Microsoft's Word, Excel, and PowerPoint web apps are getting file menu improvements

Earlier this week, Microsoft started rolling out some user interface improvements to the web edition of Excel. Today, the company revealed that the web versions of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel are all receiving some film menu upgrades.

In a post on the Microsoft 365 Insider blog, the company stated that it has heard from a number of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel web users that finding the commands for the File menu in those apps can be difficult. It added:

We heard you and are excited to share an overview of the changes we’ve designed to make the File menu more intuitive and lightweight.

One big improvement will let users change the name of a file in those web apps by just selecting the file's title at the top of the browser window. Once selected, the file name can be changed and saved. Also, web app users will be able to see a file's folder structure either by clicking on the cloud icon next to the filename in the upper title bar or by just clicking on the File menu to show the file location.

The familiar Save As command is now no longer needed for files in the web apps. Microsoft says those files will now always be saved and they can be created online or downloaded to a PC. If you want to save a file in a different format, you can now do so with the web apps by clicking on the File menu, followed by Export, instead of Save As. Finally, web users can now see both the Move and Version History commands on the File menu.

These changes are starting to roll out now for the Word, PowerPoint, and Excel web apps for Targeted Release users. All users of these same apps should see the file menu improvements sometime in August 2024.