For some, Microsoft Office for the iPad was viewed as the holy grail.
For some it was endless waiting that rivaled anything Samuel Beckett
ever wrote. For some the delays from Redmond made it irrelevant and they
moved on to other options. There were even some who felt, for some
reason, that without a version of Microsoft Office for the iPad, Apple’s
iPads weren’t legitimate and couldn’t possibly be “real work”
computers. Regardless, Microsoft has now released Office Apps for the
iPad in the form of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint and also updated OneNote
to match the big trio. Let the “real work” begin.
In short, Microsoft has finally pushed out a selection of productivity Apps that are well thought out and designed for the iPad experience and iOS 7. The separate Apps are tied together via Microsoft’s OneDrive or Sharepoint services. Those who use Office as their primary document creation environment should be quite happy with the result. Those who may have shied away from an iPad because it lacked Microsoft Office Apps don’t have that excuse anymore. Over 12 million copies of the Apps were downloaded in the first week. Those figures may tell us that those who moved on to other options instead of waiting might be willing to give the new Office Apps a try.
The “real work” argument has been raging about Tablets since the inception of the iPad. It’s a bogus argument and always has been. If you have nothing better to do, debate that if you must. But you’ll have an even tougher time doing so now that these well executed Office Apps exist for the iPad platform. Are they perfect? No. But they are better than I think many expected them to be based on assumptions made after Microsoft begin offering the less than capable Office Mobile Apps for iOS and Android. (By the way, those Apps are now free as well.)
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Cost
If you don’t already have a subscription you’ll need to purchase one for editing and creating. (Translation: to get “real work” done.) At present that $99 option gives you the use of Microsoft Office products on up to five computers. The same option can be purchased more cheaply at other sources such as Amazon. (Currently it costs $67.15 if you order a key card and not a download.) You can also purchase an Office 365 subscription through an in-App purchase or directly through Microsoft and other retailers. If you purchase a subscription via the App, Apple gets 30% of the cut as per its policies. So strange, but not uncommon, bedfellows are high fiving each other over these new arrivals.
In a shrewd bit of marketing Microsoft will be rolling out a discounted Personal Edition of Office 365 at some still unannounced point this spring that can be used on one Tablet and one computer. That version will cost $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year. It’s shrewd on several accounts. The cheaper version wasn’t available at launch, which essentially means Microsoft (and Apple) got to take advantage of eager Office users buying new accounts in the rush of the release. The Personal edition will allow users to install it on one Tablet and one computer, which sounds just right for a market full of iPad users. There is also a student plan, Office 365 for University, that costs $80 for four years.
Are the new free Apps worth the cost of an
Office 365 subscription? That depends so much on your situation. If you
and your family are in an environment that uses Microsoft Office at work
or home as its standard fleet of productivity software it is an easier
decision. If you’re a hard core Microsoft Office user eventually you’ll
go the Office 365 subscription route. That’s the future in Microsoft’s
eyes. If you’re a casual document
creator or work with collaborators who use other document creation
software it would be a tougher call. There are plenty of alternatives
out there, so if budget is a concern do some exploring before you decide
to jump into the game. There is a thirty day free trial of Office 365,
so you can try before you buy.
Three Apps No Suite
The fact that Microsoft chose to offer Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, as well as OneNote as separate and distinct downloads follows Apple’s lead with its iWork suite. It’s a good lead to follow. Users have always been able to buy stand alone copies of any of the Office software products separate from a full Office suite. But the push was always to sell full suites. Now, like with iWork, if you don’t need to create spreadsheets or presentations but write a lot of correspondence, all you need to download is Word for the iPad. This reviewer can certainly envision an iPad that includes Word for the iPad, Keynote, and no spreadsheet software at all.Look, Feel, and Consistency
In general Microsoft has done a surprisingly good job of creating Apps that not only provide good functionality but also a pleasing and simple user experience. Some may say that the Apps are stripped down versions of what you find in the desktop versions of the software and that’s true. But the functionality most users will need is present in these Apps. Comparing the functionality included in the desktop version of Microsoft Office to these iPad Apps is akin to comparing an aircraft carrier to a sleek ocean going yacht. You’ll get where you’re going but with less overhead.
The new Apps fit well into the iOS 7 design language and if you’ve ever used the web versions of Word, Excel or Powerpoint or the previously available OneNote for the iPad, you’ll feel right at home. Each of the Apps sports the familiar ribbon interface with different commands grouped under different tabs. There are always Home, Insert, View, and Review tabs, but depending on the App you’re in and the context that you are working within, other tabs are available or not available. For example, the Transitions tab only appears in Powerpoint and the Formulas tab only appears in Excel.
With the exception of Powerpoint, the Apps let you work in portrait (vertical screen alignment) or landscape (horizontal) depending on your preference. Powerpoint is landscape only. In either orientation the Apps, tabs, and menus scale nicely so that you have the same commands and tabs on the screen without any appearance of crowding. Working in portrait mode provides more screen real estate if you use the iOS virtual keyboard, but that really is a matter of preference. The Apps look equally good on a full-sized iPad and an iPad mini.
The Apps each have a very clean and polished look about them and there is consistency to the menu commands above the tab bar across all of the Apps. It won’t take you long to orient yourself. These icons take you to the File and Account management area, allow you to save/sync the document you are working on, undo and redo, search, or share with another user.
Under the Save menu, you can turn on or off an Autosave feature that saves changes to your documents as you go. You can also choose to duplicate a document if you want to preserve the original while you edit further. (Highly recommended.) You can also view a document’s properties and get help. There’s also a restore command if you just want to tear up the revisions you’ve made and start over.
If you want to search within a Word or Excel document you’ll find a magnifying class in the upper right corner of the screen. Tapping this icon brings up a search box to enter your search query as well as a gear icon. That gear icon leads you to a menu where you will find the Find and Replace command, which in my usage is a function that I rely on frequently.
The Apps all take advantage of the editing zoom feature in iOS that appears when you select text, making it easier to place the cursor where you want it to be.
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