MacBook Pro With Touch Bar Update: Word, Excel And PowerPoint Touch Bar Integrations Rolling Out Worldwide

Apple revamped its MacBook laptop series late last year and surprised the tech community with the introduction of a secondary display with dynamic controls. The OLED strip has replaced the function keys and it even brought with it more options and functions for first-party apps and a couple of third-party apps as well. What it did not come with is support for Microsoft Office. The Redmond giant is changing that this week.

On Thursday, Microsoft started rolling out an update to its Microsoft Office for Macs. The update comes with the anticipated Touch Bar integrations for Word, Excel and PowerPoint. This means, users of the 2016 MacBook Pro can henceforth have quick access to the different functions of the Microsoft Office software straight from the dynamic display panel, as reported by Apple Insider.

The integration is expected to be helpful to Microsoft Word users thanks to the new Word Focus mode. This basically removes the onscreen ribbons and commands from the Word interface. The Formatting tools are then shown on the OLED strip. Such new setup would allow users to focus on the work they are typing on the screen.

For Microsoft Excel users, on the other hand, this integration would mean faster outputs. The Touch Bar will display the different formulas they can choose from, making it a lot easier and faster to generate results of computations and whatnot. Aside from the formulas, the different types of charts will also be shown on the secondary screen. TechCrunch also noted that Formatting tools for cell color, borders and others will also be featured on the smaller display.

As for PowerPoint users, creating presentations will become a breeze because the Touch Bar will now show all of the slide layers and the individual elements of the document. When the document is in Slideshow View, the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar will display thumbnails for each slide, a timer to keep track of the speed of the presentation and the different controls of the software.

Microsoft also included Touch Bar integration for Outlook in the new update. Thus, the commonly used commands of Outlook will be shown on the Touch Bar. Moreover, a user composing an email can easily attach documents with just a tap on the OLED strip because a list of recent documents will be shown there.

According to MacRumors, Microsoft announced Touch Bar support for Microsoft Office during Apple’s keynote event for the new MacBooks in October 2016. Back then, the Redmond giant promised that Touch Bar integration for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook will come to Mac users soon. That time has finally arrived this week. The arrival of Touch Bar support for the different Microsoft software comes a week after beta testers got a taste of how this integration would look and feel like.