Microsoft Office for iPad is now one single app, which includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote, within a unified look and feel.
The new unified Microsoft Office presents one app that lets you create documents in Word, Excel, or more
Following its iPhone release in February 2020, Microsoft has now updated the iPad version of Microsoft Office to be a single, unified app. From within the one start screen, users can elect to create Word, Excel, or other documents.
"Office is now available on iPad," says Microsoft in its App Store listing. "We're combining the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps you know into a single, iPadOS-optimized app."
Microsoft Office for iPad is free to download, but to use Office 365's sharing or collaboration features, users still must have a subscription. From within the new Office for iPad, Microsoft offers various in-app subscription options from $6.99 per month.
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint currently remain available as standalone iPad apps in the App Store. It's not clear whether Microsoft intends to remove those, and they do not appear to have any functionality that is lacking in the new unified version.
What that new unified version provides is the ability to get into any of the Office apps with a single tap on the one icon. It also means that the Office apps share a common introductory screen and access to recent documents.