Microsoft brings unified Office app to iPad

AppleInsider

Microsoft Office for iPad is now one single app, which includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote, within a unified look and feel.

The new unified Microsoft Office presents one app that lets you create documents in Word, Excel, or more

Following its iPhone release in February 2020, Microsoft has now updated the iPad version of Microsoft Office to be a single, unified app. From within the one start screen, users can elect to create Word, Excel, or other documents.

"Office is now available on iPad," says Microsoft in its App Store listing. "We're combining the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps you know into a single, iPadOS-optimized app."

Microsoft Office for iPad is free to download, but to use Office 365's sharing or collaboration features, users still must have a subscription. From within the new Office for iPad, Microsoft offers various in-app subscription options from $6.99 per month.

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint currently remain available as standalone iPad apps in the App Store. It's not clear whether Microsoft intends to remove those, and they do not appear to have any functionality that is lacking in the new unified version.

What that new unified version provides is the ability to get into any of the Office apps with a single tap on the one icon. It also means that the Office apps share a common introductory screen and access to recent documents.

crowley

AppleInsider said:

What that new unified version provides is the ability to get into any of the Office apps with a single tap on the one icon. It also means that the Office apps share a common introductory screen and access to recent documents.

Seems to me that it's now requiring two taps to get into the exact Office app you want, whereas previous it was one.  I'm very rarely so confused about whether the file I was recently editing was a spreadsheet, a document or a presentation deck that having this unity would be useful.

I'll stick with the standalones for as long as they're available.

edited February 2021

maxle0p0ld

I wonder, why they still not bundle TEAMS into the Package - and also in TEAMS the eMail Lookup remains a Challenge -
as long as an Address is not in Active Directory, the App will not find it - it will not check your own Contacts for matches, such a Bug for over a year now...

And why will TEAMS not update via AutoUpdate on the Mac?

edited February 2021

p-dog

MaxLe0p0ld said:

I wonder, why they still not bundle TEAMS into the Package - and also in TEAMS the eMail Lookup remains a Challenge -
as long as an Address is not in Active Directory, the App will not find it - it will not check your own Contacts for matches, such a Bug for over a year now...

And why will TEAMS not update via AutoUpdate on the Mac?

“Search“ in general within Microsoft Windoze has been a bug for over 30 years now, so no surprise there regarding TEAMS. 

 

edited February 2021

freediverx

What that new unified version provides is the ability to get into any of the Office apps with a single tap on the one icon.

No, this just means users will be required to make at least one additional tap (plus the associated cognitive load) to access the app they want. this is a classic case of Microsoft placing product marketing above the user's needs.

strangedays

I don't really use Office on iOS, I recall years back it was free to open but you had to pay if you wanted to save changes. Looks like now you can also save. The mentioned subscription is only for collaboration? Like multiple users editing a document? If so, great -- I've never had to collaborate on a document file in my life. (Emailing a document for others to work with, sure)

freediverx

MaxLe0p0ld said:

I wonder, why they still not bundle TEAMS into the Package - and also in TEAMS the eMail Lookup remains a Challenge -
as long as an Address is not in Active Directory, the App will not find it - it will not check your own Contacts for matches, such a Bug for over a year now...

And why will TEAMS not update via AutoUpdate on the Mac?

Remember that the end user has never been Microsoft's customer. Their customer is the whoever makes corporate software purchase decisions in large companies. The fact that their products are full of annoying quirks and omissions just reflects the fact that they're not designed with your needs in mind.

edited February 2021

danvm

MaxLe0p0ld said:

I wonder, why they still not bundle TEAMS into the Package - and also in TEAMS the eMail Lookup remains a Challenge -
as long as an Address is not in Active Directory, the App will not find it - it will not check your own Contacts for matches, such a Bug for over a year now...

And why will TEAMS not update via AutoUpdate on the Mac?

MS Teams is bundled with Office for Windows.  Maybe in the future will be the same for Mac.

