HomeWinBuzzer NewsMicrosoft Office for iPhones Gains Finger-Drawing Support

Microsoft Office for iPhones Gains Finger-Drawing Support

Microsoft has updated its Office suite to allow drawing and writing support with fingers and a stylus. The feature is similar to the company’s earlier support for the Apple Pencil on the iPad Pro.

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has started the week with an update for its Office apps on the . The new update brings some added functionality to the productivity suite on 's smartphone. Among the new additions is support for finger-drawing in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

That finger-drawing support lets users draw and take notes using their fingers. It is an expansion of Microsoft's January update for Office on iOS. That update brought support for the Apple Pencil on the iPad Pro. While the Pencil does not work on the iPhone, users now get similar functionality by using a digit.

To gain access to the feature, there is a Draw tab that is now located in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Under this tab there are such options as the ability to draw, write, annotate, and highlight within a document. There is also some flexibility available as users can choose between using their finger or a stylus.

Microsoft has made the feature customizable in terms of how big the pen is. Shapes that have been drawn can be converted into custom shapes, and PowerPoint supports freeform drawings on top of existing slides. Excel users can use the new finger-drawing support to annotate in cells.

Update Links

You can check out the new updates by heading to the following individual Office apps:

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Excel

PowerPoint

Last month Microsoft brought Certificate Based Authentication to on Android and iOS in Preview. The feature is created to protect the credentials of customers in Office 365. Microsoft says leaked data is becoming so common that passwords are no longer enough on their own. The Identity Division within the company is designed to help shore up vulnerable credentials.

Office on iOS is a big part of Microsoft's plans to make its services available across platforms. Mobile has been a success for the productivity suite and has spurred growth in recent years. Microsoft said at Build 2016 that Office has been downloaded over 340 million times on iOS and Android.

Luke Jones
Luke Jones
Luke has been writing about all things tech for more than five years. He is following Microsoft closely to bring you the latest news about Windows, Office, Azure, Skype, HoloLens and all the rest of their products.

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