Microsoft Office for Mac Adds Touch Bar Support for MacBook Pro 2016 Users

After initially announcing the Touch Bar support for Office apps back in October, Microsoft made the features available earlier this month, albeit in preview for Insider Members only. Now the Redmond-based company has announced that the Touch Bar support is out of preview and available for everyone.

With the Touch Bar support, users will get a new object rotation slider on the Touch Bar for a "more intuitive and precise rotation experience," Kirk Koenigsbauer, Microsoft Office's corporate vice president, said in a blog post.

While using Microsoft Word, the Touch Bar will offer users access to Word Focus mode, which essentially hides all the on-screen ribbons and commands to allow you to focus on work at hand. Users will be able to access relevant features that are required by the users (like font styles, formatting features, cut/ copy/ paste options) from the Touch Bar. Notably, users can also add hyperlinks, comments, and photos directly from the Touch Bar itself.

In PowerPoint, users will be able to get control of the graphic elements from the Touch Bar. "The Reorder Objects button produces a graphical map of all the layers on a slide, making it easy to find the right object and move it where you want it," Koenigsbauer said in his post. Users can use the object rotation slider on the Touch Bar within the app as well. When the presentation is in slideshow view mode, users will be able to get elements and controls such as thumbnails and timer on the Touch Bar.

In Excel, when users type the "equal" sign in a cell, the Touch Bar will come into action and provide them with the most recently used features. "The Touch Bar also provides quick access to borders, cell colors and recommended charts-making it easier than ever to organize and visualize your data," Koenigsbauer said.

Finally coming to Outlook, with Touch Bar support users will get a list of recent documents on the OLED strip while composing a new mail. These documents can be added as attachments with a simple tap. Further, from the Today view on Touch Bar, users will be able to see their calendar events for the day as well as join Skype or Business meeting, Koenigsbauer added.