The earnest wish of iPhone users has come true; Microsoft Office can run on iPhone now. Now users of these phones are not compelled to use alternatives like Quick Office or Google Drive. Now users can use Office Mobile to edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint Files on iPhone easily.
It’s really a very admirable step taken by Microsoft to create a mini version of Microsoft Office for iPhone but there are a few drawbacks in this mobile app. It’s unexpected from a company like Microsoft as it’s already introduced Mobile Office for Windows phones. The company was expected to deliver a flawless app for iPhone which stays at least at par to the Office Mobile for Windows.
Users may feel the lack of some very important features in this version of Office Mobile. They will also find some very frequently used functions like copying and pasting a bit complicated to use. Moreover, there are a few types of documents that can’t be edited on the app. However, the company has promised a lot of future updates through a huge checklist.
The app hasn’t been decorated unnecessarily and the appearance and functionality has been kept very simple. Even Google Drive, which supposes to be an epitome of simplicity itself, seems to be a bit decorative when compared to this app.
Highlights of Contents
Word
Word is anticipated to be used mostly by the user of Office Mobile. When it comes to Word, the mobile version seems to lack a lot when compared to the PC version. It offers only a few options while formatting any selected text. The version is so basic that it doesn’t have the option to bullet or number a list, which is feasible even in Google Drive.
However, it doesn’t mean at all that Google Drive is better than Office Mobile in all the senses. We have experienced that the font size in Google drive is so small that usually people have to read the text with squint eyes. But Office Mobile features bigger font than that and are quite easy to read. Moreover, if you want to highlight some particular part of the text, Office allows it. It also allows some specific formatting options such as strike through.
It also gives you convenience to insert comments in a document. All you need to do is to press and hold the text for a while, that’s what we usually do to copy and paste, and then type the comment. These comments may be edited any time. These comments are visible to all the people when anybody opens the same file through Word.
But still Word for iPhone misses a lot. It lacks even the simplest of the formatting options, such as you can’t change the font of the files. An organization like Microsoft should have introduced a comprehensive app, especially when it made iPhone users so long to wait.
Excel
Obviously, Excel for iOS can’t be compared to Excel for PC but still it’s a good app. It allows users to edit conveniently. It features almost all the things that you can find in a spreadsheet. You can lock the positions of the cells, alter the width of the columns collectively and also change formatting of any individual cell.
It also lets you undo the recent change which is not possible even in Word. It’s really seems to be strange that this options is not provided in Word but the good thing is that it’s available in Excel at least. Think about the dire consequence of an accidental tap on “Clear”. A simple “Undo” can take that all back.
With all the required options, Excel seems to the best part of Office for iPhone. But unfortunately, it’s not of much of use of the users who were willing to compromise on Excel but not on Word.
PowerPoint
Now this one is really good. It offers almost all the needed functions. The slides in PowerPoint may be seen in both grid view and list view as per the choice of the user. It also provides the facility of editing the slide text and adding notes. But adding or editing text is still missing. Some other things to be missed are creating documents and some editing functions like importing images from a camera roll etc.
Though there are many a limitations in Office Mobile for iOS but nonetheless it’s good that finally Microsoft head towards it. Obviously, no company would want to lose its proposed customers to its competitors. Hence Microsoft is ready to win the hearts of iPhone users with Office Mobile.
This post has been contributed by Pushpendra Shukla, working as Sr. Associate – Internet Marketing with Moability, a company providing iPhone Apps Development services.
