Avery Brooks / Gadgetstat
Microsoft originally revealed its plans to support Apple’s new Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro back in October, and now it’s rolling out updates to Office for Mac to enable Touch Bar support. While Microsoft began previewing the support earlier this month with beta testers, everyone using Office for Mac can now get the latest updates for the Touch Bar support.
Microsoft is adding Touch Bar support to each Office for Mac app. In Word, Office users will be able to activate Focus Mode to remove the Ribbon for less distractions, alongside the ability to format text and change font styles and options to insert comments, photos, and hyperlinks straight from the Touch Bar. PowerPoint will display a graphical overview of all the slides in a deck, allowing you to reorder slides. Excel has the most useful changes, with the ability to quickly pick recently used functions and color cells or pick out charts.
Microsoft’s work on Touch Bar support for Office on the Mac also includes Outlook and Skype support. Outlook for Mac features a today view to display calendar appointments for the day. The Touch Bar will also list recently used documents when you compose an email in Outlook for Mac, allowing you to quickly attach documents or photos. You’ll be able to activate Skype for Business calls from the Touch Bar, or end / mute calls, and enable video straight from the Touch Bar.
