Office for iPad - thoughts?

[Fattytail]

So now that Office for iPad has been out for a couple of days, what does everyone think? Obviously, only interested in those who actually have the Office 365 subscription.

 

[maflynn]

Since a single month of the subscription is only 10 bucks, I suggest you give a try.

I found the applications to be better laid out, more features and easier to use then Apple's iWork. Apple's iCloud is more integrated into their apps but the OneDrive cloud storage isn't bad.

Overall, I'm leaning heavily to picking up the year subscription, but since I just got the month, I'll play with it more.

I hate the idea of going to the subscription model, but I think the office product is excellent and will help me get my work done.

 

[Ezhik]

Since a single month of the subscription is only 10 bucks, I suggest you give a try.

You can get a trial for free. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/try/

 

[ScottNWDW]

So far I am very pleased with the Office for iPad apps. I have not had any issues syncing between any of my devices. I do have a MacBook Pro with Office:Mac 2011, a Windoze laptop with Office 2013 and now Office on both my iPad 4 and on my iPad mini with retina display. So far Excel for iPad has been able to handle my most complex spreadsheet without an issue other than a font that is not on the iPad. Even the 3D graphs in one of my spreadsheets came out just the same as it did on my Mac. Another thing that surprised me was the Sparklines even work in this version, and I hope that they appear in the new Mac version that is due to come out soon.

In Word, absolutely no issues as well except for the special font my company uses that cannot reside on the iPad.

Same with PowerPoint. I don't use PowerPoint often, but the few presentations that I have worked just as though they were on the Mac or PC.

I am very happy with the iPad versions of Excel, Word and PowerPoint and even the One Note since now it is available on the Mac as well. I think Microsoft has redeemed itself in the past few weeks and hope they can continue to do so with a new Mac version of Office in the coming months.

 

[KPOM]

So far, I'm happy with it. Granted, I did make it to a Microsoft store first thing and got one of the giveaway subscriptions, but even if I hadn't, with Amazon selling subscription cards for $67 I might have been tempted.

Pages and Keynote are decent enough for the types of Office files I typically read, but Numbers isn't up to par, and it's nice to have "real" Excel. Also, Word and PowerPoint are pretty nice themselves, and the promise of full file compatibility is worth it if you work with anything complex.

There are some missing features (printing being a glaring omission, but according to PCWorld that's going to be fixed eventually), but that's to be expected early on. Apple's made improvements to iWork over the past 5 months, and I expect Microsoft will do the same with Office. In addition to the printing issue, PowerPoint won't play embedded videos, for instance.

There are some other quirks, as well. I get why, but PowerPoint operates in landscape mode only. Excel and Word operate in both landscape and portrait. The lack of Dropbox, Box, and iCloud support is also understandable, but still a little annoying.

 

[maflynn]

Pages and Keynote are decent enough for the types of Office files I typically read, but Numbers isn't up to par, and it's nice to have "real" Excel. Also, Word and PowerPoint are pretty nice themselves, and the promise of full file compatibility is worth it if you work with anything complex.

I agree, this is a major feature, I can edit my work spreadsheets easily on my iPad now.

Apple's made improvements to iWork over the past 5 months, and I expect Microsoft will do the same with Office. In addition to the printing issue, PowerPoint won't play embedded videos, for instance.

They have but at this point the iWork suite is abut a shadow of MS Office, but I see your point in that MS will be containing to improve the product as time rolls on.

The lack of Dropbox, Box, and iCloud support is also understandable, but still a little annoying.

I agree, I wish MS had Dropbox compatibility but I understand why. I'm still going to use dropbox for some files, but given the huge amount of OneDrive I get for the 365 subscription, I'll likely use that for the majority of my document needs.

 

[northy124]

I had a play around with it on my mates iPad (she has Office 365) and it seems great for what it is, much better than iWork IMO.

I would get it if I had Office 365 but I can't justify £79.99/pa although I did see it on Amazon US for $67.99 which is like £40 and I can justify that, I just don't know if it'd work with a UK MS account

 

[sracer]

I had a play around with it on my mates iPad (she has Office 365) and it seems great for what it is, much better than iWork IMO.

