Today Microsoft announced a number of improvements and ways to work with Office for the Mac, iPad and iPad Pro. As part of their effort to make Office even more intuitive and easier to use, they want to make pen and ink a primary input across Office apps. While digital inking tools have been available in Office on Windows PCs since 2007, today they're releasing new inking tools in Office for iPad and iPad Pro to make it easy for users to use their finger or Apple Pencil to work on documents, presentations, spreadsheets and notes.

As noted in the first screenshot you're able to see a new "Draw" tab in the top ribbon of Word. You could review and comment on documents with your pen.

Instant Inking: Microsoft has evolved their apps like Excel to sense the approach of an active pencil so that you could start to ink instantly without needing to select a feature or control.

Ink to Shape: With this new feature in PowerPoint, Microsoft states that you could easily transform hand-drawn shapes to perfect looking shapes for simple creation of highly customizable diagrams and process flows. Sketch two quick circles for an easy Venn diagram or draw a process flow of squares and arrows in just a matter of moments.

In the Class Notebook or OneNote app, as noted below, a user or student is able to convert sketched shapes into formatted graphics with a just a few pen strokes using Microsoft's shape recognition intelligence.

Collaboration Improvements to Office across Platforms

Microsoft is making more progress on their journey to make Office the best place for real-time collaboration. Real-time presence lets you see where others are working in the document.

Mac users can also now get early access to Office innovations. It's simple to get started. Just opt-in to the Office Insider build from the Microsoft Auto Update (MAU) tool on your Mac. To learn more about Office Insider and how to get started on your Mac, go to Office.com/insider.

One More Thing

With today's release, Morph and PowerPoint Designer features are available in PowerPoint for the Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPad Pro. Below is a brief introduction to these features.

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