Microsoft Updates Office Apps for iPad With Mouse and Trackpad Support

Microsoft today announced that the Word, PowerPoint, and Excel apps for iPad are receiving updates that will allow them to use the trackpad and mouse support in iPadOS.

microsoftofficetrackpad
The apps will feature a cursor that transforms into the tool that's needed depending on the context of what you're pointing to for easy cursor control, fluid navigation, and precise adjustments. Microsoft says that the trackpad experience will be familiar to those who have used Office on a Mac or PC.

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. This experience will be immediately familiar to anyone who has ever used Office on a Mac or a PC and helps make iPad even more versatile and capable for getting more work done.

Along with mouse and trackpad support, Microsoft is adding new start screens and a new ribbon of feature menus to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for a cleaner and more modern user experience.

According to Microsoft, many users have already started receiving the updates through a phased rollout, which will reach all users within a couple of weeks.

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Top Rated Comments

Simmias Avatar
64 months ago
With the latest Office updates, I am very close to being able to use my 12.9" iPad Pro as my full time work computer. In addition to trackpad support, Word and PowerPoint now allow multiple windows/documents to be open at the same time. For some reason, Excel still only allows one spreadsheet to be open at a time. I'm not sure why it's taking so long (it took nearly a year to add multi-window support after it was demoed onstage at the WWDC iPad OS 13 keynote), but I'm glad the updates are finally coming. Once Microsoft enables multiple windows in Excel, I will finally be able to use the iPad for 99% of my professional workflow!
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ct2k7 Avatar
64 months ago
Awesome, a little late, but a welcome change.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheDailyApple Avatar
64 months ago
About time! Using office without a mouse is miserable.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ugahairydawgs Avatar
64 months ago
It's about damn time.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Pangalactic Avatar
64 months ago
Wow, wonderful!

Meanwhile still waiting for 50% of the apps to at least rotate into horizontal mode...
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gautampw Avatar
64 months ago

I wonder how this fits in with the "unified Office app on iOS, but keep using three separate Word/Excel/PowerPoint" apps on iPadOS scheme... Hmmm...
They’ve already said the unified iPad app is in development
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)