I would get it if I had Office 365 but I can't justify £79.99/pa although I did see it on Amazon US for $67.99 which is like £40 and I can justify that, I just don't know if it'd work with a UK MS account

If you are a student, faculty, or staff at a college, Microsoft offers a University subscription for Office 365. $79 for 4 years for 2 devices (PCs, Mac, tablets).

As for experience with Office for iPad...
I think Microsoft has produced one of the nicest looking productivity apps for the iPad. The look and feel is impressive. Compatibility however is lacking. Although Word was able to accurately display a Word doc with a moderately advanced layout, it substituted a font that cause it to not be an exact replica.
A Powerpoint slide with an embedded video clip was unable to play the video.

The files were created on a Mac with Office 2011.

Although far better compatibility across devices than I've experienced with other software solutions, still not perfect.

 

[Daysight]

Only had it couple of days, but it's a game changer for me so far. Very happy. Best of both worlds: Office on my Apple gear. On a business trip with only my iPad again, but this time I'm getting real work done. If I had to do major work, I would take my MacBook, but I can do a lot with the iPad and clean up at home with the Macs.

 

[redman042]

You know, I had gotten to the point where I wanted Office to die, and iWork and other alternatives to grow and ultimately take over. I was sick of Microsoft. I assumed they would never put Office on the iPad, or if they did, that it would be seriously gimped.

But this release from Microsoft has completely turned me around. These iPad apps are amazingly good. They are probably the most capable productivity apps I have on my device, and I have many. The UI is intuitive, touch controls work great even in Excel (no other spreadsheet app has done this right). And this is a 1.0 release!

Over the weekend I picked up a single business seat of Office365 (I manage and office and so I am testing this for rollout to my staff). I now have the latest versions of Office on my office and home PCs and my iPad. It's working great, everything is synced, and I'm quite happy.

There were things I liked about the new iWork on the iPad, but it did not translate Office docs perfectly, and my industry does everything in Office. I do complex tech reports with tables of contents, fancy formatting, etc. I cannot afford file translation glitches.

Anyway, Microsoft has done a good job here and pulled me back. I'm looking forward to what comes next.

 

[maflynn]

You know, I had gotten to the point where I wanted Office to die, and iWork and other alternatives to grow and ultimately take over
...
Anyway, Microsoft has done a good job here and pulled me back. I'm looking forward to what comes next.

I really wanted to like iWork, I use spreadsheets more then any of the other apps, I kept running into the limitations with iWork. It was great that I could edit my spreadsheets on the iPad and have them stored on the cloud but trying to do complex spreadsheets using Numbers was a pain.

I'm amazed at Office for IPad, I had a month subscription so I could play with it, but I'll upgrade that to the full year now that I'm all but decided to go with it.

 

[redman042]

I really wanted to like iWork, I use spreadsheets more then any of the other apps, I kept running into the limitations with iWork. It was great that I could edit my spreadsheets on the iPad and have them stored on the cloud but trying to do complex spreadsheets using Numbers was a pain.

I'm amazed at Office for IPad, I had a month subscription so I could play with it, but I'll upgrade that to the full year now that I'm all but decided to go with it.

Ultimately I expect iWork will get really good. Apple did a complete code rework on Final Cut Pro, and now they have done so with iWork. In both cases they dropped some features but are planning to add them back, in a more refined way, over time. For those not tied to Office for one reason or another, iWork may be a better choice, especially if you own a Mac. But for those of us who use Office at work, there is no substitute for the real thing, and now we have a great option on our iPad.

 

[maflynn]

Ultimately I expect iWork will get really good. Apple did a complete code rework on Final Cut Pro, and now they have done so with iWork. In both cases they dropped some features but are planning to add them back,

Is FCP on par feature wise at this stage or are users still waiting for Apple to add those features back?

Given that we waited multiple years for an update to iWork, I'm rather concerned that Apple will not be as quick as I'd like them to be.

In the end, for my needs, I'm finding Office to be a better product.

 

[IlikeMacsSoMuch]

So now that Office for iPad has been out for a couple of days, what does everyone think? Obviously, only interested in those who actually have the Office 365 subscription.

I would say: About time!

