Microsoft Office Update Brings Drawing Tools for iPad, 3D Touch for iPhone 6s

[MacRumors]

Microsoft today updated its suite of Office apps designed for the iPad and the iPhone, adding features to take advantage of the iPad Pro's Apple Pencil and the 3D Touch function in the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint have all been updated with the new tools.

On iPads, there's a new Draw tab that can be found in each of the three apps. The drawing tools in this tab allow iPad owners to use a pen, finger, or Apple Pencil to write, draw, highlight, and annotate various Microsoft Office documents. Hand-drawn shapes can even be transformed into customized shapes. Draw is limited to the iPad and not available on the iPhone at this time.

On the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint have new 3D Quick Actions that are accessible on the iPhone's Home screen. The Quick Actions let users create new documents or quickly open recently created documents. For all iOS 9 users, Microsoft Office documents will now show up in Spotlight search, making it easy to locate files.

All three apps are also gaining a new cloud font feature, which provides on-demand access to fonts. PowerPoint includes one additional new feature not found in the other updates, a Morph update that allows Morph to be used to move several objects at once.

What's New
- Annotate with Ink: With the tools on the new Draw tab, use your pen, finger, or Apple Pencil to write, draw, and highlight. (iPad only)
- 3D Touch: Use 3D Touch from the home screen to quickly create or open a file. (iPhone 6s or 6s Plus only)
- Fonts from the cloud: Download fonts on demand, when you need them.
- Spotlight search: Quickly find recently opened documents in Spotlight. (iOS 9 required)

All of Microsoft's Office apps can be downloaded from the App Store for free. Documents can be created and edited at no cost on most iOS devices, but unlocking additional tools requires an Office 365 subscription priced at $6.99 per month. Using the Office apps on the iPad Pro requires a subscription.

- Microsoft Word [Direct Link]
- Microsoft Excel [Direct Link]
- Microsoft PowerPoint [Direct Link]

Article Link: Microsoft Office Update Brings Drawing Tools for iPad, 3D Touch for iPhone 6s

 

[FSMBP]

Feels like they could have done more with 3D Touch...A lot of developers are doing the bare-minimum. My gf has a iPhone 6s and forgot about 3D Touch already. I know a lot of techie users may use 3D Touch daily but I rarely see everyone else using it.

 

[Franksan]

Mad respect for Microsoft stepping up their game. Solid update. I love using the iOS Office suite!

 

[thasan]

Only if they fixed their osX softwares
Anyone knows how those shapes appear when the documents are transferred in a standard Windows or Mac environment?

 

[Krevnik]

Only if they fixed their osX softwares
Anyone knows how those shapes appear when the documents are transferred in a standard Windows or Mac environment?

They will show up. Win Office has had this stuff for a while now if you use something like a Wacom or the Surface. Editing them on the other hand is treated like a generic shape unless you have the drawing tools.

 

[UnusedLoginID]

A shiver went down my spine… for a few seconds I started liking a Microsoft product Seriously, can Apple's own iWork apps do that? I mean if Microsoft is ahead of the game - and Apple itself - on iPad Pro, what's the world come to?

 

[69Mustang]

A shiver went down my spine… for a few seconds I started liking a Microsoft product Seriously, can Apple's own iWork apps do that? I mean if Microsoft is ahead of the game - and Apple itself - on iPad Pro, what's the world come to?

Weird ain't it? Usually, I like the bad guy to be clearly defined. This new MS under Nadella is like some sort of anti-hero. Kills for a good reason, but likes it just a little too much.

 

[Jetfire]

Finally!! Been waiting for this since I got the iPad Pro. Now I can finally compare it to the Surface Pro 4 I bought, that is to late to return.

 

[sza]

I never fit myself to devices. Use productivity apps like iWork/Office are neither ergonomic nor productive on small screens.

 

[username:]

Can anyone confirm if the onenote update on iOS allows text to be moved once placed? This was a super annoying bug that i hope they fixed.

