AppleInsider Staff
Microsoft on Wednesday offered a sneak peek at upcoming Office capabilities for iPadOS, with Office beta testers now able to open multiple documents side-by-side in Word and PowerPoint.
Detailed in a blog post, the new feature takes advantage of iPadOS 13's multi-window support for apps.
Technically an enhancement of Apple's Split View, the mechanism allows for two instances of the same app to be opened and viewed side-by-side. For example, users can open a first email in one Split View pane while composing another in the second pane. Previously, Split View support was limited to one window per app.
Microsoft is now experimenting with the feature, allowing users to open multiple Word or PowerPoint documents side-by-side.
There are a few ways to access the capability in beta form:
- Touch, hold, and drag a file from the Recent, Shared, and Open file list in the app to the iPad screen edge to open it side-by-side.
- In Word or PowerPoint, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and open the dock. Then touch and hold the same app's icon and drag it off the dock to the left or right edge of the screen. Then tap the document to open it.
- In Word or PowerPoint, access the Recent, Shared, and Open views in the app start screen, tap the "" menu for a file in the list, then tap Open in New Window.
For now, Split Screen support is restricted to so-called "Office Insiders," or members of Microsoft's public beta testing program. Those interested in trying out the new feature must join the Office Insider program and download beta versions of Office apps through Testflight.
Whether multi-window support will make it to a shipping version of Office remains to be seen, though it appears Microsoft put significant time and effort into integrating the iPad-only feature.
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10 Comments
Nice to see MS pushing and adopting iPadOS features.
Hopefully Apple is thinking ahead with the multiview or multiscene support and will be able to flip a switch and have these apps automatically support overlapping views if and when it comes.
Can't wait to see this feature rolled out to the general public. Office 365 has to be one of the most cost effective and high value subscriptions going. You get the full office suit along with OneDrive for a real low monthly fee - Australian dollar term its just $17.20 per month - such great value. Compare that to Adobe subscription which is a rip off at $24.50 per month. You just can't compare the two in terms of value. Adobe should be ashamed. Little wonder people decide to get around their licensing by purchasing other products.
By implementing OneDrive we got rid of DropBox which saved us the cost of our Office subscription. Whilst, DropBox is far superior than OneDrive, OneDrive is improving all the time and it does what we need it to.
For once, Microsoft have got something bang on right, a good product suit at a fair and reasonable price. Its a no brainer for me. Adobe have got it all wrong. It should be a $9.95 product and 3 PC install allowance.
I’m glad they are finally testing this. I’ve been waiting for this feature for months. I still wish they would increase the functionality of the apps. Sometimes I switch to the web based apps to do certain jobs that the installed apps cannot, such as editing smart graphics in PowerPoint. Every current iPad has so much performance headroom that Office could greatly expand functionality while keeping it entirely usable.
I’d like to see the stats on Word, PowerPoint, etc. usage on the iPad for people with Office365 subscriptions... how often is it used, and is it used for content creation or reading/presenting.
In other words, are users learning how to use it fully...