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Microsoft Office for iOS Updated With iCloud Drive Support

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Apr 12, 2001
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Microsoft today released an update for its suite of Office apps on Apple's iPhone and iPad App Store for users running iOS 8. The 1.6 updates bring, along with the usual bug fixes and performance enhancements, full support for saving and syncing documents via Apple's iCloud Drive service (via The Verge).

Microsoft says users of its most popular software like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint can now open, edit, and save their work to iCloud as a storage option in the "Places" section of each iOS app.

Photo-Feb-17-7-24-18-AM-800x698.png
The additional storage method doesn't require users to have an Office 365 subscription and comes as an alternative to Microsoft's own cloud storage option, OneDrive. As pointed out by The Verge, light restrictions on a few file types may hinder iCloud's usage on Microsoft's iOS apps, however.
There's also restrictions on filetypes, so while you can see a thumbnail preview of text in a document created with TextEdit on a Mac (stored on iCloud), you can't access the document or edit it. Overall, it's a fairly basic feature addition, but one that will please (and possibly frustrate) those who use iCloud on a regular basis.
Click to expand...
Microsoft most recently added a similar feature to flesh out its iOS offerings with a partnership with Dropbox that let users open, edit, and save their documents using the popular document-saving cloud app. The Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps launched on the iPhone in early November, bringing free document creation and basic editing to the service.

Microsoft Word [Direct Link], Microsoft Excel [Direct Link], and Microsoft PowerPoint [Direct Link] can all be downloaded from the App Store for free.

Article Link: Microsoft Office for iOS Updated With iCloud Drive Support
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/02/17/office-ios-icloud/
This is a positive move. Although I downloaded the MS products, I still mostly use the Apple apps. The ability to save to iCloud will make a difference since I use that for my documents. But I have to say that I have become use to using Apple on the iOS devices and really only go to Excel when I need a pivot table.

Still competition is good.
 
Good bye iWork...

...hello Office. Seriously, it's painfully obvious that MS has their sights once again on total domination in this space. Apple has done next to nothing for the iWork apps which IMO, were pretty nice on the iOS devices until MS released the current wave of Office for iOS apps. And given their recent actions in lifting restrictions on storage and use, I see iWork fading into oblivion unless Apple pulls a MAJOR rabbit out of their hat.
 
M$ ain't playing around anymore, they going after Google big time. Good to see them make a comeback.
 
Has anyone managed to create a new word document and save it to iCloud?

Maybe I am a bit tired today, but I only managed to open existing documents, not to save new ones.

When I click on an iCloud folder in the save box, it says 'Unable to open URL'.
 
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I have to say that MS is killing it lately...

Free Office365 on Web, iOS, and Android...with fully baked iPad apps and
DropBox access
Both OneDrive and OneDrive for Business access
and now iCloud Drive!

When I load a GoogleDocs app, I only see what's in google drive.

And their OneDrive app(s) support RAW image files and generate thumbnails for them in a beautiful interface. It made the $70/year price for O365 Personal Edition w/1TB of storage worth every penny for me. Flickr, 500px, and so many other supposed sites for 'photography' don't even support RAW files?!
 
iWork is much better and free.
MS Office is total abomination of software no one needs it. Won't install even if for free.
 
I still prefer OneDrive because with my Office365 subscription, I get a terabyte of storage. I'd rather not need to buy more iCloud storage when I have so much included already.
 
Seriously, there's no way in hell iWork is going to surpass Office.
 
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Khaaaaaaaaaan said:
...hello Office. Seriously, it's painfully obvious that MS has their sights once again on total domination in this space. Apple has done next to nothing for the iWork apps which IMO, were pretty nice on the iOS devices until MS released the current wave of Office for iOS apps. And given their recent actions in lifting restrictions on storage and use, I see iWork fading into oblivion unless Apple pulls a MAJOR rabbit out of their hat.
Click to expand...

It's probably Apple's plan to fade into oblivion. I feel that a lot of the time when Apple makes free software, it's not because they want to make software, but because they want the other people making software to make better software.

Microsoft won't make a good web browser? Apple makes Safari. Google won't make a better maps app for iOS? Apple makes a maps app. Microsoft won't bring Office to OS X or iOS? Apple makes iWork.

