In April 2014, Microsoft released Word, Excel and Powerpoint on iOS with previews for Android tablets released the following November. The previews were downloaded over 250,000 times, in 33 languages and in over 100 countries. After three months they have released the full, optimized version of the apps for Android tablets. The apps are free to use but for business application you can use your Office 365 business subscription credentials. If you have an Android tablet you can download the apps in the Google Playstore. The apps are simple to use, with large icons for those with bigger fingers and they make use of your personal cloud to store documents. The apps for Android and iOS have similar features. You can write, create and organize like you did on your desktop, all on your tablet! Opinions about these three apps are divided. It is useful to be able to work on your projects wherever you go – but the apps are not perfect (as people have experienced). The reviews show that there is still some work to be done by Microsoft. One downside: the apps require you to log in with your Microsoft account, which you will have to create if you do not already have one. The upside of this is that all your files will be stored in your cloud, so you can access it wherever you go. Plus, when you have a document you have already started reading you can resume where you left off. Additionally you can review comments that have been made in Word or Excel documents. Word, Excel and Powerpoint are always good to have close by, so load up the Google Playstore and try it out for yourself. Featured photo credit: Viktor Hanacek via picjumbo.com
