Microsoft office for iPad to be launched in February 2012

[JewelGarden]

Sorry, but many of us use Office products on Windows machines. And there is simply no question that the sophistication and capabilities of Office products far exceed that of the iWorks suite, a product line that is, at best, a consumer level product. There is no doubt, of course, that Office for the iPad will not come close to the features available in the Windows (or I presume the Mac environment.) But that's true of the Apple products as well. (Try hiding cells in Numbers on the iPad.)

Having a fully compatible (if more limited) version of Office for the iPad would enable users who spend most of their lives working with Office to avoid many of the compatibility issues that crop up when trying to move from one environment to another. It's important to keep in mind that many, many iPad owners have no other Apple product and are unlikely to purchase one. (If I'm not mistaken, about half the users responding to a poll on this site are Windows users.) In short, iWorks on the iPad may "work" for an occasional user with few complex requirements, but it (and the various third party Office emulators) leave much to be desired in terms of a comparison with Office.

I agree - its about compatibility for me. Since my work is completely centered in Office on the PC being able to move between PC and iPad with the least loss of formatting and content is crucial.

Never, never, never give up -- Winston Churchill

 

[pattykax]

are there any free word processor applications available for the ipad??

 

[Codger]

YEA! Excel is important for me but the one really important part of Office that I can't get for the iPad/iPhone is Entourage. The integrated calendar, project centre, contacts and email, is the best that there is for us in our business. Having the ability to colour the individual appointments in the Entourage calendar and prioritize that way has become critical for the way we do things. Using different and separate calendars is an annoying waste of time, and prone to error. Losing the "Project Centre" in Entourage by going to Outlook is bad enough but coming up with workarounds is doable.

 

[HKWrite12]

I, for one, look forward to this. I'm surprised Microsoft hasn't done this already. Office is by far the most popular productivity suite in the world and there's really no reason why there shouldn't be an iPad app for Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.

Michael "Spam, spam, bacon, eggs and spam. Hold the bacon and eggs." Sent from my iPad 2 using iPF

Hope they make it's own cloud too. Sick of icloud corrupting my hard work.

 

[Munky]

Myself, I just want a fully functional version of onenote that does everything the pc version does, and it's even possible for it to look damn near exactly like the pc version except for scaling up button sizes a bit.

 

[Destroyer]

nice..!! just another good software for the ipad..!

Sent from my iPad using iPF

 

[jayhtee]

While this is cool news, I can't imagine it will force me to leave Pages, Numbers and Keynote...

 

[wayneborean]

As a journalist who has used Easywriter, Wordstar, Mulimate, MacWrite, PaperClip, PC-Write, Lotus Symphony, XyWrite, Microsoft Office, Open Office (also Star Office), K Office (also Calligra Office), Neo Office, Easy Office, Microsoft Works, IWorks, Google Docs, LotusWorks, Scrivener, and Abiword, and can tell you a lot about office suites and word processors. I'm going to limit my comments to the currents ones. As much as I loved Wordstar 3.3, it isn't on the market any more...

1) Microsoft Office is over priced and under powered. Think "LADA"

2) IWorks is inexpensive, glossy, easy and fun to use. Like a Las Vegas hooker.

3) Word Perfect has the best document formatting abilities of the lot. Boring, like a lawyer. Guess what law offices use? Yep, Word Perfect.

4) Libre Office gives you the ultimate bang for your buck. Nothing beats it for total combination of features, price, and responsiveness of the project staff to inquiries and suggestions. You want something added - approach them with a well reasoned argument, and either it will get added, or they will come back to you with an answer explaining how you can already do what you want using existing functions, and you will usually get an answer within a day or two. Try that with Microsoft, Corel, or Apple.

5) Scrivener is the killer app. As a professional writer I need to pump out words. I also need to keep notes on my articles, sources, etc. Scrivener is a specialized application, and does things that a simple word processor is incapable of. I also use IWorks and Libre Office alongside Scrivener. Libre Office acts as a translator for my customers who use Word Perfect or Microsoft Word, IWord acts as a translator for my customers who use Pages.

I would not waste money buying Microsoft Office. It is wildly overpriced. You can buy Word Perfect Office for about $50.00 if you look around, which isn't bad. Libre Office is a free download. That is the price you should go for.

Wayne

 

[jsh1120]

As a journalist who has used Easywriter, Wordstar, Mulimate, MacWrite, PaperClip, PC-Write, Lotus Symphony, XyWrite, Microsoft Office, Open Office (also Star Office), K Office (also Calligra Office), Neo Office, Easy Office, Microsoft Works, IWorks, Google Docs, LotusWorks, Scrivener, and Abiword, and can tell you a lot about office suites and word processors...

