Microsoft Adds Office Shortcut, Emoji Key To New Keyboard

Microsoft’s new keyboards have been confirmed to come with two new keys. Users can now immediately bring up available Microsoft Office apps and even the whole emoji list with a press of a button. So far, these features are great for pushing out a new feature for keyboards.

The company’s next ergonomic and bluetooth keyboard will be the first to have this button among its keyboard line. The right Windows key will now be replaced with the Office button which brings up the Office app suite for its user.

This key could easily access Word, Powerpoint, Excel and other Microsoft Office apps with a simple push of a button. New shortcut commands like Office Key and W boot up Microsoft Word.

Other than the Office key, the emoji Key can also be found in this keyboard. While the emojis cannot be key binded with this new keyboard, the emoji key could bring up the list of available emojis on the system.

The new design for the keyboards are meant for the rise for newer shortcut tools to keep up with the times. The Office shortcut tools will be able to help individuals in work-related tasks, while the emoji button will be for faster posts on social media. It would help with industries that mainly work on the Office suite.

This keyboard also showed up during the recent Surface reveal event and will be available on Oct. 15 for around $60 for the ergonomic keyboard and $50 for the bluetooth keyboard.

More than just Microsoft changing up certain keys in their keyboard, it’s still unknown if other keyboard manufacturers will follow suit with this design. Many keyboards compatible to Windows are made with a licensing agreement to use Microsoft’s design to make sure its uniform for all compatible keyboards.

As of now, Microsoft is working on getting to the top of business solutions and apps. So far, The company’s Teams app is succeeding more than its rival, Slack. For now, we’ll have to wait if Microsoft will enforce this new design for many keyboard makers in the industry.