Bill Gates returned to Microsoft in a more active role earlier this year when Satya Nadella was appointed the company's new CEO, but it turns out that the man who founded the whole software empire is more involved than anyone knew.

In a recent interview for Bloomberg TV, Gates has revealed that Office 16 is one of the projects that he's working on right now and what he wants is the productivity suite to be “dramatically better” when it hits the market next year.

“That's the kind of thing that I'm trying to make sure they move fast on,” he said.

Bill Gates hasn't provided any specifics on what exactly he plans to improve in Office, but recent photos that got leaked and reached the web revealed that Microsoft was working on several new features, including a dark theme that could make the productivity suite easier to use at night.

Office remains Microsoft's number one cash cow

The fact that Bill Gates is trying to improve the Office productivity suite isn't at all surprising, as this particular solution, together with the Office 365 cloud-based service, continues to be the company's top cash cow, bringing in more money than any other Microsoft product, including Windows.

“Of all the things Microsoft needs to do in terms of making people more productive in their work, helping them communicate in new ways, it's a long list of opportunities Microsoft has to innovate. And taking Office and making it dramatically better would be really high on the list there. That's the kind of thing I'm trying to help make sure they move fast on,” Gates said in the Bloomberg TV interview.

At this point, Microsoft is also aggressively pushing the Office 365 cloud suite to companies and organizations worldwide, as the firm wants to bring in more partners that would purchase one of the available subscription packages and thus benefit from better communication and collaboration based in the cloud.

Gates pleased with Satya Nadella's work

Bill Gates also admitted that he's very happy with the way Microsoft is doing with Satya Nadella at the helm of the company, explaining that “a new sense of energy” seems to drive the software giant forward.

“I'm very happy with what he's doing. I see a new sense of energy. There's a lot of opportunity there, some things the company isn't the leader on, and he sees that he needs to change that,” he said.

Bill Gates currently holds the role of technical adviser at Microsoft since Satya Nadella was appointed new CEO, but the company's co-founder said that in the future he could take over a much more important role.

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