If you want to use a Microsoft Office iPad app, you can run the individual Word, Powerpoint, and Excel programs for years. But although the iPhone got an all-in-one Office app in February last year, the iPad did not. A year later, Microsoft finally fixed it.
The process of integrating the most important Office tools into a single app actually started in November 2019 …
Background
Microsoft has launched a 2019 iOS beta to “merge all your Office documents in one place.”
The Office app provides a simple, integrated experience that puts the tools you need to work on a mobile device at the forefront of the experience. We started by combining the existing applications of Word, Excel and PowerPoint into a single app. Doing so brings all your Office documents together in one place, reducing the need to switch between multiple applications and reducing the amount of space used on your phone compared to multiple installed applications. Then we added new features that leverage the strengths of mobile devices, such as the camera, to enable you to create content in unique mobile ways. Finally, we’ve added a new action panel that helps you perform many of the common mobile tasks you need to perform everything in one place.
It was officially launched in February 2020, when Microsoft explained that it makes better use of the storage of your iPhone.
This app maintains all the features of existing Word, Excel and PowerPoint mobile applications, but requires less phone storage than using three separate apps.
The only problem was that there was no iPad version – and using the iPhone app on an iPad was as ugly as you would expect.
Microsoft Office iPad app is now available
Version 2.46 finally gives us a native iPad app.
Office is now available on iPad: we combine the Word, Excel and PowerPoint applications you know into a single iPadOS-optimized app. On top of that, you see additional tools to keep you more productive than ever before. For example, you can quickly create and draw PDFs, and convert photos into documents.
Easily navigate to image-based workflows: Tap ‘Share’ in the phone gallery outside the Office app to access various actions like PPT creation, PDF creation and more. Additionally, if there are recent screenshots when you open the Office app, it pops up as a suggestion to hide to PDF or PPT.
Insert date, shape, picture and notes in PDF: Now you can easily insert date, shape, image and notes in PDFs using new features.
The app is free to download in the App Store, but requires a Microsoft 365 subscription for $ 6.99 / month for an individual, or $ 9.99 / month for a family.
Two of the individual iPad apps received updates last month, including trackpad support in Word.
Photo by Francois Hoang on Unsplash
FTC: We use revenue to earn automatically affiliate links. More.
Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news: