Upcoming version of Office will let you switch over to the dark side

By Harish Jonnalagadda
published

Along with a technical preview of Windows 9, which is scheduled to be announced on September 30, Microsoft is allegedly testing an Office Technical Preview. According to The Verge, the software maker has been sending out preview builds of the upcoming version of Office to partners and testers.

One of the new additions in Office 16 is the "Tell Me" helper utility that made its debut in the Office Online apps. From the screenshots, it looks like Microsoft is integrating the feature as a search box which sits at the top of a document in Word.

Another interesting addition is a dark theme, which will be offered alongside light gray, dark gray, and white. The default theme will still be white, but for users seeking an alternative that is easier on the eyes, there is the dark theme.

Other feature additions include automatic image rotation, which allows Microsoft to access an image's metadata to automatically fix orientation. Users will still be able to manually rotate images should the need arise. Outlook is also said to get new feature additions, with users getting the ability to download 1 day, 3 days, 7 days, or 14 days of email.

What do you guys think of the upcoming changes to Office?

Source: The Verge

Harish Jonnalagadda
Harish Jonnalagadda
Senior Editor - Asia

Harish Jonnalagadda is a Senior Editor overseeing Asia for Android Central, Windows Central's sister site. When not reviewing phones, he's testing PC hardware, including video cards, motherboards, gaming accessories, and keyboards.

