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A new Office Insider Preview build is available for Windows - here's what's new

Microsoft today announced a new build of Office 2016 for members of the Insider Program that are on the Slow ring. It's build 7668.2048, but the version number is 1612, which indicates that it would be released last month in December. In fact, it's even called the December update.

The company didn't release an Office Insider build for Windows last month, so it's probably just running a bit behind. Here's the full changelog:

  • View and restore changes in shared files: In Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, quickly view who has made changes in your shared documents, workbooks, and presentations, and easily restore earlier versions. To get started, click the Activity icon, which appears in the upper-right corner of any shared file stored on SharePoint, OneDrive for Business, or OneDrive. In the Activity pane, you can see who has edited your document recently, along with the versions they've created.
  • Easily select and manipulate objects: In Excel, you can use the Surface pen when resizing, rotating, and moving handles on objects as well as us the pen button to Lasso select ink without visiting the ribbon.

  • Closed captioning and multiple audio tracks: If a PowerPoint slide contains a video that has closed captions or multiple audio tracks, you can now play these tracks in your slideshow.

  • New data transformation and connectivity enhancements: In Excel, the Percentage data type is now supported, and binary combining and function authoring experiences have been enhanced.

  • Accessibility built right in: In Visio, we've improved support for using your keyboard, Narrator, and other assistive technology to work with shapes, edit with others, and more.

Despite the announcement being about the Windows build, the company also plugged its new Visio Viewer app for iPhone and iPad, which allows you to view your diagrams in "high fidelity".

To sign up for Office Insider, open any Office app and go to File -> Account -> Office Insider. If that sounds a little fast-paced for you, don't worry, as this update will likely roll out to Production within a couple weeks.

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