Microsoft announced that it has added full trackpad and mouse support for the iPadOS version of Microsoft 360. That includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint. This update helps to blur the line between tablet and desktop, making iPads to have more desktop-like experience.
The trackpad via Apple’s Magic Keyboard lets you navigate around text, photos, and other options inside the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint applications. Also, the cursor is said to be context aware so it becomes easy to resize or select phrases. This experience aims to make the application come close to what we usually get in Microsoft Office on a PC or Mac.
Microsoft, in the announcement said "When moving a finger across the built-in trackpad of Magic Keyboard, the cursor transforms into the tool you need depending on the content you are pointing to. And using a mouse or trackpad with iPad for common tasks like highlighting a passage of text in Word, selecting a range of cells in Excel, and moving and resizing graphics in PowerPoint are as simple and intuitive as ever. In addition, you get updated start screens and a new ribbon of feature menus in Office applications."
Microsoft confirms that it has some other features lined up for future.
"These updates are just the latest in a series of improvements we continue to make to the Office experience designed to take advantage of the unique capabilities of iPad, such as its large Multi-Touch display, and versatile accessories, including the ability to open multiple documents in Word and PowerPoint, the new keyboard shortcuts which were released this summer and fall, and additional updates which you will see over the next few months such as multiple document support in Excel, powerful contextual menus, and offline file support for cloud files."
Source - Hindustan Times, Techcrunch