Wayne

I respect that range of experience though I certainly don't envy it. And from what I've seen of Scrivener it appears to be the Rolls Royce of applications for writers. Now that it's available for Windows, I'm seriously considering giving it a try.

And I certainly wouldn't dispute your criticism of the pricing policy for MS Office. Furthermore, I could rant for hours about the tendency of Microsoft to change features that worked quite well in one version while failing to improve the products in areas where they were deficient.

Unfortunately, though, many of us aren't independent actors when it comes to choices of office automation software. We have to work in environments where document sharing is highly problematic if individual preferences override selection of common applications. And that is why having native Microsoft Office apps, even with limited features, is important.

 

[FrankP99]

I use OneNote and am pleased to see Microsoft's new app for OneNote on iPad. Works great with MS SkyDrive to store the OneNote files.

Frank

 

[Maccolo]

Yes MS Office on iPad is a good news but actually there are a lot of services that allow you to use Microsoft Office suite on iPad. I suggest SOD (Secure Online Desktop). I'm using it on my iPad/iPhone/Mac and it works great.

Hey wayneborean, all my respect to your wide expertise on Office automation products, do you know SOD?

 

[wayneborean]

I respect that range of experience though I certainly don't envy it. And from what I've seen of Scrivener it appears to be the Rolls Royce of applications for writers. Now that it's available for Windows, I'm seriously considering giving it a try.

And I certainly wouldn't dispute your criticism of the pricing policy for MS Office. Furthermore, I could rant for hours about the tendency of Microsoft to change features that worked quite well in one version while failing to improve the products in areas where they were deficient.

Unfortunately, though, many of us aren't independent actors when it comes to choices of office automation software. We have to work in environments where document sharing is highly problematic if individual preferences override selection of common applications. And that is why having native Microsoft Office apps, even with limited features, is important.

Actually it isn't. You should be planning a Microsoft exit strategy. One of the hats I wear is "Futurist", and after reading Microsoft's SEC filings and doing some forecasting I've come to the conclusion that Microsoft is headed for Bankruptcy. I'd provide a link,

Moderation Notice: This post has been edited by IPF Staff and the member has been disciplined in accordance with the Forum Rules

I get regular visits from IP addresses in Redmond. It appears that someone there is interested.

On the iPad there isn't anything that will handle things like "track changes" which is a nuisance. At least that I've seen.

Wayne

 

[wayneborean]

I use OneNote and am pleased to see Microsoft's new app for OneNote on iPad. Works great with MS SkyDrive to store the OneNote files.

Frank

I prefer Evernote myself. It works well with iWork, OneNote doesn't.

Wayne

 

[wayneborean]

Yes MS Office on iPad is a good news but actually there are a lot of services that allow you to use Microsoft Office suite on iPad. I suggest SOD (Secure Online Desktop). I'm using it on my iPad/iPhone/Mac and it works great.

Hey wayneborean, all my respect to your wide expertise on Office automation products, do you know SOD?

Never seen Secure Online Desktop. I'll hunt it up.

Wayne

 

[Bob Maxey]

Sorry, but many of us use Office products on Windows machines. And there is simply no question that the sophistication and capabilities of Office products far exceed that of the iWorks suite, a product line that is, at best, a consumer level product. There is no doubt, of course, that Office for the iPad will not come close to the features available in the Windows (or I presume the Mac environment.) But that's true of the Apple products as well. (Try hiding cells in Numbers on the iPad.)

Having a fully compatible (if more limited) version of Office for the iPad would enable users who spend most of their lives working with Office to avoid many of the compatibility issues that crop up when trying to move from one environment to another. It's important to keep in mind that many, many iPad owners have no other Apple product and are unlikely to purchase one. (If I'm not mistaken, about half the users responding to a poll on this site are Windows users.) In short, iWorks on the iPad may "work" for an occasional user with few complex requirements, but it (and the various third party Office emulators) leave much to be desired in terms of a comparison with Office.

The problem is, many (perhaps most) users do not use Office or one of its components like Word to full advantage. My view is Office for the iPad will be much like iWork.

I really cannot see what features Word would bring to the iPad party. I think the sandbox will restrict many things we Office users do on our computers. Like being able to choose where we want to save our documents. I use macros which might not be available.

I'll wait and see what is released and go from there.