A few months ago Apple officially launched iPadOS 13.4. This version included two new features that millions of users had been waiting for a long time: the integration of external mice and trackpad to the iPad interface. The developers began to update their applications allowing to make use of these new functionalities. Months later, in May, Microsoft announced that it would introduce mouse and trackpad support in Fall 2020 in its applications. They have been made to beg but a few hours ago, Microsft launched a beta of Word and Excel within TestFlight to test this support for external accessories.
External trackpad and mouse in Microsoft Excel, Word and Powerpoint
Microsoft is the owner of large office automation applications within the Office suite, including Word, Excel and Powerpoint. The advancements included in iPadOS have been integrated into its applications very quickly. For example, the arrival of Split View was quick and users appreciated it considering the usefulness of the function. Nevertheless, the arrival of external mouse and trackpad support it has not yet been made patent.
The announcement by Microsoft was clear: "Mouse and trackpad integration for Office apps will arrive in the fall". With the arrival of autumn on September 22, Microsoft has turned on the engines to prepare for the official update of its applications. In fact, yesterday the beta program was launched through TestFlight the version 2.42 of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel for iPad.
In these versions we see how we can already connect a keyboard with a trackpad or a third-party mouse to control the cursor on the iPad screen. This function makes a circle appear on the device screen, which would be the same as the cursor on a laptop or desktop computer. With this, Apple aims to make iPadOS a much more complex, capable and productive system. And getting great tools like Microsoft Office to integrate these new features is a great step for a greater number of users to start exploiting its benefits.