Regarding searching contacts, from what I know, the search results are for MS Teams users and consumers Skype users.  Maybe it also works with with Skype for Business, but I'm not sure, considering support ends soon.  I don't think that MS Teams gives you results for the Global Address List (GAL) in Exchange/Outlook, so I don't think is a bug, but the way it works.  

Also Teams updates automatically, so it doesn't needs to be in the Microsoft AutoUpdate App.  

danvm

freediverx said:

MaxLe0p0ld said:

I wonder, why they still not bundle TEAMS into the Package - and also in TEAMS the eMail Lookup remains a Challenge -
as long as an Address is not in Active Directory, the App will not find it - it will not check your own Contacts for matches, such a Bug for over a year now...

And why will TEAMS not update via AutoUpdate on the Mac?

Remember that the end user has never been Microsoft's customer. Their customer is the whoever makes corporate software purchase decisions in large companies. The fact that their products are full of annoying quirks and omissions just reflects the fact that they're not designed with your needs in mind.

MS recently announced that they have 47.5M MS 365 subscriptions for consumers. So it looks they have a lot of end users customers.  

cx226

„It's not clear whether Microsoft intends to remove those, and they do not appear to have any functionality that is lacking in the new unified version.“

What about split screen? In the unified version, you cannot have an Excel spreadsheet and a Word document side-by-side.

edited February 2021

georgebmac

StrangeDays said:

I don't really use Office on iOS, I recall years back it was free to open but you had to pay if you wanted to save changes. Looks like now you can also save. The mentioned subscription is only for collaboration? Like multiple users editing a document? If so, great -- I've never had to collaborate on a document file in my life. (Emailing a document for others to work with, sure)

Yeh, Microsoft Office apps like Word & Excel have been available for awhile now for free.   It's never been clear to me why Microsoft offers their premier product and likely their #1 money maker for free on iPads, but they do.  Unfortunately it is a simplified, cut down version of the "real" PC version of the products.  It seems to me that Word on an iPad is best compared to WordPad on a PC rather than Word itself.

Perhaps its like a limited functionality sample for people to try and see if they want the real, full featured version?   

But, regardless it's there and its free.

But, to be honest, I prefer Apple's office products such as Numbers and Pages on the iPad.

My last comparison was adding multiple photos into a document.   I tried it first in Word on the iPad and it was a nightmare.  When I switched to Pages it was simple and smooth.

jib

Whether the Microsoft apps are free depends on the screen size of the iPad:

"If your iPad screen is smaller than 10.1 inches, you can use the Office apps for free. You will need to create a free Microsoft account.

If your iPad screen is larger than that, which includes the latest 10.2-inch iPad and the 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pros, you’ll need a Microsoft 365 subscription to use Office apps for iOS."

I don't know if the same restrictions apply to the new unified app, but I would not be surprised.

urashid

Looks like MS has circled back to Microsoft Works which used to be bundled with every new PC for free in later 90's, early 2000's.

georgebmac

jib said:

Whether the Microsoft apps are free depends on the screen size of the iPad:

"If your iPad screen is smaller than 10.1 inches, you can use the Office apps for free. You will need to create a free Microsoft account.

If your iPad screen is larger than that, which includes the latest 10.2-inch iPad and the 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pros, you’ll need a Microsoft 365 subscription to use Office apps for iOS."

I don't know if the same restrictions apply to the new unified app, but I would not be surprised.

Geez!  That doesn't leave very much!   (I didn't know that!)

jdb8167

CX226 said:

„It's not clear whether Microsoft intends to remove those, and they do not appear to have any functionality that is lacking in the new unified version.“

What about split screen? In the unified version, you cannot have an Excel spreadsheet and a Word document side-by-side.

They seem to have removed everything that makes a modern iPad app except slide-over. You can't have multiple windows or view documents side by side. This is a horrible regression and makes this version a big miss if you are an iPad "power user". Why are Microsoft and Google like this? They seem to deliberately try to cripple iPadOS apps.