Microsoft Office Apps Update Brings Drawing Support to iPhone - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Microsoft Office Apps Update Brings Drawing Support to iPhone

by

Microsoft today updated its suite of Office apps designed for the iPhone, adding finger-drawing support to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

In January, the company added inking support to its productivity suite for the iPad Pro to take advantage of the Apple Pencil, but now iPhone users can also make use of the feature using their digits.

microsoftoffice
A new Draw tab can be found in each of the three apps. The drawing tools in this tab allow iPhone owners to use a stylus or finger to write, draw, highlight, and annotate various Microsoft Office documents.

The thickness and color of the pen can be changed, while hand-drawn shapes can also be transformed into customized shapes. Excel users can annotate over cells, while those who use PowerPoint can draw freeform over slides.

Microsoft Word [Direct Link], Microsoft Excel [Direct Link], and Microsoft PowerPoint [Direct Link] are all available for iPhone on the App Store. While the apps are free to download, users need a qualifying Office 365 subscription to create and edit documents.

Top Rated Comments

Scottsoapbox Avatar
128 months ago
This is for those annoying people who like to review documents and point out changes that need to be made instead of just making them and telling you.
If we don't point out your mistakes, you are just going to keep making them.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
128 months ago
Nice to see someone doing frequent updates to an already excellent office suite. O365 is excellent IMO, as is OneDrive. Apple could learn a thing or three.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Abazigal Avatar
128 months ago
At this rate, office is going to run better on my iPad than on my Mac...
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
69Mustang Avatar
128 months ago
This is for those annoying people who like to review documents and point out changes that need to be made instead of just making them and telling you.
They are the same people who would respond to your quote by saying, "If I have to do your job, why am I paying you?":D

On topic: MS, post Balmer, has been improving their offerings on a fairly consistent basis. Good on them.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
deany Avatar
128 months ago
Their iOS software update are insane 700mb plus for Word and Excel every month more or less.
Our data is capped at home.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Three141 Avatar
128 months ago
This is a good step, one of things I like about MS Onenote is the ability to annotate.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium

watchOS 27 Will Add These New Features to Your Apple Watch

Sunday May 24, 2026 11:53 am PDT by
Apple will unveil watchOS 27 during its WWDC 2026 keynote on Monday, June 8, and a handful of new features have been rumored already. The first developer beta of watchOS 27 should be available immediately following the keynote, and a public beta typically follows in July. The update should be released to all users with a compatible Apple Watch model in September. Below, we recap watchOS...
Four iPhone 18 Pro Colors Mock Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Tuesday May 26, 2026 6:32 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not launching until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component will be moved under the...
iPhone 15 General Feature Green

Apple Preparing 'Most Significant Overhaul in the iPhone's History'

Friday May 22, 2026 1:36 pm PDT by
Apple reportedly plans to unveil its first foldable iPhone in September this year — it may be named "iPhone Ultra" — and expectations are high. In his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the foldable iPhone will be "the most significant overhaul in the iPhone's history." "iPhone 4, iPhone 6 and iPhone X were clearly a big deal, but this is a whole new design," he said....