# Microsoft has released Office for the iPad



## DarkScribe

Anyone using it yet? I have just downloaded it and it looks good so far. A lot of people - writers that is - have been waiting for this. They have a free thirty day trial for those who are unsure. I am curious as to opinions.


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## C.G.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll probably try this.


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## Betsy the Quilter

Here's a link...

http://www.appstore.com/microsoftoffice

Betsy


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## Philip Harris

That could be very useful. Thanks for the heads up.

Of course, what I really want is _Scrivener_ for iPad.

Phil


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## Silly Writer

Philip Harris said:


> That could be very useful. Thanks for the heads up.
> 
> Of course, what I really want is _Scrivener_ for iPad.
> 
> Phil


+1


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## Joseph J Bailey

Woot woot!

_(edited upon further review)_ Office 365 subscription required... not so woot.


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## chilady1

Just FYI there is limited functionality with the "free" version of Office for iPad. Check out this article which has a great chart regarding what you get with the free version vs. what you don't get.

http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-office-for-ipad-heres-what-you-get-for-free-and-dont-7000027801/


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## kwajkat

Just my three cents but Office 365 just sucks because it is subscription based which means you have to shell out $70 every year. That alone keeps me from getting it for any of my devices.


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## chilady1

kwajkat said:


> Just my three cents but Office 365 just sucks because it is subscription based which means you have to shell out $70 every year. That alone keeps me from getting it for any of my devices.


Ditto!


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## Leslie

I own the Office 2010 suite (which I paid for) and I have no interest in upgrading to Office 365. I downloaded the Powerpoint app--just to see what it was like--and without a subscription, it is essentially worthless. Plus, it was a big program and took up a lot of space on my mini (with just 16GB). So, Powerpoint has been deleted.

I think Microsoft was too late to the table with this one.

L


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## Betsy the Quilter

Yeah, I was excited until I saw the subscription required.  

If I had a bunch of kids going through school, it might be worth it because you can have up to five computers/devices...but it's just me.

Betsy


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## luvmy4brats

I have the Office subscription. Hubby and 3 of my kids needed to upgrade Office and this was the best option for us. I downloaded all the apps, I just need to find some time to play with them. Fingers crossed it works well for me. It will make grading/editing the kids compositions much easier.


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## Leslie

If I still had kids at home and in school, the Office 365 subscription would be a no-brainer. I'd sign up in a minute. But given that I am the only one using Office right now (my husband uses Open Office for the little bit of writing/spreadsheet stuff he does), and my Office 2010 suite is valid, then it is annoying to be told I have to pay $99/yr to use the Office iPad app. Especially since my iPad will never replace my desktop pc or laptop.

My 2 cents.

L


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## nico

For basic writing tasks, i can't see the advantage of paying for Office over, say, Apple's free app, Pages. But i'd be interested to see how compatible Office for iPad is with full-blown Office documents because maybe i could ditch Office on my Mac and just use my iPad at work for Office-related tasks. That would make me happy because Office for Mac is…not great.


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## Ann in Arlington

I don't have any iThings but I do have MS Office 365. I just recently got an email promo that implied that it was all one thing.  The Office 365 yearly subscription lets you load the suite on up to 5 devices and now iPads are allowed devices.


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## Betsy the Quilter

Ann in Arlington said:


> I don't have any iThings but I do have MS Office 365. I just recently got an email promo that implied that it was all one thing. The Office 365 yearly subscription lets you load the suite on up to 5 devices and now iPads are allowed devices.


Well, part of the thing is that there was no Office for iPad until last week.  And the other is that it's an expensive route for people like me that only have a device or two. (I don't need Office on all of my devices--I can pull out the device that has it.) I don't usually buy Office but once every six years or so.  $99 a year is a bunch of money over that time. *shrug* Everyone's different.

Betsy


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## GirlFriday

I have Office 365 and love it. I pay $9.99 a month. It's worth it since I need Office for my business and I can install it on up to five different devices. Was thrilled when it finally became available for iPad. Worth every dime.


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## Ancient Lawyer

I would love this, because it would be good to edit my WIP on the iPad as well as on the laptop.

But I have an up-to-date legit version of Office on my laptop. I'm not sure we could afford the annual sub. I wonder how much it costs in the UK?

My dh doesn't use Office at all so I don't think it would be very good value for money. Am going to check out the links!


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## Rick Gualtieri

I have both Office and iWork on my iPad.  Unfortunately, months after Microsoft's launch of Office for iPad, I still haven't found much reason to switch from Apple's versions.    Regarding editing WIPs, I still find Pages to be the superior product in that regards.  It's still better suited for longer documents and I can export my work to Dropbox.  I'd love to switch to Word, rather than risk the few compatibility issues Pages still has with regards to formatting, but so far Word for iPad still seems like a half-baked effort.


