Microsoft Office Version 2108 receives a big update with the latest Office Insiders Preview Build 14326.20004. This build is currently rolling out to the insiders in the Windows Beta Channel. With this build, you will see a new Navigation pane feature in Microsoft Excel, an improved scrolling experience for large cells in Microsoft Excel, and Outlook search improvements.
This build also adds numerous improvements and bug fixes for Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Project, Microsoft PowerPoint, and the entire Microsoft Office suite. For more details and a changelog of this build, continue reading further.
What's new and improved in Microsoft Office Version 2108 (Build 14326.20004)
What's new and improved in Microsoft Excel
See the big picture with the Navigation pane
Microsoft adds a new Navigation pane feature in Microsoft Excel. It is a great way to better understand a workbook’s layout, view the different elements that make up the workbook and navigate directly to those elements. This makes a clearer view of complex workbooks.
To try out the feature, select the View tab and then choose the Navigation button to open the pane. You can also use the keyboard sequence Alt > W > K to open the pane from your keyboard.
Improved scrolling in sheets with large cells
When you are using a sheet with very large cells, sometimes the “snap to grid” functionality in Excel can make it harder to view the data you want. In the latest Microsoft Office Build 14326.20004, Microsoft fixed this issue by making the scrolling much smoother. So you won't see anymore snapping to rows and columns while scrolling in Excel.
You will now be able to stop scrolling partially through a row or column, and Excel will not force the sheet to snap to the edges. Indeed a very good feature for Excel lovers.
Notable fixes
- Fixed an issue occurring when saving as XML data (.xml) from workbooks containing an XML map.
- Fixed an issue where scrolling with touch or a touchpad would revert back to the start of the spreadsheet.
What's new and improved in Microsoft Outlook
Answers: Improvements to Outlook Search
Outlook Search Answers is the latest development in search enhancement for Outlook, helping you find exactly what you’re looking for. Now it’s even easier to find the people, files, and calendar events you want, with Outlook surfacing the best answer as a card at the top of the results.
To try it out, just search on one of those content types in the Search box at the top of the Outlook window. Make sure that the “Current Mailbox” is selected as the search scope.
Notable fixes
- Fixed an issue that caused emails re-sent by a different user to appear to have been sent by the original sender, in organizations where SendFromAliasEnabled is set to True.
- Fixed an issue that caused delegates trying to view forwarded meeting requests in their sent items folder to see the manager’s copy of the meeting rather than the delegate’s sent item.
- Fade a change to allow administrators to disable Always On Logging on a per-process basis via group policy.
- Fixed an issue that caused users to be able to download protected voice mail files.
- Fixed an issue where some notifications in Outlook desktop were not actionable when Office was installed on Win Server 2016.