Upgraded Office web apps for iPad and Windows 8 are now out

[dgstorm]

Many users have been complaining that MS Office doesn’t exactly work smoothly on the iPad, but soon this dogma is going to be altered from its core. Microsoft has just announced it is going to release updates for its Web Office apps.

This means that Microsoft is trying to integrate itself into the world of tablets, a world that leaves keyboards behind and creates a universe based on touch gestures. The official Office blog post highlights in quite some detail how Microsoft struggled to design and build a version of Office that feels intuitive and easy to handle in a tablet environment.

The update brings some important changes in the user interface allowing users to touch certain previously “obsolete†areas of the screen, without having to touch something else in the process. Microsoft now uses simple gestures like swipes, pinches, long taps or drags to allow users to go about their usual Office work without turning it into a frustrating struggle. The improved version also comes packed with updated menus, text selection facilities and larger buttons.

At the moment the tablet apps are quite experimental and Microsoft hasn’t set an official release date for them yet. What the software giant did announce is that the apps will work on the iPad as well as on the Windows 8 tablet. As far as Android tablets or BlackBerry’s PlayBooks there is no information available still.

By Radu

Source: Office Web Apps integrate touch support on iPad and Windows 8, brace us for an Office 2013 world -- Engadget