Microsoft Office for iPad updated with support for Apple's AirPrint
Microsoft's Office for iPad now ties even more tightly into Apple's ecosystem, as the touch-friendly productivity suite has been updated with support for the wireless AirPrint standard, along with a few other new features and assorted bug fixes for Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
The newly announced update to Office for iPad comes just over a month after the software first launched on Apple's popular touchscreen tablet. AirPrint support is now available for all three applications in the Office suite: Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
In Word for iPad, users can print a document with or without markup. In Excel, print-outs can come from a selected range, a single worksheet, or an entire spreadsheet.
Individual pages or slides can also be selected to print. And the capability utilizes Apple's AirPrint standard, which means any AirPrint-enabled wireless printer is compatible.
In addition, PowerPoint has also been updated with support for SmartGuides, which help users align pictures, shapes and text boxes as they are moved around on a slide. Microsoft promises that presentations can look "beautifully designed" on iPad with "very little effort."
Excel has also been updated with AutoFit, which lets users adjust the width of multiple rows or the height of multiple columns at the same time. And all three applications have also seen various bug fixes and stability improvements.
Users can view Office documents for free on iPad using Microsoft's applications, though editing capabilities require an Office 365 subscription. The company launched a new $69.99-per-year entry-level plan earlier this month, offering access to the service through one Mac or PC, as well as one iPad.
Downloads of Office for iPad hit 12 million units in the suite's first week of availability. The applications go head-to-head with Apple's own Pages, Numbers and Keynote for iOS.
The newly announced update to Office for iPad comes just over a month after the software first launched on Apple's popular touchscreen tablet. AirPrint support is now available for all three applications in the Office suite: Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
In Word for iPad, users can print a document with or without markup. In Excel, print-outs can come from a selected range, a single worksheet, or an entire spreadsheet.
Individual pages or slides can also be selected to print. And the capability utilizes Apple's AirPrint standard, which means any AirPrint-enabled wireless printer is compatible.
In addition, PowerPoint has also been updated with support for SmartGuides, which help users align pictures, shapes and text boxes as they are moved around on a slide. Microsoft promises that presentations can look "beautifully designed" on iPad with "very little effort."
Excel has also been updated with AutoFit, which lets users adjust the width of multiple rows or the height of multiple columns at the same time. And all three applications have also seen various bug fixes and stability improvements.
Users can view Office documents for free on iPad using Microsoft's applications, though editing capabilities require an Office 365 subscription. The company launched a new $69.99-per-year entry-level plan earlier this month, offering access to the service through one Mac or PC, as well as one iPad.
Downloads of Office for iPad hit 12 million units in the suite's first week of availability. The applications go head-to-head with Apple's own Pages, Numbers and Keynote for iOS.
Comments
Of course, this could not possibly have been in the initial release. That would have been too difficult.
My first reaction was ... "What ...? It didn't already?"
Now the only thing missing is a non-subscription version.
Very close to a COMPLETE state!
Of course, this could not possibly have been in the initial release. That would have been too difficult.
Why and how?
Sorry; sarcasm.
Downloading was FREE... using it costs money.
After being on the market for decades, Microsoft is STILL fixing bugs and trying to stabilize these programs... Just like their OS I suppose.
Of course, this could not possibly have been in the initial release. That would have been too difficult.
The same could be said about Touch ID on the iPad Air
Yeah! I signed up for a free trial of the cloud component so i could test/evaluate the MS apps. They were among some of the best things that MS has done on a tablet (better than the Surface equivalent).
But, they were not that much more robust than Apple's free iWork apps -- not nearly enough to pay for a subscription (for my needs).
I cancelled my MS trial.
I believe, had MS done this a year ago, I (and quite a few others) would have purchased the apps for a reasonable price (not a subscription) -- now, from me, they have nothing!
Unlike TouchID, AirPrint was not omitted due to a physical limit to a number of objects manufacturable.
Indeed. As much as I hate MS, I can acknowledge the importance of native Office apps for strict file compatibility and would easily spend some 30 bucks on that. But subscription-based? Not a chance.
iWork for me -- I am done with MS Office, unless forced by an employer!
Like MMS? Maybe it wasn't ready.
I notice that Excel doesn't support print-to-fit. That can be an important consideration for a spreadsheet. Maybe it will come in a future update.
Of course, this could not possibly have been in the initial release. That would have been too difficult.
Maybe it was buggy and they pulled the feature from the RTM build. Given the demand and the fact that it had taken so long already, maybe Microsoft didn't want to wait any longer and decided to release Office for iPad before it was finished. Apple did the same with the iWork applications, making major additions a few weeks after launch.