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## Ancient Lawyer

What is Pages, Rick? My husband suggested trying Open Office - they have an app that works in Safari.

I have installed it but found it a bit tricky to use. (This may be me rather than the app, though).


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## Rick Gualtieri

JessieCar said:


> What is Pages, Rick? My husband suggested trying Open Office - they have an app that works in Safari.


Pages is Apple's version of Word. It's available for iPad and is compatible with Word format. Though not directly connected, you can "export" files from it to Dropbox.


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## Ancient Lawyer

Rick Gualtieri said:


> Pages is Apple's version of Word. It's available for iPad and is compatible with Word format. Though not directly connected, you can "export" files from it to Dropbox.


That sounds interesting. I've tried a few things so far (Textilus and something else...) and so far the problem has been losing all the formatting when exporting the file to the iPad.


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## Rick Gualtieri

JessieCar said:


> That sounds interesting. I've tried a few things so far (Textilus and something else...) and so far the problem has been losing all the formatting when exporting the file to the iPad.


Pages does a pretty good job at preserving Word formatting, both when importing and exporting. It's not perfect, though. I find I usually need to go back and do minor fixes on the final file in Word.


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## Ancient Lawyer

Rick Gualtieri said:


> Pages does a pretty good job at preserving Word formatting, both when importing and exporting. It's not perfect, though. I find I usually need to go back and do minor fixes on the final file in Word.


I might give that a try then, Rick. I wasn't mad keen on the Open Office document format, and Textilus was - pretty rubbish.

I tend to get very confused between the remote Dropbox and the local one.


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## Rick Gualtieri

JessieCar said:


> I tend to get very confused between the remote Dropbox and the local one.


They're the same thing really. It's just two different ways of accessing the files on it.


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## Silly Writer

Rick Gualtieri said:


> They're the same thing really. It's just two different ways of accessing the files on it.


Rick, 
I too might give Pages and Dropbox a try...still confused about the remote versus local DropBox. Do you have time to elaborate beyond the fact that they're the same thing. I don't understand 
Thanks so much,
L.L.


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## Rick Gualtieri

L.L. Akers said:


> Rick,
> I too might give Pages and Dropbox a try...still confused about the remote versus local DropBox. Do you have time to elaborate beyond the fact that they're the same thing. I don't understand
> L.L.


Dropbox is cloud storage, essentially a hard drive on a remote network that you access via WiFi, wired, or cellular data connection. That being said, Dropbox for ipad has a feature where you can store items locally on your ipad (favorites) so you can access them during times when you're not connected to the internet. If you make any changes it'll be saved to your iPad's storage until such time as you have a chance to connect to a network and sync up.


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## Mark E. Cooper

L.L. Akers said:


> Rick,
> I too might give Pages and Dropbox a try...still confused about the remote versus local DropBox. Do you have time to elaborate beyond the fact that they're the same thing. I don't understand
> Thanks so much,
> L.L.


Dropbox is simply a folder on your computer. You use the files within it, and when changes are noticed by Dropbox, those files are uploaded to the cloud. When you turn on another computer with Dropbox on it, that computer compares its local copy of the folder and if there are differences to the files it finds in the cloud, it downloads them to update its own local copies.

This means that if you lose internet or something, you can still continue working on your primary computer. When internet is restored, the newest file will be uploaded to the cloud as usual. Of course this is where you must then be careful.

Let's assume you work on your primary comp but don't notice that internet is down. You finish work as normal and save the file. Log off and shut down. The next day for some reason you use a lap top (your secondary comp) and scream in agony when you realise your files are the old version! "I've lost all my work!!"

Well no you haven't.

Shut off the laptop, boot up your primary comp and there are your files still on the local drive. Dropbox notices you didn't update the cloud last night, and away it goes uploading the updates. You wait until the little green tick appears in the system tray. Shut down again, go to your laptop, and when you boot up, the new files download to that local folder. Ah, what a relief!

Having said all this, I also use Bvbackup to copy my files in the Dropbox folder to my home NAS. I never rely upon one system to keep me safe. I use an external hard drive for one of Bvbackup's destinations and my NAS for another, but work on files in the Dropbox folder.


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## Ancient Lawyer

Rick Gualtieri said:


> They're the same thing really. It's just two different ways of accessing the files on it.


I think I understand. It's certainly incredibly useful to be able to edit the same document on different machines. And sync them.

And Mark - that precise thing happened to me. I thought I had lost an entire document, until I found it backed up on Dropbox. But I do agree about multiple back-ups.


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## Silly Writer

Thanks, Mark and Rick! I'm in!


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