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Is there anything new on the IPP that makes working with MS Office any better?

Booji

Booji

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 17, 2011
793
519
Tokyo
One of my biggest complaints of the iPad and iOS is that while my current Air 2 has the power and the apps to really work in the traditional productivity environment (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), I've just never been able to make it work for me with the touch interface. Somehow I just seem to need a touchpad or mouse.

I'd love to upgrade to the Pro if there if I could do my normal Office work in it. Does the Pencil or new keyboard help?
 
What is so frustrating is that iOS does not allow a pointer (mouse or trackpad) interface. It would really make the iPad a true do-it-all device. I'm sure there are a lot of strategic reasons for it, but I just don't get it!
 
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ZBoater said:
Yes, they help. But they still don't replace a laptop.
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I agree. The mouse is still my most favorite input device, whether it be a trackpad or actual 'mouse'. I personally have my productivity diminished massively on any tablet without this and a good keyboard. The iPad pro keyboard is actually superb to type on.
 
I have to agree with ZBoater. I now do most of my computing on my iPad, but I like the touch interface. If you need a mouse/trackpad, I don't think the Pencil quite makes up for that.
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Fuzzball84 said:
I agree. The mouse is still my most favorite input device, whether it be a trackpad or actual 'mouse'. I personally have my productivity diminished massively on any tablet without this and a good keyboard. The iPad pro keyboard is actually superb to type on.
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And I hated the mouse when GUI first became widespread, and always used it as little as possible. That habit is now paying off by making transition to touch interface easier. :D
 
Night Spring said:
I have to agree with ZBoater. I now do most of my computing on my iPad, but I like the touch interface. If you need a mouse/trackpad, I don't think the Pencil quite makes up for that.
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And I hated the mouse when GUI first became widespread, and always used it as little as possible. That habit is now paying off by making transition to touch interface easier. :D
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I think it depends on the tasks being performed and how comfortable you are with the different inputs :)
 
Booji said:
One of my biggest complaints of the iPad and iOS is that while my current Air 2 has the power and the apps to really work in the traditional productivity environment (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), I've just never been able to make it work for me with the touch interface. Somehow I just seem to need a touchpad or mouse.

I'd love to upgrade to the Pro if there if I could do my normal Office work in it. Does the Pencil or new keyboard help?
Click to expand...


It's still stripped of some key features because of the locked down backend. I was able to do much more with MS Office on a nexus 9 than I can on an IPP 12.9. I still use my iMac when I want to do "real" work.
 
I don't really want a laptop replacement, but at least an 80% solution. For example, I find it extremely frustrating to select and move text in a document, or edit a moderately complex excel formula. I can manage only basic shape manipulation in PowerPoint. I can do basic edits, but if I were to create a new document it would be pretty unproductive and the output would be constrained by the limitations of me being able to manipulate shapes and text.
 
I'm old (WordStar user back in the day) and so even on a traditional computer still use shortcut keys to navigate around. When I pair my Apple keyboard to our iPad, I don't miss a mouse at all. The issue I see is that without the ability to open multiple versions of the same app, the iPad as a laptop replacement will have limitations. It is not uncommon to need to cut and paste from two or more Word documents or other Microsoft applications in my workflow. I can do workarounds, but that is not optimal. Still, an iPad while on the road is still preferable to carrying around the company laptop, which is overkill.
 
Hope they don't add mouse support but instead concentrate on the software. If want mouse support on a touch device will use a MacBook instead as that what it is currently optimized for. Alternatively if want a touchscreen with full desktop then a Windows device may suit your needs better. If your company supports Citrix then they have mouse support.

Office however, is a good example of successful move from desktop interface to touchscreen. It just needs some added functions to it and developed going forward. I get frustrated with office on iOS as miss being able to insert TOC, bibliography in word documents. The Apple Pencil gives office some great features which are not to be found in the desktop version so also works the other way round.
 
Booji said:
What is so frustrating is that iOS does not allow a pointer (mouse or trackpad) interface. It would really make the iPad a true do-it-all device. I'm sure there are a lot of strategic reasons for it, but I just don't get it!
Click to expand...
Why can't the iPad pair with a Bluetooth Apple Magic Mouse. That would be life changing
 
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docal97 said:
Agreed. I just don't understand why they don't enable mouse support. Then the user can decide whether they want to use this option.
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It would certainly unlock the "Pro" capabilities that already exist in the hardware and software.
 
It really drives me crazy they won't allow you to pair a Bluetooth mouse as a hidden feature for the pro users that would actually do it.

I do it all the time on my jailbroken iPad and it is simply phenomenal, particularly for things that really really need a precision pointer like excel.
 
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