Microsoft Office For iPad: 7 Questions Answered
Is Office for iPad a good fit for you? We go hands-on and answer seven key questions to help you decide.
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Microsoft Office for iPad arrived this week, two years overdue, and with millions of tablet users already entrenched in Google Docs, iWork, and other alternatives. But now that the desktop era's top productivity software has finally landed on the world's most popular mobile device, here's the worst thing I can say: Office for iPad is the best tablet work software so far.
No, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for iPad aren't perfect. Want to use the new apps to print a document? Too bad. You'd like to edit documents without signing up for Office 365? Sorry, you'll have to use Office Online, the browser-based version.
Office for iPad won't change the market. The apps might set the standard in their category, but it's not clear how many people care about that category to begin with.
For millions of professional users, Office for iPad is a no-brainer. Office 365 subscriptions were already growing rapidly, and the new apps only sweeten the offer. Road warriors rely on iPads to review and annotate documents on the go. With native Office apps, they now can do so with not only perfect file fidelity, but also a wide range of tools and strong cloud support.
For consumers, the outlook is murkier. Had Office been available to iPad users at a reasonable cost back in 2011, competing products might never have gained traction. Will people who do only light work care about Office's most sophisticated features? Will they accept recurring Office 365 costs when so many viable options are free?
Some people might be won over. I wrote parts of this article using Word on a non-Retina iPad Mini -- and it was easier than I'd anticipated. I began the story while crammed into a crowded train. Using OneDrive, I picked it up seamlessly on my PC once I got back to my desk.
But am I about to stick my laptops in a drawer and rely mostly on my iPad? Hell, no.
Typing on glass simply isn't as fast and accurate as typing on a full keyboard. There's a reason iPad commercials show people using their devices to photograph epic waterfalls at the top of the world, not writing the next great work of literature. In a pinch, could I use Office on the iPad to create documents? Absolutely. Would doing so be preferable to other methods? No.
When modifying or reviewing a document, though, the apps are outstanding. I can't see a student composing an entire essay on an iPad, but I can imagine a professor using an iPad to annotate essays and provide feedback. And for some layout work, the touch interface is great. When you press on a picture in a Word document and begin moving the image, surrounding text adjusts dynamically. It's an intuitive and pleasing experience that makes it possible to polish a presentation while walking between meetings.
Office for iPad represents a big shift in Microsoft's strategy. When new CEO Satya Nadella introduced the apps, he repeatedly said they'll help users "do more" -- a slogan borrowed from the Ballmer era. But under the previous regime, no one at Microsoft would have ever suggested people should "do more" on an iPad. Ballmer famously claimed that his children were forbidden from using Apple products, but during Thursday's press conference, Microsoft employees talked openly about owning iPads.
For his part, Nadella claimed Microsoft held nothing back in creating products. He said the company is focused on delivering the best user experience possible on all platforms. Compared to the Windows jingoism of yesteryear, this is anathema. It raises obvious questions about Microsoft's device strategy, and how Windows will remain relevant as the cloud becomes the nexus of the software world. Nadella confidently promised to deliver answers to these questions next week, when the company will host Build, its conference for developers.
Despite these uncertainties, Office for iPad is the crème de la crème in its genre. The apps generated immediate interest, at least in their cost-free form. By Friday, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint occupied the top three spots among free apps in the iPad's app store. Microsoft's recently introduced OneNote app was right behind them at number four.
What do the new apps offer? Read on for the answers to seven key questions about Microsoft's Office for iPad.
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are free through the Apple App Store, but to access editing features, you'll need an Office 365 subscription. If you don't have one, you can sign up through the apps. Office 365 plans come in several flavors. Personal, which is coming this spring, entitles subscribers to Office on one PC and one tablet, and will be $6.99 monthly or $69.99 annually. Home, which offers support for five desktops and tablets, is $9.99 monthly or $69.99 a year. University is restricted to students and costs $79.99 for four years. Microsoft also offers a variety of business plans that range in per-user cost.
Alongside the new apps, Microsoft is now offering Office Mobile free for iPhones and Android smartphones. These apps, which offer file compatibility but relatively few tools, had previously required Office 365 subscriptions. The relaxed requirements apply only to personal use. Business users still need Office 365 accounts.
The iPad version of Word falls somewhere between the relatively barebones Office Online version and the full-featured desktop versions. At least one report suggested ahead of Thursday's announcement that the app would resemble Office Mobile, but the final product looks much more like Office 2013 on Windows tablets. It's unmistakably an iPad app, with a refined touch interface and generally elegant layout, but it's also unmistakably Office.
The app preserves the essence of the desktop version but does not incorporate all traditional features. The abbreviated Ribbon offers a wide range of tools, but the focus is on breadth, not depth. Familiar fonts, layout tools, and templates are available, and there's even a compatibility mode for working with older documents. Word on iPads also includes robust "check changes" features, including the document's revision history. Real-time co-authoring is also supported, and though the app is cloud-oriented, Word offers offline editing, as do Excel and PowerPoint.
Power users will find some features missing, such as a way to define custom bullets, or a simple way to print documents. The app has a spell-check tool but no thesaurus. Without a keyboard and its shortcuts, some common tasks, such as "find and replace," are also unwieldy.
But despite these shortcomings, Word for iPad is the best option for word processing on tablets. With Microsoft sure to add new features over time, it should only get better.
Microsoft seems to have designed PowerPoint for iPad more for those who need to deliver presentations than those who need to create them. The app, which works only in landscape mode, does offer transitions, animations, and a variety of other content-creation tools. But it promises to be most useful as a companion app for sprucing up existing projects while on the move.
