14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has released a new update for Office Insiders testing the Windows desktop build of the productivity suite, but this time there’s only just a single new feature and several other improvements.
With the September 21 release, Office for Windows desktop reaches build 10910.20007, and it introduces support for custom transparency level for photos inserted in documents.
This new option is exclusively available in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook for Windows desktop, but there’s a chance it’ll be soon implemented in other versions of the productivity suite as well.
“We now offer the ability for users to choose how transparent they would like their pictures to be in Office. This feature allows users to show what is behind an image giving greater control when making edits to picture in their Office documents,” Microsoft explains.
New fixes and improvements
There are also several fixes in this release, including for Microsoft Word, which should now offer a smother inking experience thanks to the company resolving a crash issue. In Excel, Microsoft has addressed a problem impacting the IME in modern comment editbox, and an auto recovery glitch that occurred after a session unlock.
PowerPoint users are getting a fix for an issue breaking down external links inserted into presentations when saving files to the cloud.
Keep in mind that these improvements are provided as part of the Insider program, and this means that preview builds may still come with other issues. As Microsoft itself explains:
“Note that we often roll out features (and sometimes even fixes) to Insiders over a period of time. This allows us to ensure that things are working smoothly before releasing the feature to a wider audience.”
If the testing goes well, the public rollout should begin in the coming weeks for users running the production versions of the Office suite.