Leaked screenshots have been posted online purportedly showing the UI for Office Touch for Windows 8.

The slides are part of a presentation posted by Microsoft Research that is now no longer available. Versions of slides were still on mirror sites at time of writing.

The presentation was caught by Winsupersite’s Paul Thurrott. You can flip through a sample using The Reg’s slideshow below.

JavaScript Disabled Please Enable JavaScript to use this feature.

The presentation is titled: “Ink: a UX proposal for Pen and Ink for Office Gemini".

Gemini is the name Microsoft has given to a wave of Office releases through to 2015.

Microsoft has been touch-ifying Office and components of the Office suite – including Office for the iPad and Office 365 – but the experience is incomplete. A fully touch-enabled Office for Windows 8 has yet to appear.

The slides argue the idea is to make Ink a credible alternative for pen and paper and "digitally authentic".

The presentation goes on to talk about a “synergy of improvements” with the ability to use Ink across Windows, Office and Surface.

As ever with Microsoft Research, it’s instructive to remember the division works on long-term ideas that take a while to feed into products. ®