It is slowly approaching five years since the first Microsoft released Office 2011 for Mac in October 2010. Although the final version of Office 2016 for Mac is not ready for now, Microsoft announced a preview program today for Mac users to get a first idea to the company's work. Microsoft has done a good job with the Bureau, bringing it to the iPad, extending Dropbox, and even the acquisition of impressive applications like Desktop Acompli food on iOS and Android. Office 2016 for Mac is the latest result of the focus by Microsoft on multi-platform applications, and finally matching its Windows equivalent.
The first thing I noticed about using Office 2016 for Mac is the user interface. While existing 2011 version looks old in comparison, Microsoft has not given up parts of the aging interface entirely. It looks and feels like a mix of Windows and cool design Office for Mac 2011. "We think we have done a good job of finding a balance that customers expect," said Eric Wilfred, the head of Microsoft office Mac applications, in an interview with The Verge. "Our internal slogan, and we're actually pretty corny to say this in the corridors, is" Unquestionably Bureau and optimized for the Mac. "The result is the familiar ribbon user interface that fits into the theme and OS X features like sandboxing applications, full view, and optimization of the Retina display.
As Office 2013 for Windows, Microsoft integrates its storage cloud services directly into Office 2016 for Mac. This means that Office 365, OneDrive, OneDrive for business, and Sharepoint are all integrated. If you use OneDrive for storing and editing Office documents with an iPad or a Windows laptop, you can access it quickly from the site of recent documents in Office for Mac 2016. Multi-platform strategy of Microsoft's application, powered by the cloud, is a reality, and this is the last piece of the puzzle.Word 2016 for Mac is much like iOS and Windows equivalents and supports Microsoft co-creation to allow multiple people to simultaneously edit a document. Along with co-creation, there are also new threaded comments easier to follow the comments next to the relevant text. Microsoft also added a new navigation pane to flip quickly between pages in Word documents, better dictionary support, and style component to apply styles to an entire document. The vast majority of Word features are what you expect from the existing Office for Mac, but it feels a little more polished with the new look.Excel 2016 for Mac"Excel now has the same Windows keyboard shortcuts"Excel has some major changes. If you are a Windows user that switches between Mac and PC, then you'll be pleased to know that Excel keyboard shortcuts are now compatible with Mac and PC desktop. This means you can use Ctrl + Shift shortcuts instead of cmd + shift. As someone who regularly passes between a Mac and Windows PC, I am very grateful for this change. Of course, you can still use the shortcut cmd if you are used to them. Microsoft also added slicers re-pivot data, printing to PDF, complete a form builder, and AutoComplete improvement.PowerPoint picks for improved presenter, new slide transitions, and an overview of all the activities in a slide deck. The new mode Presenter allows you to see the notes to slides sides, and transitions additional slides give you more ways to keep your audience awake with crazy animations. There is not a huge amount of change to PowerPoint, but like the rest, it corresponds more closely to the Windows version.Office 2016 for Mac will also include Outlook and OneNote, which were both available on Mac in recent months. Although Outlook for iOS is incredible, the Mac equivalent is away for several reasons. There is no selector accounts, resulting in a confusing and frustrating way to add your account at the beginning, and it's surprising that Microsoft has not even optimized the application for its own Outlook.com Service . Otherwise, it's a good combination of email, calendar and contact management for those familiar with Outlook and relies on the exchange daily.Outlook 2016 for MacOverall, in my tests, I noticed that the Office 2016 for Mac does not seem that much faster than Office for Mac 2011. I grew tired of using Office 2011 for Mac because it is simply not fast enough and reliable enough for my needs, and I am disappointed that there has not been a lot of performance improvements nearly five years later. I was hoping for a lighter version of Office for Mac, but there is still hope. "We have focused a lot on the performance in the race to get insight, and we believe we have the point where it is useful to comment," said Wilfred. "We know we're not finished, we still have performance of work to do before general availability. "