Microsoft Begins Implementing Touch Bar Support in Office for Mac for Insiders
- Paul Thurrott
- Feb 08, 2017
-
13
Back in October, Microsoft said it that it would support the Touch Bar in the new MacBook Pro in Office for Mac. This month, that support is appearing for the first time in the pre-release versions of Office for Mac provided to Insiders.
If you’re familiar with Microsoft’s various Insider programs, you get the basic idea: These programs allow enthusiasts and others to receive early access to new versions and features, and to provide feedback to the company that can help drive product development.
Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox
Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!
"*" indicates required fields
For Office for Mac specifically, Microsoft provides two levels of Insider access, Office Insider Fast and Office Insider Slow. As the names suggest, Fast provides the earliest preview builds, and these builds are released more frequently than with Slow. Office Insider Slow, meanwhile, provides “fully supported builds with minimal risk.”
So it is odd, then, that Touch Bar support is coming first to Office Insider Slow, and not Fast. Starting with the February 2017 updates, Office Insider Slow users will see the following new functionality:
Touch Bar Support on the New MacBook Pro. Available in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The most relevant commands to what you’re working on are at your fingertips. (Compatible with MacBook Pro with Touch Bar only).
According to a separate post to the Microsoft Answers forums, this functionality is appearing via Office for Mac build 15.31 (170207). If you are in the Insider Program, just check for Updates (Help > Check for Updates > Check for Updates in any supported app) to get the new build.
I don’t have a MacBook Pro, let alone a new model with a Touch Bar, so I can’t test this feature.
Conversation 13 comments
-
8578
<p>I would think the motivation for Mac users to be a MS insider would be a lot less than Windows users. Does MS have such little faith in their own quality control that they can’t roll out a simple feature like this without turning customers into beta testers? </p>
-
8578
<blockquote><em><a href="#41599">In reply to </a><a href="../../users/MikeGalos">MikeGalos</a><a href="#41599">:</a></em></blockquote>
<p>Not at all. Testing is the job of the company, not the customers. All of the work that made Microsoft the leading software company in the world was done without an insider program. In some cases they used carefully selected beta testers who played a more formal testing role than insiders. It’s funny that you mention "getting stuff out the door fast" because that’s exactly what the Insider program is all about (along with saving the labor costs of real testing).</p> -
8578
<blockquote><em><a href="#41644">In reply to </a><a href="../../users/MikeGalos">MikeGalos</a><a href="#41644">:</a></em></blockquote>
<p>Perhaps we are both speculating. Only someone who has worked as MS for the past 10-20 years knows whether their internal testing is as thorough now as it was in the past. In any case, I don’t think Insiders are fully equivalent to Beta testers. I don’t ever recall MS allowing just anyone to do Beta testing.</p> -
8578
<blockquote><em><a href="#41698">In reply to </a><a href="../../users/MikeGalos">MikeGalos</a><a href="#41698">:</a></em></blockquote>
<p>OK. I’ll defer to your inside knowledge.</p>