Microsoft Office gets a new look on the iPhone

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft has updated its Office apps for the iPhone. There's a new contextual command bar and ribbon layout in the iPhone versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. This command bar is accessible from the bottom of the screen or the top of the keyboard when typing. It's now more in line with Microsoft's "Fluent" design" featuring more rounded corners and a slightly-tweaked layout.

As before, the menu has most of the settings you'd find in the ribbon bar on the desktop apps. The switcher also now features a rounded button and some of the horizontal dividers have been taken out. You can swipe up on the menu to make it larger, which will come in handy on the smaller screens of iPhones. These changes come as Microsoft plans to rebrand the mobile Office app to Microsoft 365, complete with a new logo.

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Microsoft Office for iPad to get iPad trackpad, mouse support

Microsoft will make it easier to use Office for iPad by adding iPadOS trackpad and mouse support. This feature will be coming to the unified Office for iPad in the fall. But it might make its way sooner than that. Or at least we're hoping it does. Microsoft is quick to introduce new features to its iOS apps, so we wouldn't be surprised to get this sooner instead of later. And the touchpad support is expected to come to individual Word, Excel, PowerPoint apps, too.

Source: The Verge

Microsoft now has a unified Office app on Android

Microsoft promised, and now it delivered—at least for some users and with a few caveats. Following months of beta tests, there's now a unified Office mobile app showing up for some users on Android. This all-in-one productivity suite will let you edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files within that single app. It'll also allow you to go through OneDrive files, look for real-world documents with Office Lens, and read QR codes. However, the app isn't optimized for tablets or Chromebooks yet. It's not even usable in landscape mode, either. And if you're looking for an iOS equivalent, Microsoft hasn't discussed its plans for the platform yet.

Source: Engadget

Microsoft gets rid of the ‘Online’ name for its Office web apps

You no longer have to call apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint with the “Online” branding if you’re using the web apps. The company plans to drop this for its Office Online suite of apps. It does make sense to just drop the Online name, since using it through the web basically means you are online. However, this might cause some confusion when Microsoft tries to differentiate the web version from its desktop and mobile apps. Microsoft said it’ll just call them “Office for the web” to clarify things, which if you think about it is what the Online name did for them anyway. That said, other Microsoft products will still hang on to the Online descriptor. These include Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Project Online, and Office Online Server.

Source: Engadget