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huh? download dropbox or filesconnect

I know that, but isn't it weird to buy Microsoft Office for iOS and then rely on further third party applications to transfer your Office documents? Shouldn't Office itself have file exchange capabilities in light of the fact that Apple still doesn't give us a proper solution for on-device file-management (or maybe they do with iOS 6?). I mean, you can't really download with Dropbox and save it on the device, you can only open it with Office directly and then somehow try to get the modified copy back on your computer by choosing "Send by E-Mail" or "Save to Dropbox" in the Office App itself. To me that's just not how I would want to work with Office, especially as a business customer.
 
It's kind of pointless to guess since no one one knows how much of the desktop version of Office will be in the mobile versionor if offers any significant features over iWOrk.

The only feature it needs to offer over iWork is the ability to work natively with .docx, .ppt etc.

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Thinking 59 bucks, and thats 59 bucks I won't have to spend on a product MS is BOUND to screw up.
Recently I made the decision at work to not upgrade to Office 11, saving 75K, instead opting for OpenOffice. My days of buying MS products are over. It's a WORD PROCESSOR for goodness sake. For iPad? Office2 HD and Pages are pretty good. 9 bucks.

Does Office2HD let you make comments on or make other tracked revisions to a word doc?
Honest question; that's one of the features I need but haven't found.
 
SharePoint integration

The question I have is, will this integrate with SharePoint that is accessed from an iOS device? If it does, that will be huge. Many businesses are moving to SharePoint portal/application servers. SharePoint can directly host Word and Excel docs for viewing and some editing, without SharePoint users needing Office installed. If you can create a Word or Excel doc from the iOS version of Office and directly save it to SharePoint for publication, that will be a major bonus. Some business users want to publish their Office docs directly to their SharePoint site.
 
This just seems like a mixup. I still think that Office 365 is what this is all about.

Then again Lync 2010 by Microsoft is officially available for its already

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The question I have is, will this integrate with SharePoint that is accessed from an iOS device? If it does, that will be huge. Many businesses are moving to SharePoint portal/application servers. SharePoint can directly host Word and Excel docs for viewing and some editing, without SharePoint users needing Office installed. If you can create a Word or Excel doc from the iOS version of Office and directly save it to SharePoint for publication, that will be a major bonus. Some business users want to publish their Office docs directly to their SharePoint site.

There already is support from share point 2010 for iOS. Only InfoPath is a major issue but some expensive solutions already exist with InfoPath for iOS.
 
This, if done right, will push the iPad to the next level in terms of corporate adoption. And will absolutely solidify Office's position.

But again, the key is will it be done right? Or will it be a neutered version that's good enough to view and edit documents but offers no real advantages over the iWork apps.
 
Microsoft releasing Office for iOS absolutely does not make sense considering Windows 8 release.

If MS Office is available (and solid) for the iPad, why would anyone (especially business users) buy Windows 8 tablet (ARM version)?

Because Office comes pre-installed on every Windows 8 ARM tablet, and can take advantage of all the features of a full desktop operating system like networking, encryption, remote admin, etc.

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Shouldn't Office itself have file exchange capabilities in light of the fact that Apple still doesn't give us a proper solution for on-device file-management (or maybe they do with iOS 6?). I mean, you can't really download with Dropbox and save it on the device, you can only open it with Office directly and then somehow try to get the modified copy back on your computer by choosing "Send by E-Mail" or "Save to Dropbox" in the Office App itself.

You haven't heard of Skydrive? You can create and edit Office documents directly through Skydrive *right now*, and the next versions of Office will have full support to use Skydrive for document storage.

It's built into Windows 8 natively, it's just another "storage" entity you can select in the Metro file browser, like iCloud, but it's different from iCloud in that you have complete control over your Skydrive storage in terms of file management, and any app can use any file from within it.
 
I think this is better news for Apple than MS.

I think it's great for both. Microsoft is primarily a software company. Their treks into hardware (other than their Kinect) hasn't panned out well. Providing Office for the number 1 selling tablet is a very wise decision.

I would expect them to charge more than Apple charges for their equivalents (as usual), but that won't slow sales at all. Bring it on, I've already waited way too long.

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Come on iWork 2012. Here's hoping there are huge upgrades to the iOS and Mac versions and more iCloud power.

Apple is primarily a hardware company. Having Office available on the iPad will cause both Apple and Microsoft sales skyrocket. Companies working together are able to achieve far more collectively than wasting effort fighting each other. Apple has been forced to create their their text, spreadsheet, photo, and presentation software because the normal software creaters have refused to create easy-to-use yet powerful software for the Apple platform.
 
Users of the iWork apps on the iPad will have discovered that the limitations of these apps are not really features or compatibility, per se. The single largest issue is the vastly different handling of menus in iOS apps. Even a relatively noncomplex word processor like Pages has problems derived from squeezing some part of its larger desktop feature set into the constrained iOS user interface. How Microsoft can shoehorn their relatively more complex approach to the Office apps into a simplified UI remains to be seen. If they simplify it too much, Office jocks will howl about how they've made the iOS version into a toy. If they opt for feature cram (and Microsoft being Microsoft, this is what I'd expect), then the result will be difficult for users to comprehend. Either way it will be a very different experience than the desktop versions of the apps.

The second limitation is fonts. Apple has yet to allow anything but the preinstalled iOS fonts to be used in iOS apps. The installed fonts include Arial and Times New Roman but if you stray much from using only these stalwarts (stale worts), then you're in trouble. This is a pretty huge compatibility issue built right into iOS at the moment, one that Microsoft can't solve and Apple has shown no interest in solving.
 
MS Office vs. Quickoffice

Interesting that this rumor seemed to leak right after Google announced by spam mail their acquisition of Quickoffice.

I have yet to find a mobile app, either iOS or Android, that can open up password protected MS Office documents. Hopefully this MS app will. If it does I will buy it. I have spreadsheets I would like to take with me that I don't want to carry around on my iPad in case it got lost.
 
About 90% of the Word documents I need on my iPad have objects (drawing objects and pictures) in tables. The iOS version of Pages removes objects from tables when importing Word documents. This has created an awkward work process where I have to export documents from Word to PDF before I send them to the iPad (and remember to update the corresponding PDFs when I update the Word documents). If Word on iPad overcomes this limitation, I will buy it.
 
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It would be nice not to need MS Office on an Apple device, but the other competing office products - including, or especially, Pages - are woefully inadequate as competing and compatible Windows office products. So, yes, I will get this as long as it is not a completely stripped down version of Office 2010.
 
There was a beta but you had to supply pictures of your genitals in order to verify your account.
 
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