Microsoft today showed a version of Office that runs in the touch-first environment of Windows 8.1. On stage at the Build developer conference, corporate vice president of Office Kirk Koenigsbauer demoed a touch version of PowerPoint.

The touch-first Office is still a "work on progress," Koenigsbauer said. The touch Office applications have the trademark "ribbon" across the top, but bigger, similar to the way the suite was implemented for the iPad.

Koenigsbauer showed how to easily edit a PowerPoint slide with just his fingers. Calling up drop-down menus and moving elements was made easier by larger icon sizes.

Files are automatically saved to OneDrive, which not only doesn't tax the device's storage, but also enables unlimited undos. The touch-first apps are built on Microsoft's Universal App architecture, which ensures compatibility and consistent experiences across devices, so long as they're running Windows.

Microsoft didn't demo touch versions of Word or Excel, and it didn't specify when the new touch version of Office would be available. It had showed a very preliminary version back in June 2013.

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