Microsoft Begins Beta Testing New Office UI

Users of the Microsoft Office beta program can test the new design of the office suite. Later this year, programs such as Word and Excel will be released with a new UI, but you can already try it out now.

The changes are in the upcoming version of Office. It will be released later this year for both Windows 10 and the new Windows 11. Now users can already test it if they are in the Office Insidersitting program, notes WindowsLatest. In the Insider Program, users must opt-in to receive beta channel updates. It is not yet known when all Microsoft 365 users will see the new UI.

It is striking that the changes are mainly small and graphic. Initially, Microsoft planned to replace the ribbon toolbar with a contextual toolbar. That plan does not seem to have been implemented in the first beta. Microsoft received a lot of criticism for the plan to change the ribbon toolbar, but it is not known whether that plan will be continued at a later date. The changes are now mainly in graphical elements such as round corners in the toolbar, among other things, and more space in some buttons or menus.