Roger Fingas
Microsoft on Tuesday released major updates to the iOS versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, adding features like real-time collaboration, and drag-and-drop support on iPads with iOS 11 or later.
The new collaboration features mirror upgrades to Office 2016 for Mac made earlier this month. When editing, iOS users can check who else is working on a document, and see any changes sync within seconds — collaborative files must, however, be saved in OneDrive or SharePoint.
Drag-and-drop allows Office apps to exchange text, photos, graphs, and other objects, whether between each other or compatible external sources. This includes Microsoft's OneDrive.
Another important improvement is universal link support, meaning that shared files will open directly in an appropriate Office app, rather than forcing users to re-authenticate on the Web.
Accessibility enhancements include larger font options and tweaks to VoiceOver for better navigation.
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are all free downloads, but require an Office 365 subscription for full feature access.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
7 Comments
I am so pleased to see that M$ has rediscovered that it is a software company first, as opposed to a platform company. Competition with Apple’s office-like products (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) is very welcome. Apple needs a kick up the rear end because if they’re serious about iPad in the office they need to up their game in a major way.
I’ve really wanted to, tried to, work with Numbers. But it continues to live in the shadow of Excel’s capabilities.
As much as I like Excel I always strive to ensure the spreadsheets I create are fully functional on LibreOffice Calc. Microsoft Office subscription is simply too expensive for home users. One hundred bucks a year adds up quickly as the years go by. I have one Office 2016 for Mac license and an Office 2011 license that is soon to be in 32-bit purgatory but I will not be signing up for any more Office licenses or subscriptions. I’m going to hang my hat on LibreOffice Calc and Numbers and never look back.
yeah not pleased with the software rental model. i don’t often need the newest version of Office, so renting it every year definitely costs me more than a periodic purchase.
Where? All I see is version 2.9, which already came out 2 weeks ago.
Switching between two documents on Word for iPad has historically been a joke. Not being able to have two documents open side by side borders on a parody of usability for a word processor in 1998, let alone 2018.