Microsoft allows anyone to test "office 2016"

Microsoft is planning to release Office 2016 later this year, but it’s letting anyone test a preview copy a little early. Over at Microsoft’s Connect site you can simply sign-up and acknowledge a non-disclosure agreement to get access to the Office 2016 bits. There’s not a huge amount of new changes from Office 2013, but the next version does include a darker theme and Clippy-like helper.

While Microsoft is also making various other UI tweaks and feature additions, the overall look and feel of Office 2016 will look very similar to Office 2013. Microsoft recently started previewing its touch-optimized versions of Office for Windows 10. The new touch apps are impressively fast, and include basic editing features that are perfect even for mouse and keyboard users. Both Office 2016 and Office for Windows 10 will ship later this year.