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MS Office For iPad

richsadams

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Multiple outlets are reporting that Microsoft may be hard at work on a version of their popular Word, Excel and PowerPoint applications for the iPad.

Microsoft is prepping a version of its Office productivity software to run on Apple's iPad, according to The Daily. The iPad-based news outlet, citing "sources," reported that Microsoft is working to adapt Office for Apple's tablet. The app could arrive before the next version of Office for Mac, which is expected to debut late next year.
(Credit: Apple)

Microsoft didn't comment directly on the report.

"We already deliver Office on multiple platforms and devices and are committed to expanding in the future, but have nothing further to share today," the company said in a statement.

Microsoft already offers a handful of apps for both the iPad and the iPhone, including Bing and Windows Live Messenger, among others. Creating Office for the iPad could help the device's prospects in work environments, a market where it's already making inroads at the expense of Windows PCs.

Microsoft is also busily working on Windows 8, the next version of its flagship operating system, for tablet computers. It has yet to disclose details about a touch-version of Office that will run on those devices.

Apple introduced its own office software, iWork, as individual apps for the iPad in March of last year. That suite consists of Pages, Keynote and Numbers, the same lineup Apple offers Mac OS X users. All three of those apps can open and export Microsoft Office files that match up with Microsoft's Word, PowerPoint and Excel software, with Apple providing ways to natively view those files in its own built-in e-mail application.

The Daily reported that the Office for iPad app would likely cost $10, the same amount Apple charges for each of its individual iWork for iPad apps.

Source: CNET
 

Hayles66

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It would be great for me at school. Mind you £30 or more!

Sent from my one and only original iPad using iPF
 

jsh1120

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It will certainly be interesting to see if Microsoft takes this step. And if they do how much of the functionality of Office can actually be accommodated in the iPad. After all, Apple is apparently unable to provide fully featured versions of Pages and Numbers for the iPad. Likewise, the various Office emulators (e.g. Documents To Go, Quick Office HD, etc.) do not provide some of the advanced features of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

I more or less expected Microsoft to reserve ports of their office software to the tablet version of Windows 8. If they decide to market a version for the iPad it suggests Microsoft may be less bullish on the prospects for Windows 8 tablets than they've maintained.
 

TheRambler

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Windows 7 has proved to be less than useless on the tablets, windows 8 is the rushed update that should be the bees knees for tablets and also PC's kepping intouch with tablets, i'm quite looking forward to seeing it.......I wont hold my breath though, Microsoft has a way of letting people down!!

Previewing Windows 8 - Microsoft Windows
 

donka

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It's a smart move if it happens. There is already a massive iPad user base and it is likley to increase over the holiday period and next spring with a new release. Office on the iPad will generate a lot of sales and reinforce Office as the only Productivity suite that is required on a desktop platform since the iPad will play nice with it. It will also put less pressure on the Windows 8 tablets and may even encourage sales of them given there is a cross platform tablet office suite meaning businesses can give their users the choice of iPad or Windows 8.
 

thewitt

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I have zero confidence in their ability to deliver a useful, lean version of Office on the iPad.
 
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richsadams

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I have zero confidence in their ability to deliver a useful, lean version of Office on the iPad.
I'm apprehensive as well based on the somewhat crippled versions of Office for Mac MS has issued over the years.

Having said that I hope it will be good for those folks working for companies that have IT departments mired in the "we can't use iPads because they aren't compatible yadda, yadda" past.
 

kmroed

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Until there is a workable MS Office Suite available for iPad, what do you suggest be used by a iPad user who would like to have Document and Spreadsheet capability? What existing App will provide the best results?

K
 

jsh1120

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Until there is a workable MS Office Suite available for iPad, what do you suggest be used by a iPad user who would like to have Document and Spreadsheet capability? What existing App will provide the best results?

K

There is no simple answer to that question. Pages and Numbers from Apple are good consumer level word processing and spreadsheet apps and can read MS Office files. However, they have limitations when spreadsheets get complicated (i.e formulas) and there is a reason that MS Office on the Mac outsells Apple's own office automation products. In addition, the iPad versions of these products lack features available in the Mac environment.

Documents to Go is a long-standing MS Office "simulation" suite that does a pretty good job of reading/writing MS Office files. It, too, has limitations when the spreadsheets are complex and when formatting in Word documents is complicated. Same true for Quick Office HD.

Best route is to try the various contenders. If one doesn't suit your needs, don't hesitate to ask for store credit from iTunes for your purchase and move on to an alternative.
 

Blackbelt

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Until there is a workable MS Office Suite available for iPad, what do you suggest be used by a iPad user who would like to have Document and Spreadsheet capability? What existing App will provide the best results?

K

Apple ..Pages , key note and numbers. They are the best Office apps as i will not spend a dime on any MS products.
 
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richsadams

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Until there is a workable MS Office Suite available for iPad, what do you suggest be used by a iPad user who would like to have Document and Spreadsheet capability? What existing App will provide the best results?

K
Welcome to the forum! There are several threads already discussing various apps that work very well with MS Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc. Feel free to post comments and questions there. Here's some more information about iPad Apps for Business Use:

http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-business-education/22431-hi-all.html#post157114

Here’s another post with additional info:

http://www.ipadforums.net/iwork-forum/36629-office-app-comparison.html#post256794

In the meantime, there are a lot of great people here willing to lend a hand anytime. Often using the Search box (at the top-left of every page) will lead you to the answers you're looking for. If not, feel free to post a question in the appropriate area.

Please take a moment to view the information here to get the most out of your iPad as well as our forum:

Forum Rules - Please read
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iPad for Beginners
Free iPad User Manuals
Download The Official iPad Forum App

Welcome again and enjoy!
 

Bob Maxey

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It will certainly be interesting to see if Microsoft takes this step. And if they do how much of the functionality of Office can actually be accommodated in the iPad. After all, Apple is apparently unable to provide fully featured versions of Pages and Numbers for the iPad. Likewise, the various Office emulators (e.g. Documents To Go, Quick Office HD, etc.) do not provide some of the advanced features of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

I more or less expected Microsoft to reserve ports of their office software to the tablet version of Windows 8. If they decide to market a version for the iPad it suggests Microsoft may be less bullish on the prospects for Windows 8 tablets than they've maintained.

Not sure if Apple ever wanted to provide fully featured versions of Pages and Numbers for the iPad. I am sure they could provide other features if they wanted to, but they had to decide what us users want and what to leave out, and this always makes some users wondering why Apple left out this feature or that feature. Perhaps Pages is what it is by design. I can generally be as productive with Pages as I am with Word.

I no longer guess about what some new Vaporware promises. We just do not know what MS is up to. I might switch if it gave me the ability to save documents where and how I want to save them as well as the ability to create templates. For now, I have Pages and iFile and that gets the job done.
 

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