137 Comments
  • Darth vader will hack You with his saber.
  • Your creepy username... And your weird comment. O.o
  • No that is a weird comment, mine has a link with the title :/
  • Office has been able to do the dark theme song at least 2007, if not before. I've been using this since Vista.
  • Firefox had addons to change colors for programs. :)
  • True, but this was removed in 2013 --- in favor of background degins.
  • They pretty much got rid of it in Office 2013.  There is a Dark Gray theme, but it's not nearly as dark as in previous versions.
  • I smell yo light saber....
  • It has "so weird" written all over it :D
  • The dark theme is the new feature in Office 2015.
    Can't wait, quite revolutionary
  • Microsoft is just goin on focussing on Android and iOS version of Office, and they've completely forgot the Windows Phone.
    -_-||
  • And that's why I'm leaving Windows Phone... No support whatsoever from Microsoft.
  • Lol, you so funny.
  • That's funny .. You will be shut up when Windows phone 9 with come out with Direct X 12..
  • Windows phone 9 will not have direct x 12, you are in denial buddy.
  • http://www.wpcentral.com/microsoft-unveils-directx-12-promises-make-mobi...
  • Sin Orgaris, you just got served. First rule of commenting, dont post stupid brain dead remarks that you have plucked from your anus. Hell, a simple Bing would have given you the information you needed to not embaress youself. Such shame you bring upon your family.
  • Much shame, such wow D:   _Doge
  • It will be merged with Windows 99%
  • this new office is for pc users where actually ppl do hardcore work on ms office.
  • True Story :D office 365 get so many improvements and stuff
  • Don't you know, Windows Phone only has 3% market share, why bother. If that is a good enough excuse for everyone else why not Microsoft!
  • When wp and win will eventually merge that 3% will merge with %age windows os owns:P
  • In Poland It Has more than 20%, its the usa and china where nobody want to try this os.
  • Super2offline, only in yankie doodle land. In the rest of the world, its 10%. I hear in Iceland is 99%
  • bcoz they are merging rt and WP. maybe that's the reason to delay many things. Nadella is taking many crucial steps to make windows as a whole more better platform. he has a big responsibility of things what Ballmer had messed up.
  • Let's see what he can do with this mess... Hopefully he won't make all this mess even... messier.
  • the era of Ballmer was very bad time for Microsoft. brand image of Microsoft began to fell at that time in public.
  • Synosfsky presented the mess...... My how short or memories are..... Ballmer doesn't code
  • What you call mess, gave us Office 365. Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Windows Phone (its brilliant right) He saw revenues double. Outlook.Com (which I waaayyy prefer over gmail) Seriously, you lot cant think beyond your own keyboards sometimes. Are they perfect? No, but its certainly no mess. They make some awesome products. None of us would be gaming later without Xbox or DirectX. Or be calling people on Our WP. Numpty remarks
  • Satya hasn't done anything but create fancy slogans. Most of what is happening now was started under Ballmer.
  • Finally, someone who remembers. That's why Allard, Sinofsky and others for the boot. All of these changes were already slated and underway prior to Ballmer's departure. The only thing Satya gets credit for is the cloud based items until next year when he had a full grasp on Microsoft
  • The upcoming office for touch apps for windows will be universal apps so there is also the windows phone version which gets hugely improved!
  • office Gemini right?
  • ⬆⬆his⬆⬆⬆
  • His what?
  • Really
  • C'mon.  It was funny.
  • u forgot to mention skype
  • This is for PC...
  • The WP version should become substantially better once the "one windows" concept begins to take shape.
  • Guys I need some help, it's urgent. Yesterday I downloaded the office lens update which added the ability to transfer a doc in word or Pierpont to better handle the document. However, today I wanted to do that and there is no option, at least I didn't find it. Does anyone know how I do it, where I find the option??
  • When you're saving the image to OneNote, there's a checkbox to let you save to Word, too, in my recollection.
  • Did you Dave save it on your phone or the cloud? Make sure it's downloaded to the phone then try
  • I agree. Just hope there is full integration with X1, WIN9, and WP9.0. Cause I have a feeling they are going to break it up abit. Presentation is everything, MS! Don't waste this important opportunity to beat Apple's iOS and mac sync.
  • one thing you have to undeerstand is, WP system is only on small screen phones, which not lots people will actually do tons of work on it. But both android and iOS also used on their Tablets, which means people will use them for some heavy work on like editing word doc or excel. and for Windows ecosystem, the tablet will be windows 8.1 instead windows phone, so as long as you can do some simple stuff on the WP office, and then do heavy stuff on the Win8.x tablet/pc .  
  • Mobile Office for Android cannot be installed in tablets. I know, I tried it. Just saying.
  • Glad to hear it - I would personally prefer dark themes across the entire range of msft products - including the outlook webpage:)
  • Nice! I spend hours working on Office and I always have to take unproductive breaks to rest my eyes from the way too white screen. The Dark theme will certainly be welcomed by my eyes.
  • You know, any colored theme won't change the fact that everyone sitting in front of a computer should be making regular "unproductive" breaks. Your eyes will thank you in five to ten years. ;) Oh no, actually, don't make any breaks, I'll make even more money selling glasses ! :D
  • But the bright white is still pretty harsh. That makes your eyes adjust more which puts more strain in them. Ergo, more breaks.
  • Google Glass(es)?
  • I'm aware of that. The point is, the brightness of Office makes me take twice the breaks. That's why I called them "unproductive". The ones for normal resting are productive as I go do something else ;) (ps - I already need glasses lol)
