Microsoft is adding WebP pictures to Microsoft Office 365, expanding the range of images supported in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other Office apps.
WebP is an image format unknown to many people but is increasingly used by web sites. It’s a format made by Google to replace JPG, PNG and GIF with images of the same quality but smaller file sizes.
The format is widely supported in modern browsers. Web sites can be setup to send .webp versions of images when possible with other formats (like .jpg etc) sent otherwise. Modern Google Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari browsers all support WebP.
It’s nice to see Microsoft getting a little ‘ahead of the game’ and adding WebP support before its lack becomes a major hassle for customers.
WebP appears as another image type in the Insert | Image dialog or just drag and drop a picture from Explorer into the document, sheet or slide.
What you need
Windows 10 build 1809 (October 2018) and later or Windows 11.
Add the Webp Image Extension pack available free from the Microsoft Store (if it’s not installed already). WebP is supported in the Edge browser, Paint app but not Photos (yet).
Office 365 for Windows, Insiders Current Channel (Preview) v2105 build 14026.10000 or later.
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