14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft continues to polish the experience with Office apps on mobile devices, and today, the company announced a new important update for those who run the software on iOS.
More specifically, the software giant released a new feature for insiders that essentially allow the creation of slides in PowerPoint in Portrait mode on both iPhones and iPads.
If you haven’t used PowerPoint on an iPhone, you probably don’t know how big this feature really is. Because of the limited screen estate, using PowerPoint in the landscape mode isn’t necessarily the most straightforward experience, and using the portrait mode comes in a lot handier, especially on devices with larger screens – such as the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
“With a shift towards mobile-first content creation, we have heard from many of you that you prefer to do so in Portrait mode. Based on your feedback, We have added the capability to switch and in and out of Portrait mode when both creating and editing slides!” Microsoft announced earlier this week.
Keep in mind, however, that this new feature is only available for insiders. If you are part of the testing program, you need to be running Office version 2.68 build 22112003 or later on iPhone or iPad.
On the other hand, not everybody is getting the portrait mode on day one. Microsoft uses a phased rollout even as part of the Office Insider program, as the company is therefore capable of collecting feedback with a reduced likelihood of major problems caused by bugs in its software.
“Features are released over some time to ensure things are working smoothly. We highlight features that you may not have because they’re slowly releasing to larger numbers of Insiders. Sometimes we remove elements to further improve them based on your feedback. Though this is rare, we also reserve the option to pull a feature entirely out of the product, even if you, as an Insider, have had the opportunity to try it,” Microsoft explains.