 

[MainStream]

I am pleased with the way the Office apps work and the ability to view and edit Office documents. I am however experiencing a problem with the PowerPoint app connecting to OneDrive. On folders where I have presentations, almost always I get a "Cannot Connect to Server" error message. Anyone else experiencing that issue?

 

[Taustin Powers]

What are the file export options? Can you send your docs and spreadsheets as email attachments? Or "open in" other apps? Or did they completely lock it down to OneDrive?

If there is no way around putting my files in their cloud, it's a no-go for me.

 

[sonicrobby]

I dont like the subscription thing. I prefer paying a one time flat fee for a program; after a certain amount of time, you'd be spending more money than its worth. Granted, it is a good business strategy to keep the money flowing, but its just not for me.

 

[Stella]

I agree, this is a major feature, I can edit my work spreadsheets easily on my iPad now.


They have but at this point the iWork suite is abut a shadow of MS Office, but I see your point in that MS will be containing to improve the product as time rolls on.


I agree, I wish MS had Dropbox compatibility but I understand why. I'm still going to use dropbox for some files, but given the huge amount of OneDrive I get for the 365 subscription, I'll likely use that for the majority of my document needs.

You could equally argue why does iWork not have Dropbox support!

In a few years, I can see that there will be a defined protocol for cloud storage.

 

[Ferc Kast]

During my free month trial, I threw my most advanced formatted document that I have to update weekly. Using iWork previously, I found that Pages simply didn't format my document correctly. Needless to say, it both opened and saved with my formatting perfectly with Office for iPad and Office on my Windows PC.


So, I can viably update my document(s) on the go finally!! The only thing I would like to see in an update is printing, but for now it is a non-issue for me. So, to me, it was overall a wise investment. As such, I plan to continue my monthly subscription.

 

[gametime10]

I agree with much of the positive experience here. With a nice Bluetooth keyboard case, I was able to travel all week with just my iPad and still get significant work done. And then being able to slip it into a Dodocase for presentations was really convenient. For me it's a game changer in terms of the iPads usability

 

[Traverse]

I am pleasantly surprised by it.

Now if Microsoft would update OneDrive to view old Pages 09 files then I would jump all in. (Pages 09 is still my favorite desktop word processor).

 

[Badrottie]

Very interesting for many of you are happy with it. One or two are missing is no Dropbox/Box support and lack of AirPrint support so I will wait until next update. I will stay with iWork for now.

 

[swedefish]

My university now gives all students free 365 licenses, which is great. I enjoy Office for iPad (I mainly use Word). Word is a superior word processor compared to Pages, that is just the way it is. Pages only strength is creating beautiful documents.

I miss Dropbox support.

For corporate users, the Office suite is a given. I mean, do you have a choice?

However, for student/academic and creative use, I truly think it's time for Mac/iOS users to move beyond Word. While Word is good to have for sharing with colleagues/teachers for markup, it is not the best platform for productivity.

For day-to-day note-taking, my app of choice is MacJournal (Mac and iOS), which has the benefit of letting me browse between my various notes without having to open new documents. The Mac version also has a great clutter-free full-screen typing mode.

For those who think and write in list form, Omni Outliner 4 is a great choice compared to bullet lists in Word.

Since I personally do not think in list form, I find that the combination of MindNode (mind mapping app) and MacJournal suit me well.

All of the above are Mac apps with corresponding iOS ditos, and they have sharing via Dropbox or iCloud.

For larger writing projects there are other wonderful Mac apps, e.g. Scrivener, but since this is about iPad apps, there is no point in going into detail.

Another must-have Mac/iOS ecosystem app for those in academia (yes, including students) is Bookends (which in turn integrates wonderfully with Mellel, another great independent developer word processor for the Mac). Bookends is a bibliography app for the Mac, but it also has a free iOS app which allows you to always have your reference list accessible.

My point with all of this is to say that unless you get a 'free' corporate or academic license, there are many superior options for writers using Apple hardware. Dare to let go of the MS Word mindset; you will be happy you did! Considering the cost of 365, writers could purchase several of the above for the same price.

 

[roadbloc]

Its much better than iWork. Plenty more features. Yet to experience a single compatibility problem too. Pleasantly surprised for a 1.0 release off Microsoft.

 

[Internaut]

Has anyone used MS Office, in anger, on an iPad Mini?