Everytime it yielded the desired results. IE improved dramatically, plus Google made Chrome. Google dramatically improved their iOS maps app. Microsoft brought Office to OS X and iOS.

So I don't think Apple particularly cares about iWork or Apple Maps at this point. Safari... It's interesting that apple keeps updating it. I'm not sure why Apple hasn't just sat back and let Chrome take the lead.
 
StoneJack said:
iWork is much better and free.
MS Office is total abomination of software no one needs it. Won't install even if for free.
Click to expand...

I like Pages, but my concern is that the file format is totally closed and no other application can open it.

If you send a Word document to someone you are pretty sure they will be able to view it on any computer/tablet/phone.

Also while I really like Macs (and have only been using Macs as my personal computers for over 10 years), I want to keep the door open shall I have to / want to move to another platform.

Not to mention that sometimes (for example at work) I only have a access to a PC, and if I was using Pages for everything I would have been stuck quite a few times having to quickly review/modify a document from a PC but not having the right application to open it (granted the web apps on iCould.com and iOS applications are partly helping with this).
 
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iCloud drive still suffers from the lack of a universal file browser on iOS. The article touches on this, mentioning that you can't open a .txt file in Word, for example. Instead, you have to open different apps to browse different files, which is cumbersome compared to Dropbox. Is there any likelihood that Apple will release a Dropbox-style or Finder-style app for iOS? It seems baffling that they haven't done this. I get that there was this idea to move away from using file systems completely, but they've already backtracked on that with the move to iCloud Drive which uses a file system on the Mac (and folders in iOS). What we have now is some kind of half-baked middle ground which sort-of uses a file system but restricts how you can use it. Most of the time on my iOS device, all I want is to browse for a file and then maybe "Open In" an application or share the file by email. The current method of browsing for or sharing a file is slow and annoying compared to doing the same thing in Dropbox.
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
It's probably Apple's plan to fade into oblivion. I feel that a lot of the time when Apple makes free software, it's not because they want to make software, but because they want the other people making software to make better software.

Microsoft won't make a good web browser? Apple makes Safari. Google won't make a better maps app for iOS? Apple makes a maps app. Microsoft won't bring Office to OS X or iOS? Apple makes iWork.

Everytime it yielded the desired results. IE improved dramatically, plus Google made Chrome. Google dramatically improved their iOS maps app. Microsoft brought Office to OS X and iOS.

So I don't think Apple particularly cares about iWork or Apple Maps at this point. Safari... It's interesting that apple keeps updating it. I'm not sure why Apple hasn't just sat back and let Chrome take the lead.
Click to expand...

I doubt that the impetus for either IE or Chrome was Safari. Neither do I think that iWork has made a difference. Office for Mac preceded iWork by many, many years and Office for iOS has been very late to the party, where Google’s apps have dominated until Apple provided the iWork apps for free. iWork and Safari are there to facilitate Apple’s product philosophy of power applications that everyone can use, with a minimal learning curve.
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
It's probably Apple's plan to fade into oblivion. I feel that a lot of the time when Apple makes free software, it's not because they want to make software, but because they want the other people making software to make better software.

Microsoft won't make a good web browser? Apple makes Safari. Google won't make a better maps app for iOS? Apple makes a maps app. Microsoft won't bring Office to OS X or iOS? Apple makes iWork.

Everytime it yielded the desired results. IE improved dramatically, plus Google made Chrome. Google dramatically improved their iOS maps app. Microsoft brought Office to OS X and iOS.

So I don't think Apple particularly cares about iWork or Apple Maps at this point. Safari... It's interesting that apple keeps updating it. I'm not sure why Apple hasn't just sat back and let Chrome take the lead.
Click to expand...

Probably because web browsing is such a huge part of how a device is used, they don't want to leave the quality of that usage and experience in the hands of a major competitor. Imagine a scenario where Chromebooks are becoming more of a competitor with MacBooks. If Apple has stopped investing in Safari, then all Google has to do is gradually degrade the experience of using Chrome on the Mac compared to Chrome on a Chromebook and users will begin to drift away. I know some people who moved from Windows to Mac because they were big iTunes users and got frustrated with the slow performance of iTunes on a PC (compared to a Mac).

