Whether you’re viewing a presentation in Powerpoint, creating a document in Word, or diving into a spreadsheet with Excel: from now on you only need the Microsoft Office app to perform these tasks on your iPhone (and later the iPad).
New Microsoft Office app now available
We’ve known for a while that this new Microsoft app was coming, as the company has been in beta since November. This has now been completed, making the app available for both iOS and Android.
The fact that Microsoft bundles its Office apps in an app does not mean that the separate iOS apps for Powerpoint, Word and Excel will disappear. These will continue to exist and have more extensive options than the apps you will find in this bundle.
1. Quickly switch between different programs
With the Office app, Microsoft is clearly targeting the mobile user who wants to quickly adjust or view something on the way to school or work. Because everything takes place in one app instead of three, it is easy to switch between different documents.
2. Scan documents and other physical writings
You can also scan PDF files and digitize text on whiteboards and other physical writings. In addition, you can also quickly sign a PDF with the app, or turn a screenshot into a file.
3. An app that’s a lot smaller
Do you have an iPhone with relatively little internal memory, or do you prefer to use the available memory for other things? Then this Office app is a good way to throw Word, Powerpoint and Excel off your iPhone. By bundling the three apps together, you will lose a lot less memory than installing the separate apps.
4. Advanced Dictation Function
Microsoft has also already announced some features that will be added in future updates. One of these is an extensive dictation function in Word, which allows you to convert spoken text into a written document. You can also record punctuation in this way with a special button.
5. A Better Excel for Small Screens
Opening a gigantic spreadsheet on the small screen of your iPhone has never made anyone happy, but Microsoft has come up with something for that. A new feature in the Office app adds a “map view” to the app. This splits the rows of a spreadsheet into cards that are much more readable on a vertical screen. That also makes it easier to make adjustments.
6. Lightning-fast Powerpoint creation with ‘Outline
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Finally, Microsoft is working on a new feature for Powerpoint. Outline converts a list of tasks or ideas into a presentation at the touch of a button. This should make it easy to quickly type in a list while on the go, after which the app makes a presentation of it independently. That way you don’t have to work with text boxes and animations on your iPhone screen.
The app is now available for iOS and, according to Microsoft, will receive an iPadOS update “soon” that makes better use of the iPad’s capabilities. The above three upcoming features will be rolled out over the coming months.