Add-ins are coming to Microsoft Office for Mac

Add-ins are coming to Microsoft Office for Mac

Microsoft's 2016 Build Developers Conference just concluded. Although the conference was intended on Windows 10, Office for Mac got some love as well. Office for Mac's forthcoming add-in support is one among new add-in features coming to Microsoft's productivity suite.According to developers at Microsoft, the company is keen on bringing its add-ins feature to the Mac version of its Office suite.

Add-ins, which allow third-party developers to add functionality and features to Office, are already a part of Office on Windows and iOS, as well as the Office Web apps. Their arrival on the Mac will carry the same rhythm with the rest of the Office suits. Microsoft also mentioned that a support for Android versions were in development. Add-ins currently available include one that lets you look up information on Wikipedia, another that translates text from within Word, and another that lets you save items to OneNote while you're using Outlook etc.

Microsoft has made yet another big push to provide its productivity tools to users regardless of which platform they use, and the arrival of add-ins on the Mac is yet another indicator. Mac users are now assured about Microsoft's support to their applications on their own preferred operating systems. Microsoft also hinted about new features in add-ins arriving very soon.

For Mac users, it's a welcome sign that Microsoft is working to provide the same set of features in its apps across platforms. Microsoft's decision to remove Virtual Basic macro support from Office for Mac back in 2008 did not go over well with users, and Microsoft re-added the functionality to Office 2011.Add-in developers will soon be able to create toolbar buttons and drop-down menus for add-ins, new add-in deployment tools for IT administrators, add-ins for OneNote, and the ability to install add-ins that aren't available through the Office Store.