As another month starts, Microsoft is rolling out a new build of the Office suite of apps to users in the Slow Ring of the Insider program on macOS. Following up on last month's updates, this release comes with version number 16.37, and it brings a few new features to Excel and Outlook.
For Excel, there's a new feature that lets users add data from an image to spreadsheet. Essentially, if you take a picture or screenshot of a table with data, Excel can recognize the data in the image and put it into a spreadsheet in text form. Additionally, Microsoft is bringing back Click to Add mode, which was last seen in Excel 2011 for macOS. Microsoft says this was the fifth most requested featured on UserVoice, so it should be good news for plenty of users.
On Outlook, it's now possible to use voice dictation to write messages using the new Dictate button. There's also a new capability that lets users create actionable messages, so that users can interact with those messages directly from Outlook. These actions can include leaving comments on a document or event.
Finally, there's a small update for PowerPoint, which includes a new search box for finding content in a PowerPoint presentation.
The updates should be rolling out right now, so some users may already have it, while others may have to wait a little longer. They should also make their way to non-Insiders sometime soon.
