Microsoft Releases Universal Office App Preview for Windows 10

Right now, I’m writing this post on the new, touch-friendly version of Microsoft Word for Windows 10, which we last heard about in January during Microsoft’s huge batch of Windows 10 announcements. That’s right – today Microsoft released preview versions of a Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote for computers running the Windows 10 Technical Preview. I feel like I’m from the future!

Many of the important features of these apps, like opening, reading, creating, and editing files, will be available to all users, while more features and goodies will come for users with Office 365 subscriptions.

What are the main differences between the Preview and the traditional Office 365 apps that have been around for the last few years? Well, this version has a lot more in common with the Office for iPad or Office for Android Tablets apps that have come from Microsoft over the last few years – which is to say, they’re not all that different at all except in a few key ways.

Mostly, speaking exclusively about Office for now, the app’s interface provides a more touch-friendly environment – there’s more space between UI options and buttons, and touching anywhere within a document brings up a set of shaded options that include “Cut,” “Copy,” and “Paste.” Those options are contextual too – if you haven’t double-tapped on any words or highlighted any text, you won’t be able to copy or cut. Meanwhile, if you don’t have anything on the clipboard, you won’t be able to paste. It’s nothing revolutionary, but it is pretty perfect for a laptop with a touchscreen, or a Surface Pro 3.

Other than that, the Word Preview seems fast and responsive, and I’ll be putting it through its paces over the next few weeks. What’s exciting about this app is that it’ll run the same on all Windows 10 devices, be it a low-powered tablet, a smartphone, or a full-fledged PC. Overall, it’s not much more than a stripped down version of Word, so I’m a bit surprised it took this long to appear. Even still, now that I have it, I’m pretty pleased.

Anyone else out there try the new app out?

[The Next Chapter of Office on Windows]