microsoft is one of the first companies to support the Touch Bar, and today the firm has revealed that its Office productivity suite has already been updated to bring Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook on the MacBook keyboard to make it easier to work with documents.

How to use the Touch Bar in Office

In Word, for example, the Touch Bar can be used to access the settings that you typically find in the ribbon, such as styles, text formatting options, and pasting.

PowerPoint comes with similar controls and, thanks to the Touch Bar, it enhances the experience of working with presentations with quick taps on the keyboard.

“Touch Bar commands in PowerPoint allow you to easily manipulate graphic elements. The Reorder Objects button produces a graphical map of all the layers on a slide, making it easy to find the right object and move it where you want it. And by sliding your finger across the Touch Bar you can easily rotate an object to get just the right angle,” Microsoft explains.

In the case of Excel, you get quick access to formulas, such as SUM, COUNTIF, AVERAGE, MAX, and others, while in Outlook the Touch Bar comes with options to start video, mute, share desktop, or hang up a call. Furthermore, calendar appointments are also displayed on the Touch Bar, so you never miss an important event.

All these improvements will be there in Office when the new MacBook with a Touch Bar ships and Microsoft says it’s committed to delivering even more improvements to its productivity suite to benefit from the full potential of this new feature.

Office support for MacBook's Touch Bar (4 Images)

Office support for MacBook's Touch Bar
Office support for MacBook's Touch BarOffice support for MacBook's Touch Bar
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