  • I know, I was just being picky but as an optician/optometrist I'm always willing to give help with people who suffers from eye strain and that could do many simple things. I use the white Office theme at work myself on the three computers of my shop, the brightness is neither high or low but since the shop itself is pretty well lit, and it's fine for my coworker and I. The simple rules in front of the computer (I'm not going to talk about posture) are : The screen should be at an arm distance from your eyes. If you extend your arm and touch your screen with your palm, it's way too damn close. If you can't touch it at all, maybe have it a little bit closer. The room you're should always be well lit. Never work on your computer (I'm not talking about playing / watching movies) if the room is dark. If a room can't have more lights than it currently has, then reduce the screen brightness to negate the difference. If there is a wall behind your screen, it shouldn't be a dark color. White is the best. Just turn your head and look outside a window for 15 seconds twice every hour of work. This keeps the eyes' muscle active and more flexible.
  • I've always had it set to the dark grey option as yeah, the pure white is to intense.
    Will be interested to see what the dark setting looks like, could be even easier on the eyes.
  • Agreed. The number one complaint after deploying Office 2013 to our users was the eye strain. I have no idea why the default theme is white. We've defaulted everyone's Office to use the Dark Grey theme.
  • You should get some awesome aviators to wear. It'll cut down the light level, without losing much screen visibility
  • Looks awesome! As an avid user of the dark theme on my Lumia 1020, this is looking great!
  • Wish I could upgrade to Office 16 for free from Office 15, something like what might be coming with Windows 9: Free upgrade from Windows 8.1.
    Also they need to make it easier to format documents with images and text. Moving an image messes up the formatting of the whole document. It's a big pain!
  • If you have Office 365 you can, or atleast I think that's what they said.
  • All office 365 gets updates, as there on rolling subscription basis
  • That's sweet. My university just gave us subscriptions for Office 365. :-)
  • Why did it take so long?
  • They were waiting for your comment. LOL
  • Lol
  • Great, Been waiting for these for years! That will come to good use on tablets, lower battery consumption :)
  • Well, AFAIK, only on tablets with an OLED display. (Or a CRT, but I can't find those around here.)
  • Can anyone picture "Clippy" in Darth Vader uniform? Lol. Thanks MS , will wait on the preview and y tell you
  • Seems faster
  • Hopefully we'll get a huge office upgrade in windows phone 9 I'm kinda annoyed by the windows phone 7 client we still have
  • the dark theme looks good. I want things which are less bright for productive use.
  • If you look closely there seems to be buttons to switch between mouse and touch friendly versions. Finally.
  • That is present in Office 2013 too.
  • It sure is! Thanks. I guess I was looking too hard for more obvious changes in the UI that would make using touch more viable. As shown, it looks like more of the same. Let's see some screenshots leak of Office for touch.
  • Still no specific Office for WinTablets (SurfacePro/RT)? Like the one for iPad? Thought that would be released early 2015, not?  
  • "Switch over to the dark side"? The next version of Office can turn my Nokia into an iPhone?
  • That was my first thought too. Glad it means a dark theme. And I'm glad that a dark theme is coming.
  • Come to the nerd side. We have Pi.
  • Dark theme has been available in office since forever. Just go into file and options and change it to dark lol
  • Not in Office 2013. All you have is white, light gray and dark gray, and dark gray isn't dark enough in my opinion. Also it removes all the colored buttons, and I like having the color there to distinguish between the applications at a glance (I'm weird like that)
  • Ahhh gotcha. That's like the only office I haven't used so good to know
  • Finally, a dark theme. I loved the black theme in Office 2010, and the fact they removed it in 2013 kinda pissed me off since I like to have all of my applications dark, and then Office just comes in and blinds me while I'm trying to work. I've gotten used to it now but I still would like it back and it looks like I might have the option again.
  • I have a feeling that when the technical preview for Windows 9 is released in January or February for ARM devices, there will be a preview released for Windows phones and a preview release of Office Touch for all devices. Posted via Windows Phone Central App
  • Microsoft please bring back the Microsoft picture editor
  • Finally!!! 2013 no contrast themes are terrible!
  • I think the dark theme looks awesome!
  • Who the fuck bothers about themes in office
  • People who work on a computer for example...... Spending long times with a screen that looks like the Plateau Rosa' is extremely distressing for the eyes.
  • My biggest issue with the dark theme is that it doesn't go far enough. Now the contrast between the white in the middle and dark grey around the sides, is so intense that I find it has the reverse effect. Eyes are more tired. :-(
  • Looks improvements are always welcome, but when r the bkoody touch/RT apps coming? Better be even bigger bang than the office for iOS release
  • Sadly it might not be. I think they should have released it for Windows first before iOS... Maybe they have this huge launch set for Threshold (WP, Windows, Xbox One, Office). Or maybe that's wishful thinking?
  • Desktop client please... Not 365..
  • Awesome
  • not enough details as for dark theme its not that important feature i can't see my self switching to dark theme for office :)
  • I remember office 2007 doing the same
  • Is there a way to make everything dark in it, so the page is black instead of white and the text is white instead of black? Need something easier on my eyes.
  • I prefer dark themes. I wish windows itself had better support for dark themes. Here's hoping for threshold!
  • "Luke, join the dark side."
    "Ok! ^^"
  • Good. White screens hurt my eyes. Idk why it took so long to implement something so stupidly simple
  • Actually it is even worse: they are non implementing it, just reintroducing it: it was available in Office 2010 and disappeared in 2013...
  • It would be kind of ridiculous if only a dark option for Office would be the only new thing introduced in Office 16. It's a new Office, not 2013 SP2.
  • I love the dark gray! It would be nice to have other colors like the windows phone.
  • So flat. But not really metro.
  • I hope they don't forget to add a decent HTML rendering engine to Outlook.
  • Finally. Missed the darker theme from office 2007.
  • Woohoo the return of my favourite Office 2010 feature: DARKNESS!
  • Thanks for the article, but I refuse to click through to the crap on Verge.  Can't stand that site.
     
