What’s new in Office Online for April 2014
Office Online – the new name for the Office Web Apps – has received an update. Here’s a quick look at some of the new features.
All the updates should be available now or in the next few days as Microsoft global servers are updated. Go to office.com or onedrive.com and login with your Microsoft account to access these browser versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Word Online
The focus here is on comments. Now comments appear in edit mode via a right-hand pane similar to Word 2013.
Documents can now be downloaded in PDF format. That makes it easier to download then print from a wider range of computers even if the device doesn’t have Office installed.
Footnotes and endnotes can be added inline. Tables are rendered better, especially with merged and missing cells.
List making is now more like Word software. If you start typing below an existing list, the new line will be added to the list automatically. A right-click menu includes familiar options like Continue Numbering, Set Numbering Value (set a different start value) and Start New List.
Excel Online
Comments are now supported. They can be added, edited and deleted.
Hidden rows/columns are now easier to work with. There’s familiar right-click menu options to hide/unhide.
Status Bar Aggregates is Microsoft’s name for the Sum, Count, Average etc calcs that appear in the status bar. Min, Max and Numerical Count are now added and the list can be configured.
A GoTo shortcut (Ctrl + G) lets you jump to a reference quickly.
We were dismayed to see Microsoft boasting that Excel Online has ‘improved support’ for worksheets with VBA code. Apparently now worksheets with VBA code can be opened and edited without removing or messing up with VBA code. That’s nothing to boast about because that’s the way Excel Online/Excel Web Apps was always supposed to do! Essentially Microsoft is boasting that they’ve fixed a major bug in the service.
PowerPoint Online
There’s changes to the text editor so it’s more WYSIWYG; as you type it looks more like it will on the final slide.
The browser based version of PowerPoint continues to speed up the display and video playback. Embedded YouTube videos
