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Touch factor: Microsoft revamps Office
For many people, Microsoft programmes such as Word and Excel are about as cutting edge as a shovel — tools that get the job done, but do not quicken the pulse the way an iPad or an Xbox does.
For many people, Microsoft programmes such as Word and Excel are about as cutting edge as a shovel — tools that get the job done, but do not quicken the pulse the way an iPad or an Xbox does.
Now Microsoft is seeking to reinvent the Office, its venerable family of cubicle-ready applications, for a new era of computing.
On Monday, Microsoft for the first time showed the next version of the Office, which it has overhauled to take advantage of touch screens, social networking and cloud computing. Microsoft CEO Steven Ballmer described the product in momentous terms, saying it was “the most ambitious release of Microsoft Office that we’ve ever done.”
While it has overhauled the Office so that users can easily operate it on touch-screen devices, Microsoft declined to say whether it intended to tailor the applications to run on the most popular tablet on the market today, Apple’s iPad.
The New York Times
