Microsoft Office for Mac 16.89
Microsoft has released version 16.89 of Office for Mac, providing keyboard control of the ribbon in all the Office apps. This new feature enables you to press the Option key to display KeyTips on the ribbon, which can then be navigated via the keyboard (first, turn on the Keyboard Navigation switch in System Settings > Keyboard). Outlook resolves an issue where “Resume editing” didn’t work as expected for canceled scheduled send messages; fixes a bug that caused email actions such as Delete, Move, Mark as Read, and Archive options to be greyed out for IMAP accounts; and addresses a crash that occurred when saving a message with attachments in the Draft folder. ($149.99 for a one-time purchase, $99.99/$69.99 annual subscription options, free update through Microsoft AutoUpdate, release notes, macOS 12+)
I’m on 16.89 and the What’s New item doesn’t mention the feature of the keyboard working with the ribbon. I tried in Excel and Word. Holding the Option key down does nothing. Maybe there’s an extra step needed?
I haven’t tried it, but there is an article on the subject at Microsoft’s support site:
Use the keyboard to work with the ribbon - Microsoft Support
I see, thanks. The TidBITS article linked at top says “This new feature enables you to press the Option key to display KeyTips on the ribbon, which can then be navigated via the keyboard”. That’s what I was looking for and still can’t find, even with Keyboard Navigation turned on in System Settings. But regardless I realize I can’t use the feature if it requires Keyboard Navigation to be turned on, as I like tab to only move between fields (or insert tab characters in Word).
You might want to have a look at Homerow and Shortcat, both of which are more generally useful and should allow you to access the ribbon from the keyboard.
Good point!