Also, relying on Chrome would leave a competitive opening to Microsoft on the other flank, with their argument that Chrome compromises privacy. People who didn't want to use Chrome and Google services would be driven towards the Windows/IE platform.

Also, syncing Safari bookmarks, history etc. with iOS is a great feature. Until recently, I didn't even realise that my browsing history synced across devices. It's really great to be able to search on my Mac and find a page I opened on my iPad a few weeks ago. This consistency between desktop and mobile is really useful, at least for me. If it wasn't there, I can imagine buying an Android device in order to sync with Chrome instead.

Also, probably other things too. :cool:
 
Here's the really stupid thing:

If you have a complicated folder structure, these apps will not work with OneDrive. They just sit there spinning and then say they can't connect.

With Dropbox, however, they work perfectly.

Why can't MS focus on getting their own stuff working properly before adding iCloud drive, which hardly anybody uses.
 
Now if only iCloud Drive was "compatible" with Mavericks. It's just a sync folder Apple :rolleyes:

Accessing it multiple times a day through a web browser with 2-step verification isn't pracricle or worth the effort.
 
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bob24 said:
I like Pages, but my concern is that the file format is totally closed and no other application can open it.

If you send a Word document to someone you are pretty sure they will be able to view it on any computer/tablet/phone.

Also while I really like Macs (and have only been using Macs as my personal computers for over 10 years), I want to keep the door open shall I have to / want to move to another platform.

Not to mention that sometimes (for example at work) I only have a access to a PC, and if I was using Pages for everything I would have been stuck quite a few times having to quickly review/modify a document from a PC but not having the right application to open it (granted the web apps on iCould.com and iOS applications are partly helping with this).
Click to expand...

iWork files are accessible by anyone with a web browser. You can create them, edit them, and everything else just like Google Docs. I'm not sure how you feel they somehow lock you in to a particular platform unless you also believe Google Docs locks you in to a particular platform.

It used to be true yes, but not since they made the web versions accessible to anyone.
 
I'm old school. I like owning my software and knowing that I don't need to be connected to access my documents and use it. Case in point, my 3 1/2 flight to Phoenix two weeks ago on Southwest had no in-flight WiFi...no problem. I also refuse to migrate to Adobe Creative Cloud. I'm perfectly happy with CS6.

Now, please release Office 2015 :)
 
srminton said:
iCloud drive still suffers from the lack of a universal file browser on iOS. The article touches on this, mentioning that you can't open a .txt file in Word, for example. Instead, you have to open different apps to browse different files, which is cumbersome compared to Dropbox. Is there any likelihood that Apple will release a Dropbox-style or Finder-style app for iOS? It seems baffling that they haven't done this. I get that there was this idea to move away from using file systems completely, but they've already backtracked on that with the move to iCloud Drive which uses a file system on the Mac (and folders in iOS). What we have now is some kind of half-baked middle ground which sort-of uses a file system but restricts how you can use it. Most of the time on my iOS device, all I want is to browse for a file and then maybe "Open In" an application or share the file by email. The current method of browsing for or sharing a file is slow and annoying compared to doing the same thing in Dropbox.
Click to expand...

I've never understood this need to have a file browser on iOS. Are we still in 1980 or something? Apple has created a more advanced system that works much better IMO. There are a few hiccups that need to be work out though like for example there is no Textedit app on iOS yet. But having the apps directly connected to the files they make is just so much more intuitive than the archaic file management system we've been using for decades.

Your example of browsing for a file and then "Open In" an application certainly isn't faster or more intuitive. That's just what you are used to. It is undeniably faster to open the application first and then open the file you want. Simply because the number of files you have to browse through to find the one you want are narrowed down significantly compared the old archaic method.
 
StoneJack said:
iWork is much better and free.
MS Office is total abomination of software no one needs it. Won't install even if for free.
Click to expand...

lol. Take the Apple blinders off. iWork is a half-assed product. MS has been doing Office for decades, so I'm pretty sure they got it down. Office is even brilliant on the iPad.
 
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