Microsoft Launches Office For iPad: Includes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 184
An anonymous reader writes "At an event in San Francisco today, Microsoft Office General Manager Julia White unveiled Office for iPad, featuring Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The new suite, which supports viewing but not editing for free, will go live in Apple's App Store at 11:00AM PDT (2:00PM EST). Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for iPad feature a ribbon interface just like the one featured in Office for Windows and OS X. The trio of apps are much more powerful on the tablet than the smartphone, but naturally aren't comparable to the desktop versions."
Hmmm... 'Free'... (Score:3, Insightful)
This isn't so much about a paid subscription as it is not having to pay Apple for each copy of Office sold. This is their way of getting around that. Wonder how long it'll take Apple to close this loophole in the future...
Re:Perfect (Score:5, Insightful)
TL;DR, I don't think MS Office, or even LibreOffice or any other office suite, is really needed anymore. I only have it installed because some of my classes at school require me to, but I noticed that when I'm not doing these assignments, I have only used it to create my resume.
You had a good point up until you only considered student assignment usage.
Too little, too late. (Score:3, Insightful)
Sorry guys, but you're way too late to the party, everyone has already been and gone and eaten your lunch a long time ago. They didn't think you'd ever show up. Your cola is still here if you want it, but it's warm and flat.
$80 for a 365 subscription? pffffft, please.
Re:Perfect (Score:4, Insightful)
I only have it installed because some of my classes at school require me to, but I noticed that when I'm not doing these assignments, I have only used it to create my resume.
I've never met any sort of admin person who could function without office. They need excel and word for literally everything they do all day long.
AND anyone who interacts with an admin person needs to be able to read, and often write to those files.
An inventory manager might send someone an excel sheet of inventory that is missing and needs to be located. Or an asset list that needs to be completed. Or a table of phones that were stolen.
An accountant uses Excel in all kinds of ways, and those documents need to be disseminated to management.
What do you think your companies policy manuals were written in? The ISO quality manual? Material Safety Data Sheets? The log sheet to record when the bathrooms were cleaned? Device Master Records? Customs declarations paperwork? Grant applications? Investment Prospectus? Meeting minutes? New Employee Orientation packages? Legal Contracts? Stock Option Grants? SEC Filings? Press Releases? Performance Reviews?
How many of us need to fill out an excel or word document to submit a timesheet, prepare a customer a quote, submit an expense report, request vacation time, fill out an order, prepare a project budget, estimate a job?
I have only used it to create my resume.
Yeah, not everybody is you.
Re:Perfect (Score:2, Insightful)
Student to Professor: "Here is a link to my GoogleDoc version, which shows complete revision history. And I didn't kill any trees creating this document, making it very green. You can't be bothered clicking a link? Okay, let me print it out in dead tree version ...."
There is no need for "Microsoft Word Formatted File", except people who don't want to learn new things. Funny, but that is exactly how I view many teachers (not wanting to learn new things).