When Microsoft released its Office Mobile app in June, it finally gave iPhone users a way to view and edit native Office documents on the go. While it worked well, it offered limited functionality. And let’s be honest, trying to do any real work on the iPhone’s smaller screen sounds about as fun as giving a cat a bath. That’s why many were hoping for an iPad version, and it has long been rumored that Microsoft was working on a version for the world’s most popular tablet.
Well, it’s finally here.
Available today from the iTunes Store, Office for iPad brings Word, Excel and PowerPoint to the tablet. It works on iPads running iOS 7.0 or later. With it, you can view, edit and create documents, collaborate with others, and work between your tablet and desktop. Like Office Mobile, though, the Outlook email client isn’t included, although Microsoft does offer an Outlook Web App for the iPad to get your emails.
Built from the ground up, the suite offers robust functionality, and does a nice job of bringing the familiarity of the desktop suite into a touch-friendly iPad experience. I used it on my fourth-generation iPad to write this column, fill out an expense report, and create a PowerPoint presentation, among other things, and it was evident throughout that Microsoft worked to optimize the suite for the iPad. This isn’t a case of taking the iPhone app and stretching it to fit a larger screen, or just dumping the desktop apps onto the iPad.
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