Mockingbird Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 Where is Office Touch for Windows? Seriously, where is it? Microsoft has decided to release Office for iOS and Office for Android for months now, but why not for Windows? I seriously doubt it's a market share problem since there are millions of touch screen PCs out there running Windows 8 (and Windows 8.1). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
remixedcat Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 That is what I['d like to know too! Mockingbird 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mockingbird Posted January 2, 2015 Author Share Posted January 2, 2015 Microsoft should release the alpha version of Office Touch for Windows already. Heck, Windows 10 is still in alpha and Microsoft has already released it to the public. remixedcat 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoffel Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 Have they not said that it will be released in tandem with Windows 10. I assume they are making them as Universal apps and they are still fine tuning the API's I guess?!? For now we have full blown Office 2013/365 which is touch 'friendly' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mockingbird Posted January 2, 2015 Author Share Posted January 2, 2015 Have they not said that it will be released in tandem with Windows 10. No! I assume they are making them as Universal apps and they are still fine tuning the API's I guess?!? Even if Office Touch requires some new APIs in Windows 10, Windows 10 is available to the public. For now we have full blown Office 2013/365 which is touch 'friendly' I am sure all Microsoft's most loyal fans feel loads better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoffel Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 No! Even if Office Touch requires some new APIs in Windows 10, Windows 10 is available to the public. I am sure all Microsoft's most loyal fans feel loads better. Win 10 is available as a technical preview, it's nowhere near finished, we are only getting a consumer preview late January. And the latest is that Win 10 will only be released around sept/oct. So you are going to have some patience I guess Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stokkolm Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 https://www.neowin.net/news/joe-belfiore-wants-to-assure-you-office-team-has-not-forgotten-windows-phone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TAZMINATOR Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 https://www.neowin.net/news/joe-belfiore-wants-to-assure-you-office-team-has-not-forgotten-windows-phone This. And read here: https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-unveils-office-for-android-tablets-confirms-windows-touch-version-coming-in-2015 Mockingbird 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhangm Supervisor Posted January 2, 2015 Supervisor Share Posted January 2, 2015 https://www.neowin.net/news/joe-belfiore-wants-to-assure-you-office-team-has-not-forgotten-windows-phone https://www.neowin.net/news/joe-belfiore-wants-to-assure-you-office-team-has-not-forgotten-windows-phone/2803784 Ok, might as well broach the subject: what specific features/changes do folks want in the Touch version beyond what we've seen with the RT release? What's that version lacking/annoying, and what can be improved? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mockingbird Posted January 2, 2015 Author Share Posted January 2, 2015 Sometimes I wonder what Microsoft is waiting for. The Surface Pro 3 already show that the path forward does not involve flooding the market with cheap tablets that people doesn't actually want to buy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mockingbird Posted January 2, 2015 Author Share Posted January 2, 2015 Ok, might as well broach the subject: what specific features/changes do folks want in the Touch version beyond what we've seen with the RT release? What's that version lacking/annoying, and what can be improved? As of right now, the touch mode of Office is only skin deep and seem forced upon by higher-up. It's hard to navigation anything that is not part of the Ribbon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starman444 Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Touch would suck on a desktop ok for laptops, tablets etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Touch would suck on a desktop ok for laptops, tablets etc It is great for desktop on big displays and all-in-ones. Especially all-in-ones. 21st of January, for illegaloperation. My guess is that it is during that event that they will reveal a lot about their future products. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Red King Subscriber² Posted January 6, 2015 Subscriber² Share Posted January 6, 2015 Apple / Google needs to really take advantage of this and release advertisements stating that you no longer need Windows for Office. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PGHammer Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 It is great for desktop on big displays and all-in-ones. Especially all-in-ones. 21st of January, for illegaloperation. My guess is that it is during that event that they will reveal a lot about their future products. Agreed on the all-in-ones (such as HP's TouchSmart series). I think that the concern (for some) is that a touch-ready Office would make Office more difficult for traditional use. I have a straightforward question back - why would it (or should it, for that matter)? It certainly isn't the case for Office 2013, which can be used in traditional fashion on the same touch-ready AIOs - the choice is up to the individual user. Just because an operating system (any operating system) supports touch-screen interaction, it doesn't have to support ONLY touch-screen interaction. Naturally, it is also true that just because an operating system supports keyboard and mouse interaction (or even just one of the two), it need not support ONLY that preferred method of interaction. Consider Windows 1.0, for example - it didn't support mice. At all. (You got around in Windows 1.0 