Microsoft Excel for iPad Now Supports Split View, Word Gains Full Trackpad Support, and PowerPoint Offers Presenter Coaching

Microsoft today released updates to its suite of Office apps for iPad, including Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Notably, Excel for ‌‌iPad‌‌ now supports Split View, which allows you to open two spreadsheets simultaneously side-by-side to view and edit. Word and PowerPoint received support for Split View in May 2020.

Split View can be accessed by touching and holding on a spreadsheet document in any file view and then dragging it to the left or right side of the screen. To exit Split View, grab the slider in the middle of the screen and drag it to either the left or right to close one of the spreadsheet documents and take the remaining one full-screen.

Meanwhile in PowerPoint, users can now rehearse their presentations with the new Presenter Coach feature, which offers feedback on the things that keep an audience engaged, such as pacing, pitch, filler words, sensitive phrases, and more.

Microsoft has also been working to implement full support for the iPadOS trackpad controls that were introduced in iPadOS 13.4, and the latest version of Word (2.45) does just that. Following the update, users can connect a trackpad and mouse to their ‌iPad‌ to interact with documents. Keyboards with trackpads include Apple’s Magic Keyboard and Brydge’s Pro+ for the iPad Pro and Logitech’s Combo for the 10.2-inch ‌iPad‌ and the 10.5-inch iPad Air.