- Using Microsoft Word On Macbook Pro Download
- Using Microsoft Word On Macbook Pro Keyboard
- Using Microsoft Word On Macbook Pro Keyboard
Some of us are old enough to recall life before word processors. (It wasn't that long ago.) Consider this sentence:
The MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is a professional machine and if all you plan to do with it is surf Facebook and place emojii on posts there then I'd argue you don't need this much power. Using Microsoft Word with the MacBook Pro Touch Bar is pretty cool. Perhaps if I use the MacBook Pro more often, tapping on the Touch Bar will become second nature.
How did we survive in the days before every last one of us had access to word processors and computers on our respective desks?
That's not a great sentence — it's kind of wordy and repetitious. The following sentence is much more concise:
It's hard to imagine how any of us got along without word processors.
The purpose of this mini-editing exercise is to illustrate the splendor of word processing. Had you produced these sentences on a typewriter instead of a computer, changing even a few words would hardly seem worth it. You would have to use correction fluid to erase your previous comments and type over them. If things got really messy, or if you wanted to take your writing in a different direction, you would end up yanking the sheet of paper from the typewriter in disgust and begin pecking away anew on a blank page.
Word processing lets you substitute words at will, move entire blocks of text around with panache, and apply different fonts and typefaces to the characters. You won't even take a productivity hit swapping typewriter ribbons in the middle of a project.
Before running out to buy Microsoft Word (or another industrial-strength and expensive) word processing program for your Mac, remember that Apple includes a respectable word processor with OS X. The program is TextEdit, and it call s the Applications folder home.
The first order of business when using TextEdit (or pretty much any word processor) is to create a new document. There's really not much to it. It's about as easy as opening the program itself. The moment you do so, a window with a large blank area on which to type appears.
Have a look around the window. At the top, you see Untitled because no one at Apple is presumptuous enough to come up with a name for your yet-to-be-produced manuscript.
Notice the blinking vertical line at the upper-left edge of the screen, just below the ruler. That line, called the insertion point, might as well be tapping out Morse code for 'start typing here.'
Indeed, you have come to the most challenging point in the entire word processing experience, and it has nothing to do with technology. The burden is on you to produce clever, witty, and inventive prose, lest all that blank space go to waste.
Okay, got it? At the blinking insertion point, type with abandon. Type something original like this:
It was a dark and stormy night
If you typed too quickly, you may have accidentally produced this:
It was a drk and stormy nihgt
Fortunately, your amiable word processor has your best interests at heart. See the dotted red line below drk and nihgt? That's TextEdit's not-so-subtle way of flagging a likely typo. (This presumes that you've left the default Check Spelling as You Type activated in TextEdit Preferences.)
You can address these snafus in several ways. You can use the computer's Delete key to wipe out all the letters to the left of the insertion point. (Delete functions like the backspace key on the Smith Coronayou put out to pasture years ago.) After the misspelled word has been quietly sent to Siberia, you can type over the space more carefully. All traces of your sloppiness disappear.
Delete is a wonderfully handy key. You can use it to eliminate a single word such as nihgt. But in this little case study, you have to repair drk Https itunes apple com app. too. And using Delete to erase drk means sacrificing and and stormy as well. That's a bit of overkill.
Use one of the following options instead:
- Use the left-facing arrow key (found on the lower-right side of the keyboard) to move the insertion point to the spot just to the right of the word you want to deep-six. No characters are eliminated when you move the insertion point that way. Only when the insertion point is where it ought to be do you again hire your reliable keyboard hit-man, Delete.
- Eschew the keyboard and click with the mouse to reach this same spot to the right of the misspelled word. Then press Delete.
Now try this helpful remedy. Right-click anywhere on the misspelled word. A list appears with suggestions. Single-click the correct word and, voilà, TextEdit instantly replaces the mistake. Be careful in this example not to choose dork.
I like the MacBook Pro's Touch Bar, Apple's baby step toward a touchscreen Mac that may never happen. It can be helpful (scrolling through a filmstrip of photo thumbnails) and fun (playing Pac-Man).
But the thin touch-sensitive screen that sits above the keyboard will remain a curiosity for most until it can partner with our most-used productivity applications, like Microsoft Office. Well, that's happening. Microsoft released a public update to Office that includes Touch Bar support on Thursday.
SEE ALSO: MacBook Pro with Touch Bar banned from bar exam in multiple states
For those of you unfamiliar with Microsoft's productivity suite on macOS, it's just as powerful and smooth as it is on Microsoft's Windows 10. If you've ever used Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook on Windows or even on the web via Office 365, the macOS version will be instantly familiar.