via the keyboard.) In fact, you can use Office 2013 in "blended" fashion on such an AIO. That IS a method you can't do on any hardware without touch-screen support - but it is one that Office 2013 supports right now. That may, actually work against an all-touch Office 2015 - for some users, working in "blended" mode may well be enough for them. There has to be more to Office 2015 besides greater touch support - otherwise, a lot of 2013 users will pass. DConnell 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PGHammer Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 Apple / Google needs to really take advantage of this and release advertisements stating that you no longer need Windows for Office. You haven't needed Windows for Office for years on OS X - the issue (if it really has existed) has been for Android - not OS X. The bigger issue for Office on OS X has been lack of functional/performance equivalency between the two versions of Office. (Then there is the reality that Google and/or Apple would be giving Microsoft free advertising - why would they even WANT to do that?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PGHammer Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 Touch would suck on a desktop ok for laptops, tablets etc Have you used an AIO that supports touch? (If you haven't, then stop right there.) Using touch when you're not familiar with it does require a learning curve - especially when you aren't used to it. (I have always said as much.) Getting used to a technology - ANY technology - pretty much requires using it. Not everyone can make the adjustment that a new technology requires - that isn't unique to touch alone - heck, it applies to such mundane technology as the microwave oven. I am getting more comfortable with using touch-screens because I am exposed to them more - which is therefore why I refuse to discount my going that way in the future. (As I've said before, I'd much rather EAT eggs than wear them.) There is also the reality that it is costing less to implement each year the technology exists - what happens if the implementation cost of touch drops below one US cent per inch (diagonal) of display? And for all the naysaying about touch-screens and Windows - touch-screens, even for Windows, existed before even the Windows (8) Developer Preview - for AIOs and even straight desktops and notebooks. (You needed third-party support for it - because the OS didn't. However, it was there anyway.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
remixedcat Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 AIO touch screens are worse than tablets though... they are ok for simple interfaces like PoS or kiosks but not very good for anything precise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PGHammer Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 AIO touch screens are worse than tablets though... they are ok for simple interfaces like PoS or kiosks but not very good for anything precise. Have you used them (or even tried them), remixedcat? (Further, you can still use them in traditional fashion - with a keyboard and mouse - except for kiosk users, you aren't roadblocked from that.) That is, in fact, the greatest SOURCE of that misassumption - places where the hardware support is missing. Just because the hardware support is missing in a single instance (a kiosk, or even a smartphone, or tablet, or point-of-sale terminal), it is assumed that the hardware support is missing in every case. It isn't true, and it has never been true, and especially not for any OS that has touch support. I don't know of any OS that is exclusively touch - or even one that exclusively supports keyboards and mice. (Yes, you did read that right. You can add touch support to Linux - OS X, in fact, already has it. Just because developers have chosen not to use it in Linux distributions, or that Apple has chosen not to add it in their hardware, doesn't mean that it's not there at all.) Assuming that things will never change is the height of two rather nasty flaws - complacency and hubris. (Both can, and do, get users in trouble. Even more telling, most of us, as humans, know it. Yet we walk rather blithely, into that trap of complacency, and with our eyes wide open.) Kiosk use doesn't even require precision - if it did, that could be addressed by including a pointing device (such as a mouse); that isn't impossible, and it requires exactly zero changes to the OS itself. In other words, you COULD adopt a kiosk to precision use. Never assume that something is impossible - some genius may do it just to deny you that argument. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
remixedcat Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 Yes I have tried them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PGHammer Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Yes I have tried them I had to ask - because all too many folks that have your point of view haven't - and are simply re-spewing the line they heard elsewhere. I would not have made my comments about Android or iOS without using them without touch - personally; not from seeing someone else do so. (In fact, you can even run Android Lollipop Knoppix-fashion from USB (or a live DVD, for that matter) - and now. The requirements are, in fact, no higher than those of Knoppix - or any Linux distribution. While OpenGL ES is the preferred mode, Android still supports VESA - like any Linux distribution, or BSD - this comes in handy if you have no OpenGL support, such as Hyper-V - which DOES support VESA - or nVidia, which doesn't natively support OpenGL ES on the desktop side yet - despite Tegra. (I have the Fermi-based GTX550Ti.) And I have even run into two applications (games, in fact) that support Android-x86 directly - and both are on Google Play (Magecraft and Game of War - Fire Age). What I am looking for is something that rotates "phone"-targeting applications (both Magecraft and GoW are in this category) so that both stay in "tablet" mode instead (on tablet or PC displays that don't rotate). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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