  • Yeaihhhh, more grey themes! :(
  • When will the Modern UI version of Office come? Any ideas?
  • That looks pretty cool. Much like visual studio dark theme
  • i'm a 365 user, will i get this version as a free update?
  • How to become a tester though, is there a program or something
  • I use the "Black" color scheme (not Theme) in my Office products. And I prefer over the silver and blue.  So, if there's a full Dark Theme to will be great!
  • "One of the new additions in Office 16 is the "Tell Me" helper utility that made its debut in the Office Online apps. From the screenshots, it looks like Microsoft is integrating the feature as a search box which sits at the top of a document in Word." Great now the only thing I can think about this article is littlekuriboh... TELL ME... Oh you'll find out I'm about to summon it... TELL ME!
  • Our users will be very happy!
  • I'm looking forward to the Metro version of Office so I can further reduce the amount of time I spend on the desktop side of things.  I hate that I still have to use the desktop.  Also, I was always an Outlook fan, but once the Metro Mail app added so many features, I haven't touched Outlook--and see it as a waste--since Windows 8 officially launched.
  • I know that Office is for productivity, but there is a part of me that wants more customization over the appearance of the office suite. Dunno why but its a welcomed addition in my book.
  • I say: Bring it on!! Dark side is fun, they have cookies there! :-)
  • I always use VS with the dark theme. Office will look nice in dark, too.
  • Hope the same dark side come to internet explorer
  • Like it
  • Cool
  • Is outlook going to finally have a universal inbox??? Posted via the Windows Phone Central App for Android
  • You can already set Outlook to push the emails from multiple accounts to a single inbox: File/Account settings/Account settings/ Change Folder 
  • FOR THE LOVE OF $deity, PLEASE, STOP THE ALL-CAPS MENU IT LOOKS WEIRD (JUST LIKE THIS POST).
  • +1 another thing I hate about Office 2013 compared with previous ones.    
  • Digging the dark theme!
  • Why still that much unused space at the top, displaying only the document name?!...
  • Plot twist: Clippy returns. But as a personal assistant.
  • Thank god, all the 2013 themes are too damn light.
  • ...and this https://vine.co/v/OW6Z09p9lZj
  • What do you guys think of the upcoming changes to Office?  If this is real then I like it.  Since this has not been officialy announced I cannot comment on rumors or speculation.
  • I WANT my Blue theme; damn it. Only reason I haven't upgraded from Office 2010 to 2013/365 is because I can't use the blue theme I love in Office 2010. I just don't get why limit the theme colors available; why not just offer a color slider or something so people can work in the color that they like. Put some joy into Office and not make it a dull greyscale experience.    
  • Is tell me feature has anything to do with bing search engine???
  • They need to improve Office mobile, it's still sub-par at best
  • Is that photo the mentioned Office 16, or just the current 2013? (And if it's the latter, please tell me how to get it!)
  • Am I the only one that in vain wishes Clippy (and the other Office assistants) returned as optional?