For presentations, the app includes several great touches. Users can easily throw presentations on a television via Apple TV, for example. And once the presentation is on the big screen, the user can press down on the iPad to create a virtual laser pointer, excellent for fluidly emphasizing key points during a meeting. The same technique also allows annotations, letting presenters underline, circle, and otherwise mark up slides during a talk.
Like the iPad version of PowerPoint, the Excel app doesn't attempt to replicate the desktop version's powerful list of features, which have long set the spreadsheet standard. You won't find pivot tables, for example, but do you really want them on an iPad anyway? The app is more about staying connected and collaborative wherever you are. That might involve parsing snippets of data, but probably not elaborate quantitative acrobatics. The app doesn't yet support Power BI's sophisticated analytics tools, for example.
Still, Microsoft packed a lot into the iPad's slimmed-down version. The app relies on the user's actual data to generate chart suggestions, rather than simply displaying a stable of stock examples. The Formulas ribbon also supports a wide arrange of tools, including many statistical and financial functions. Microsoft also implemented a special numeric keyboard tailored for Excel.
Not really. True, it's easy to look at Office 365 with a certain amount of cynicism. The subscriptions allow Microsoft to replace standalone licenses, a one-time source of revenue, with recurring and potentially perpetual fees. At face value, that sounds better for Microsoft than for customers.
But Office 365 also entitles users to the newest versions of Office apps -- not a big deal to everyone but nothing to sneeze at, either. Most important, Office 365 encourages users to harness the cloud. If you're still emailing yourself documents or carrying around several USB drives, the cloud offers real benefits: Start a project in one place on one machine, finish it on a different device somewhere else. Granted, you don't require Office to embrace the cloud. If you don't collaborate much, Google Docs, iWork, or another is adequate. But if you need to standardize with colleagues on a single cloud platform, Office 365 is hard to beat.
On their own, iPads are not traditional productivity machines. You can create a lot of content with Office for iPad, but the best experience will be had by those who pair their tablets with a PC. The new apps can stand alone, but they're really intended to complement the larger, increasingly cross-platform Office ecosystem.
If Satya Nadella made anything clear during his first press conference as CEO, it's that Ballmer's protectionist tactics are a thing of the past. The old CEO delayed Office for iPad, which has reportedly been ready to ship for some time, in a grand gamble to prop up Windows tablets. And even when he pursued cross-platform opportunities, such as Office on Macs, Ballmer gave the Windows versions certain advantages.
It's difficult to say if Office for iPad was finally released because Nadella commanded it, or because Ballmer had already set the ball in motion. Nevertheless, it's significant that touch-first Office apps hit an Apple product before arriving for Windows 8.1's Modern UI.
Nadella said the company will hold nothing back as it strives to deliver the best software and services for not only Windows devices but for other platforms as well. The concurrent release of its Enterprise Mobility Suite, positioned as a way for IT to easily manage mobile devices of all kinds, backs up this claim. The CEO also said Microsoft still harbors massive ambitions for Windows, and that it's preparing significant device innovations. With the Build conference for developers, he'll have a chance to back up those words. Regardless of whatever new products arrive, Microsoft clearly no longer considers Windows sacrosanct.
Microsoft's biggest bet seems to be on Azure. It provides the backbone for the cloud-based software and services toward which Microsoft is moving, but it also supports a range of non-Windows workloads and offers cross-platform development opportunities. If Azure becomes the dominant cloud option, it could be to the mobile era what Windows was to the desktop PC era.
Some have argued that the release of Office for iPad obviates the need for Microsoft's Surface tablets, if not all Windows tablets. To some extent this is likely true. Microsoft positioned Office as one of the main differentiators between Windows tablets and iPads. That tactic didn't work and now that it's been completely removed, it's inevitable that some would-be Surface owners will instead go with iPads.
But Windows tablets and iPads are different tools. The iPad apps are fantastic for document review and light editing, but if I had to type a lengthy report I would much rather use a Surface Pro than an iPad -- and a full-size laptop than either a Surface or iPad. Still, a niche portion of the market has already gravitated toward Windows tablets because they can be used like ultralight laptops. I don't see Office for iPad affecting this niche.
When he introduced the iPad apps, Nadella promised that a touch-first version of Office is coming to Windows 8.1's Modern UI. The company doesn't appear to have deliberately handicapped the iPad version in any way that Windows editions could obviously improve -- but company execs have repeatedly discussed the potential of voice, gesture, and stylus inputs, so some surprises might be in store.
Some have argued that the release of Office for iPad obviates the need for Microsoft's Surface tablets, if not all Windows tablets. To some extent this is likely true. Microsoft positioned Office as one of the main differentiators between Windows tablets and iPads. That tactic didn't work and now that it's been completely removed, it's inevitable that some would-be Surface owners will instead go with iPads.
But Windows tablets and iPads are different tools. The iPad apps are fantastic for document review and light editing, but if I had to type a lengthy report I would much rather use a Surface Pro than an iPad -- and a full-size laptop than either a Surface or iPad. Still, a niche portion of the market has already gravitated toward Windows tablets because they can be used like ultralight laptops. I don't see Office for iPad affecting this niche.
When he introduced the iPad apps, Nadella promised that a touch-first version of Office is coming to Windows 8.1's Modern UI. The company doesn't appear to have deliberately handicapped the iPad version in any way that Windows editions could obviously improve -- but company execs have repeatedly discussed the potential of voice, gesture, and stylus inputs, so some surprises might be in store.
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