Microsoft Reveals Preview of New Office Sway App
On October 1st, 2014, Microsoft unveiled a preview of its new Office app, named “Sway,” to the general public. This is the first time Microsoft has added a new Office application in the last decade. The new Office Sway app is a hybrid application that helps its users gather content, like images and video, and present that content on the web in an interactive presentation called a “sway.” Office sway assists you in collecting and organizing visual content, much like OneNote, but then outputs the content to a presentation format, much like PowerPoint. This suggests that the user experience will be a familiar one for people who are accustomed to using the other, related apps within Microsoft Office.
According to the article “Announcing Office Sway: reimagine how your ideas come to life” at the “Office Blogs” site, the new Office Sway app allows you to share your content seamlessly across multiple platforms. This means that your “sways” will look great on any screen size, such as phones and tablets. It also means that you can allow others to view your “sways” even if they do not have the new Office Sway app installed. According to the article “Microsoft adds new Sway presentation application to the Office family” by Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet, this is accomplished by using shared web links that viewers can watch in a browser, in addition to social media sharing integration for platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, which are built into the new Office Sway app.
Request a Preview of the New Office Sway App
(Source: Microsoft)
You can request to sign up for the new Office Sway app preview at the “Office Sway” site. You need to enter your email address into the “Enter your email” field within this page and then click the Request invite” button to submit your request. At this time, the new Office Sway app is only available for web browsers. However, the article by Foley mentioned above also notes that it will be rolling out to iOS, Windows Phone, and Android operating systems in the coming months.
Examples of the New Office Sway App
To view some examples of interactive “sways” that were created using the new Office Sway app, click the links shown below to view them in a new browser window. You can also head over to the Sway.com website to view these same examples, and many more.