An Office 365 Personal subscription allows for one PC or Mac, and one tablet (including iPad) to be connected to the service, and is the best option for individuals interested in using Office 365.]]>
Yet despite the new look, everything about the software is obvious. For the most part, the iPad versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote work exactly as they do on PCs and Macs.
This is a testament to the designers and engineers at Microsoft and to the power of long-term training. Other than my web browser, there’s no software I use more often than Word, so I’ve internalized all its tics. I know the keyboard shortcuts, the menu options, the ins and outs of esoteric features like Track Changes. As I used the iPad version, I felt it click into the same neural grooves dug out by the years I’ve spent on desktop Office. If you’re familiar with Office, you won’t face any learning curve in the new version.
If you love Office on your computer, you’ll love it on your iPad. If you’ve always hated it, that won’t change, either; now you’ll just have one more place to hate it.]]>
According to several sources of mine, Microsoft's latest timetable calls for the company to finally introduce the long-rumored Microsoft Office for iPad suite of applications before the end of March 2014. This March 27 event sounds like it might be the time and place.
The suite for the iPad is rumored to include only Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, and possibly no other Office client apps. It is expected to be downloaded from the Apple Store but most likely to require a Microsoft Office 365 subscription, similar to the way Office Mobile for iPhone works. Wouldn't take away from Microsoft tablet sales, because they're tiny; would add to Office sales, because the iPad comprises a sizeable market. What would it do to the tablet market, though?]]>
But if sales don't match the projections Microsoft has settled on internally, it would pull the trigger on Office for the iPad, [Patrick] Moorhead [of Moor Insights & Strategy] said. "Does having Office on Windows 8.1 incent buyers to buy a Windows machine over an iPad or Android tablet?" asked Moorhead rhetorically. "If not, I would expect them to rapidly move to put a more robust Office on iPads and Android tablets, because they wouldn't be losing anything at that point."]]>
Thus whereas a chemist might come home and not go into the kitchen and start running experiments, a software engineer can do exactly that. This bends the technologist's vision because the process of moving from work to play is one that is non-experiential. PC at work, then PC at home. Work tools at work - work tools at home.
I don't personally think this needs to be the case - a little light self-reflection and this becomes obvious. Are you a technologist who owns a Kindle? You could read books on your PC when you go to bed, but do you? Do you instead use the Kindle? How about cooking - do you read recipes on your iPad, or do you cart your laptop into the kitchen?
Post-PC technology is not about cost-benefit, it's all about experience. Technologists need to reflect on their own unconcious behaviour in order to understand post-PC. Applies more widely than just Office on iPad.]]>
The release on Tuesday follows the launch of Quickoffice for Apple's iPad late last year, when a Google executive said that iPhone and Android versions "are on the way." The move was also preceded by a February announcement that Google was baking the Quickoffice technology into both its Chrome browser and Chrome OS. For consumers, might be big news. For enterprises, they'll wait - forever? - for Microsoft.]]>
When we first set out to build this release of Office, we knew it would be the boldest yet. We wanted to create that “over-the-shoulder envy” that makes your friend or the guy sitting next to you on the plane ask what you’re using. In a recent survey, 96 percent of people who were asked said they’d recommend Office to a friend. File under Conversations That Never Happen: "Excuse me, but I couldn't help wondering what that suite of office applications is that you're using. It's called what? Made by who? Wow, it looks really promising. You'd recommend it? Really?"]]>
Personally I think everyone translates “Office for x” into full ports of Office for platform x. But I doubt that is in the cards. These other platforms, be that the iPad or Linux, are likely to get subset offerings targeted at the Office 365 service and usage scenarios Microsoft prioritizes.]]>
Ballmer: Well, you’ve got to remember, 100 million sounds like a pretty small number to me, actually. We’ve got a lot more Office users. And actually if you even want to go to the cloud, we have a lot of Hotmail and SkyDrive users. I’m not beating on Dropbox. They’re a fine little startup and that’s great. 100 million makes you a little startup? OK. He's then asked about Yammer (6m) which Microsoft bought for $1.2bn. And he also deals with the question of Office for iPad. Well, sort of.]]>
Ahem.
But eventually I, like many others, simply stopped needing to print. Everything I wrote I transmitted electronically or put on a webpage. And really, good riddance to printing. Printing is horrible. Printers are horrible. Printing software is what people in Dante's Ninth circle of Hell are condemned to use over and over. A pox on you if you ask me to print something these days; a plague on you and your house if you ask me to fax something. A good text editor—BBEdit, or any of the dozens of excellent Dropbox and iCloud-based iOS editors—is now my writing tool of choice. Memorize a few pieces of Markdown syntax and kiss a "word processor" goodbye. Read on for the most fabulous dissing of spreadsheets and presentation software.]]>