Test-driving Touch Bar support in Microsoft Office for Mac. Kind of fun. pic.twitter.com/EyxchoskWX
— Lance Ulanoff (@LanceUlanoff) February 14, 2017
Similarly, Touch Bar integration works just as you'd expect it to across the Office suite. On the beta version of the software I tried, I didn't have to do anything to activate Touch Bar controls. As expected, the Touch Bar's OLED screen adapts to the the specific app, but it also varies quite a bit within application tasks.
The limited screen real estate means you won't find all the control you gain through the ribbon on Word or Excel, but that's kind of the point. The Touch Bar is there to surface what Microsoft assumes are your most often-used features. It's sort of a visual manifestation of the 80/20 rule (80% of people use 20% of an app's features).
Using Microsoft Word On Macbook Pro Download
Test driving Touch Bar integration in Microsoft Excel for Mac. I like the chart controls. #MacBookPro@Microsoftpic.twitter.com/2g6l41Wvb0
— Lance Ulanoff (@LanceUlanoff) February 15, 2017
While you use the Touch Bar, the onscreen ribbon disappears, , since the actions you need are still there, and you get an bit of screen space back. For example, as I wrote this review I considered underlining the words 'which is fine' in the previous sentence. That option, along with Bold, Italic, Highlight, Bullets, Text Color and even the Clipboard are all still a touch away. Additional menu choices like Comments and adding Hyperlinks are on the Touch Bar, too, but you'll need to slide to the left to see them — still faster than hunting it down with your trackpad or mouse.
I'm also pleased with how the Touch Bar transforms for specific tasks and, especially, how it can take some features in new directions.
Call of duty 2 player campaign. Follow: If you insert a photo in Word or PowerPoint, the Touch Bar now gives you access to a real-time rotation slider. To rotate a photo incrementally, you just slide your finger back and forth on the Touch Bar. It's a smart feature and fun to use.
In Excel, the Touch Bar supplies access to expected formatting options, but also extends to chart creation and editing. With the Touch Bar, I can do everything from selecting the kind of chart I want (bar, fever, area, scatter) to switching the data axes — each action takes a single tap. The Bar can handle Excel functions, too, but access to them is somewhat non-obvious. First, you need to type an equals sign in a cell, then a scrollable list of functions appears.
PowerPoint may have the best Touch Bar menu. I think I could almost create an entire presentation without accessing the traditional menu. The integration includes text formatting, bullet lists, the creation of new slides and text boxes. It even offers the ability to move objects back and forth in the object stack.
When it's time to present, the Touch Bar shows you a presentation button. Tapping it transforms the Touch Bar into a thumbnail view of your presentation that you can slide through and tap on to bring any slide into view on the main screen. I also appreciate that Microsoft chose to add a clock on the Touch Bar so you can keep track of how long you've been presenting.
Using Microsoft Word On Macbook Pro Keyboard
Test-driving @Microsoft PowerPoint with Touch Bar support on a MacBook Pro. The presentation mode is pretty cool. pic.twitter.com/BJcSLV5JTr
— Lance Ulanoff (@LanceUlanoff) February 16, 2017
I would like to see Microsoft add access to presenter notes on the Touch Bar.
There are other limits, possibly imposed by Apple, on what Office for Mac can do with the Touch Bar. http://iyfoorf.xtgem.com/Blog/__xtblog_entry/19217826-bullet-crack-sound-effect#xt_blog. I was, for instance, surprised to see that when I tapped the insert image icon that, instead of seeing a film strip of image thumbnails on the bar, it just launched an on-screen dialogue box where I could access my image files.
Maybe future versions of the Office will let you customize your Touch Bar experience.
Word for the Mac's Touch Bar also lacks QuickType word suggestions (oddly, Outlook for Mac has them). And despite Microsoft's efforts to surface my most-used features, it did miss a big one: The ability to convert ALL CAPS TYPING to lower case, upper and lower, or sentence case. This is something I really, really need.
Using Microsoft Word On Macbook Pro Keyboard
You cannot currently change any of the Touch Bar menus. Maybe future versions of the Office will let you customize your Touch Bar experience.
To get the most out of this Office for Mac Touch Bar support, you must use it, consistently, which, for many, will be the biggest hurdle. I still find myself forgetting that the Touch Bar is there, mostly because I stare at the screen when I type. Perhaps if I use the MacBook Pro more often, tapping on the Touch Bar will become second nature. If that does happen I could see Touch Bar saving me some serious time in the Office for Mac suite.
