Microsoft Introduces Unified Office App for iOS and Android

Monday November 4, 2019 6:30 am PST by Eric Slivka
Microsoft today announced a new Office app for iOS and Android that brings together the functionality of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in a single app. The new app, currently available as a preview, simplifies working with different types of documents while also bringing in some new features to enhance productivity.

The Office app provides a simple, integrated experience that puts the tools you need for working on a mobile device at the forefront of the experience. We started by combining the existing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint mobile apps into a single app. Doing so brings all of your Office documents together in one place, reduces the need to switch between multiple apps, and significantly reduces the amount of space used on your phone compared to multiple installed apps. We then added new capabilities that harness the strengths of mobile devices, such as the camera, to enable you to create content in uniquely mobile ways. Finally, we added a new Actions Pane that helps you accomplish many of the common mobile tasks you need to do all from one place.
Camera integration lets you easily convert photos of documents and tables into Word and Excel files, while PowerPoint presentations can easily import photos from your camera roll. The new Actions pane supports a number of common tasks like creating PDFs from documents or photos, signing PDFs with your finger, scanning QR codes, and file transfers.

Office for mobile is available in public preview today, with the iOS preview running through Apple's TestFlight program and limited to the first 10,000 users. Users can gets basic access to the preview with no sign-in required, but if you log in with a work, school, or personal Microsoft account you'll get access to all of your cloud-based documents. The new Office app is currently only avaliable for phones, but it will be extended to tablets in the future, and Microsoft says it will continue to support and improve its existing standalone Office mobile apps.

Tag: Microsoft Office
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Dustman
2 weeks ago
Soooo Microsoft Works is making a comeback?
Rating: 14 Votes
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Sethal
2 weeks ago
This just makes sense.
Rating: 14 Votes
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JosephKing
2 weeks ago
This is either going to end up being absolutely outstanding, or absolutely horrible. There will be no in-between...
Rating: 11 Votes
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oneMadRssn
2 weeks ago
I like this. Almost everyone I know with MS Office on their iPhones/iPads has all the apps in a single folder anyway.

Google needs to do the same.
Rating: 9 Votes
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wordup60
2 weeks ago


Typo in the first line. Already not looking good.


Am I missing something? Perfectly correct English as far as I can tell.
Rating: 8 Votes
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KazuSnow
2 weeks ago


Typo in the first line. Already not looking good.


They used the french spelling :p it's how you know it's quality
[automerge]1572879300[/automerge]

Rating: 5 Votes
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fmcshan
2 weeks ago
Typo in the first line. Already not looking good.


Edit: the testflight app says it’s compatible with iPhone and iPad, but when I launch the app on my iPad I get the iPhone version. (see photo 2)



Rating: 5 Votes
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AndyMacAndMic
2 weeks ago


I wish Microsoft had continued a Windows mobile OS. As far as I’m aware it failed because the hardware sucked? Apple needs competition and Google/Android isn’t competition for me.


I here you ?.

But it did not fail because the hardware sucked. The hardware was actually very good. Most people who used it liked it very much except they complained about the lack of apps in the MS store.

It mainly failed because MS could not get enough developers and companies to develop apps for Windows mobile OS. It was a kind of vicious circle: Developers/companies didn't develop apps because the market share was too small and Windows mobile OS did not get enough market share because there were not enough apps developed for it.

MS simply came too late to the game. Android and iOS already were to big.
Rating: 5 Votes
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AndyMacAndMic
2 weeks ago


Typo in the first line. Already not looking good.



https://grammarist.com/spelling/program-programme/
Rating: 4 Votes
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sracer
2 weeks ago


I here you ?.

But it did not fail because the hardware sucked. The hardware was actually very good. Most people who used it liked it very much except they complained about the lack of apps in the MS store.

It mainly failed because MS could not get enough developers and companies to develop apps for Windows mobile OS. It was a kind of vicious circle: Developers/companies didn't develop apps because the market share was too small and Windows mobile OS did not get enough market share because there were not enough apps developed for it.

MS simply came too late to the game. Android and iOS already were to big.

I agree with your observations except for idea that MS came late to the game. They were leading the game before there was even a game. I did quite a bit of development on MS' mobile platforms during the late 90's and into the mid 00's.

Their flaw was that they lacked the determination to stick with it through tough times. As soon as the going got a little rocky, they pulled back and then tried to re-boot the platform. They tried re-re-rebooting 3 or 4 times and with each attempt to reboot, they lost the confidence of more developers. Why spend the time and money to develop something when MS is simply going to sunset it and start something new (that isn't quite compatible with what was old)?
Rating: 4 Votes

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