 

[Swiss-G]

Can anyone confirm if the onenote update on iOS allows text to be moved once placed? This was a super annoying bug that i hope they fixed.

I take it you mean move/resize note containers?

It's possible to move text using cut/paste, but there doesn't appear to be a way to move/resize note containers on the iOS app.

 

[Traverse]

Will annotations drawn on a Word document on ipad be viewable on Word for Mac? Can you manipulate the drawings on a Mac?

 

[Krevnik]

Will annotations drawn on a Word document on ipad be viewable on Word for Mac? Can you manipulate the drawings on a Mac?

Yes, and kinda. It's a shape, so you can use tools that work with shapes (resize, recolor, move, delete, group, etc), but you can't manipulate it in the sense of splitting it or erasing parts of it.

 

[GoldRushPresentations]

The "Morph" transition directly addresses' "Magic Move" in Keynote. I've already tested it out on a few slides and objects move, grow, and rotate from one place to another – EXACTLY like Magic Move with some nice acceleration as well. First PowerPoint introduces inspector like formatting (for things like Shapes) and now this... they are going directly for the Keynote audience. I just tested to see what happens when it gets moved to the PowerPoint desktop apps... they currently import as "Fade". I wonder if the desktop apps will get this transition and whether it might be Mac only feature.

Cloud fonts is pretty great too... I wonder how (or if) Apple will counter.

 

[Pakaku]

A shiver went down my spine… for a few seconds I started liking a Microsoft product Seriously, can Apple's own iWork apps do that? I mean if Microsoft is ahead of the game - and Apple itself - on iPad Pro, what's the world come to?

I'm perfectly okay with the idea that Apple can handle hardware, and I can use Microsoft's software. My Mac Pro even runs Windows 7 as its standard OS... but I'd probably never use Windows on a non-apple computer.

 

[username:]

I take it you mean move/resize note containers?

It's possible to move text using cut/paste, but there doesn't appear to be a way to move/resize note containers on the iOS app.

Yes that's what I meant. Damn I wish they would fix that annoying bug already

 

[Leetomatsu]

Microsoft today updated its suite of Office apps designed for the iPad and the iPhone, adding features to take advantage of the iPad Pro's Apple Pencil and the 3D Touch function in the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint have all been updated with the new tools.

On iPads, there's a new Draw tab that can be found in each of the three apps. The drawing tools in this tab allow iPad owners to use a pen, finger, or Apple Pencil to write, draw, highlight, and annotate various Microsoft Office documents. Hand-drawn shapes can even be transformed into customized shapes. Draw is limited to the iPad and not available on the iPhone at this time.

On the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint have new 3D Quick Actions that are accessible on the iPhone's Home screen. The Quick Actions let users create new documents or quickly open recently created documents. For all iOS 9 users, Microsoft Office documents will now show up in Spotlight search, making it easy to locate files.

All three apps are also gaining a new cloud font feature, which provides on-demand access to fonts. PowerPoint includes one additional new feature not found in the other updates, a Morph update that allows Morph to be used to move several objects at once.All of Microsoft's Office apps can be downloaded from the App Store for free. Documents can be created and edited at no cost on most iOS devices, but unlocking additional tools requires an Office 365 subscription priced at $6.99 per month. Using the Office apps on the iPad Pro requires a subscription.

- Microsoft Word [Direct Link]
- Microsoft Excel [Direct Link]
- Microsoft PowerPoint [Direct Link]

Article Link: Microsoft Office Update Brings Drawing Tools for iPad, 3D Touch for iPhone 6s

[doublepost=1454378154][/doublepost]I was finding the iPad pro pencil a really useful tool when using the office suite. It allowed a higher level of precision than my finger when selecting cells in excel, moving objects in word/PPT, etc. Now that the new draw feature has been added, I've lost the ability to do that because it thinks I want to draw something instead. Any way to disable that feature?