Microsoft Office for Mac 16.22
Microsoft has released version 16.22 of Office for Mac, adding a new trackpad sketching feature to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Available only for Office 365 subscribers, the new digital inking feature enables you to draw on your trackpad with your finger (in addition to using your mouse). Excel also receives a security update to fix an important vulnerability that could allow the spreadsheet app to disclose the contents of memory and allow an attacker to compromise the user’s computer or data. This vulnerability affects both Excel 2019 and its predecessor Excel 2016. ($149.99 for one-time purchase, $99.99/$69.99 annual subscription options, free update through Microsoft AutoUpdate, release notes, macOS 10.10+)
Aaaaaah! With Word still suffering with file corruption problems, why add a sketching feature? When will MS fix the core product? Part of my business consists of editing large papers for graduate and doctoral students with English as a secondary language. The files usually contain 200-300 pages. File corruption is common. The corrupt comes not from viruses nor email nor unplugging external storage devices without first ejecting the devices. The problem is instability in Word. The existence of an Open and Repair command in Word tells us everything we need to know. It would be nice if MS fixed the editing functions before adding secondary or tertiary gizmos.