It’s a more natural and hopefully useful help system that’s been tested with Office Online for some time. This is a long predicted part of Office 2016. Now the cosmetic features are out of the way, there’s more useful things to look at. Having improbably alleged that this was the most requested feature for Office 2016, Microsoft is now saying ‘Dark’ is an accessibility option for people who find the brighter displays and colors too difficult to read. The Dark theme that Microsoft dropped from Office 2013 is back for Office 2016. (All images in this article supplied by Microsoft) The new default is ‘Colorful’ which matches the look of the Windows 10 / Modern apps.

It’s Microsoft’s way of convincing people that they have something for their money by making cosmetic changes. New LookĮach new version of Office comes with a new look.

That’s because people will have to pay the annual fee regardless of what has changed (or not) in Office. Each month there’ll be an update to the Office 2016 Preview with more features included and announced.Īt this stage Outlook 2016 doesn’t look like much but then with Office subscription/rental taking hold, Microsoft doesn’t have to innovate as much. This isn’t a full list, it’s just what Microsoft is disclosing at this time. Some are interesting while others are in the ‘what took you so long’ category or even the ‘you mean it didn’t already do that?’ department. With the March 2015 Preview of Office 2016 comes more news of upcoming features.

Outlook 2016 dark theme reading pane