What you need to know
- Microsoft is testing a feature that adds a context menu option to Edge to open a new Office tab.
- The option would let people open Word, Excel, or PowerPoint online from the context menu.
- Some people are unhappy with the idea and expressed frustration online.
Microsoft Edge Canary has a feature in testing that lets you open Office through the browser's context menu. The feature, which was shared on Reddit by Leo Varela, adds a choice in the context menu of Edge to create a document in Word, PowerPoint, or Excel. The option is in testing right now in Edge Canary. Since it's part of a controlled rollout, not everyone on Edge Canary will be able to try the feature.
While the option would make it quicker to open the online versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, many people on Reddit expressed frustration about the feature. "Oh god no... more crap in the context menu X_X," said d_stealthy.
The fear is that adding more options like this would crowd the context menu over time. Microsoft ran into a similar issue with the Windows 10 context menu, which was redesigned for Windows 11 with less clutter.
Varela notes that if the feature did roll out, that there could be an option to toggle it off. Microsoft has done this with some features in the past. When Microsoft tested an option to show visual search within the context menu of Edge, there was an option to show or hide it.
The preview versions of Microsoft Edge allow you to test out new and experimental features.
