Microsoft began rolling out Office productivity suite improvements on Tuesday, as well as announced that it has unified its Office codebase across Windows, Android, iOS and Mac.

The unified codebase was announced amid various Mac and iOS Office and OneDrive storage improvements. Microsoft is bringing support for features including co-authoring and AutoSave for users of Office for Mac version 16.9.0, although those features only work when files are saved to OneDrive or SharePoint sites. Among the new features require having Office 365 subscriptions, like for example the new AutoSave feature.

"With our newest version of Office for Mac, version 16.9.0, we've extended these capabilities to Apple users; believe it or not, this release marks the main time in 20 years that Office shares the identical codebase across Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android for core functionalities," explained Derek Snook, a principal program manager for Office for Mac, iPhone and iPad.

The new unified codebase means that Microsoft can roll out Office features across operating system platforms in a faster rate, Snook explained, although Microsoft still needs to design the features reported by each particular platform's user interface.

Office for Mac 2016 Features

At the Mac platform, new Office for Mac 2016 features are available, nevertheless the following features require utilising an Office 365 subscription:

AutoSave, which saves files "every few seconds."
New Excel Worksheet functions, including IFS formula for nesting "If" statements in formulas, and SWITCH formula, "which evaluates an expression to return one matching value at the list."
New PowerPoint Trim tool for editing the length of embedded video or audio (only works with locally stored audio or video files -- it doesn't work with with media "from the web").
PowerPoint QuickStarter, which builds a presentation outline as reported by the subject and user research.
PowerPoint "highlighted changes," which shows the changes made by co-authors generally if the user has been away.

Other Office for Mac features being added don't require an Office 365 subscription. They include:

Co-authoring for Excel, PowerPoint and Word (although it only works for files stored on OneDrive or SharePoint).
Table slicers, which lets users grab the particular they want.
Excel multithreaded calculations, where Excel tries to speed up calculation performances by using different threads.
PowerPoint laser pointer, which turns the mouse cursor inside a pointer.
Excel getting more chart types.
Word for Mac now has Immersive Reader capabilities, including a Read Aloud function.

iOS Office Additions
Microsoft also described some coming Office improvements for users of Apple iOS devices, which includes iPads and iPhones, in another announcement.

It's now possible to drag and drop files (like for example documents, spreadsheets and presentations) from Office apps or from OneDrive storage on iOS devices. Users can also "move files to and from OneDrive besides other sources -- such as SharePoint or iMessage," Microsoft's announcement explained.

OneDrive for iOS now supports the iOS 11 Files app. "This means iPhone and iPad users can upload, access, edit, and save content to OneDrive or SharePoint from any iOS app that supports File app integration -- a top requested feature," the announcement explained.

Plus, the OneDrive for iOS app supports previews for more file types. It now supports "over 130 file types, including Adobe Photoshop and 3D objects," Microsoft indicated.

Lastly, Outlook for iOS now has improved search across organizations. The search is regarding the Microsoft Graph technology that underlies Office 365 products, working to surface organizational info.