Last month, Microsoft showed a refresh of the visual effects for Office applications on the Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems. After a short delay, the new design has been pushed to some Office Insider testers last week. Now, the company has announced that it is open to all preview members in the test channel.
The Office Insider team explained: The highly anticipated round of updates brings a consistent user interface to all Office applications, including rounded corners, a new customizable ribbon, and a neutral color palette.
- Through this refresh of the Fluent design language, Office applications can bring an intuitive, coherent, and familiar user interface.
- Covers Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, Project, Publisher, and Visio product lines.
- With this visual adjustment for the Windows 11 operating system, you will be able to get a seamless experience on your PC.
We have an update about the visual refresh, #OfficeInsiders. It’s now available to 100% of users in the Beta Channel. NOTE: You may need to restart your app once or twice to show the new experience. Thanks for your patience! https://t.co/RbiM1llTVN
— MS Office Insiders (@OfficeInsider) July 14, 2021
The redesigned Office user interface will also provide automatic theme switching based on the Windows operating system level. For example, testers will notice some significant dark mode improvements in Word documents. The Office Insider Team added that the Quick Access Toolbar is now hidden by default, and people who need it can choose or exit by clicking Coming Soon at the top of the application.
Finally, this round of UI updates will be automatically pushed to all Insiders who are running version 2108 of the Office application (build number 14301.20004 and higher) on the Windows 10 or Windows 11 operating system. However, the related experience may still be adjusted further before the official version arrives.
