Microsoft says that the Office apps, Word, Excel and PowerPoint can be downloaded from the App Store for reading, viewing and presenting documents, for free. But if you want to edit documents it will cost you $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year for the pleasure.
“Starting Thursday, Office 365 subscribers can simply add an iPad as one of their chosen devices included in their subscription benefits, and can create and edit documents with Word for iPad, PowerPoint for iPad and Excel for iPad,” Microsoft said, in a statement. “Office for iPad brings full file fidelity across Office on PC, Mac, tablet and phone, and along with cloud storage from OneDrive or OneDrive for Business your files are up to date, wherever you need them on whatever device you want to use.”
Microsoft said that the apps had been designed for the iPad so that they looked familiar to users of Office on the PC or Mac. Along with this the iPad featrues voice dictation when drafting a document or AirPlay can be used to present a project on the TV screen.
Microsoft is paying Apple 30% on Office subscriptions to be in-line with the in-app purchase policy. This was one of the biggest reasons why Microsoft was reluctant to launch Office on the Apple iPad.
However according to a recent Tweet, the pair has now come to an agreement and are happy. Tim Cook Tweeted “Welcome to the #iPad and @AppStore! @satyanadella and Office for iPad.”
The CEO of Microsoft replied with a Tweet “Thanks @tim_cook, excited to bring the magic of @Office to iPad customers #cloud4mobile.”
When trying to edit an Office file in Word, Excel or Power Point from a SharePoint 2010 document there is an error, “There is no SharePoint Foundation application available to open the app.”
There are two workarounds while waiting for Microsoft to fix the issue.
Option 1 – Add a Place within the application that will connect to the SharePoint Document Library.
1. To do this open any of the installed Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel or PowerPoint).
2. On the opening window choose Add a Place.
3. In the Add a Place window click on SharePoint Site URL
4. In the SharePoint URL window enter the url or internet address of the SharePoint Document Library.
5. Click Next – when prompted enter the username and password.
Option 2 – download a copy of the file
1. When in the Document Library click on Download a copy.
2. The document will be displayed in the browser window with the option to choose how to open in the appropriate application.
3. When the file opens it will be read only with the option to edit and save.
The Office apps are free to download, but if you want to edit you will need to pay a subscription of $99.99 per year.
For the first 50 customers however Microsoft is offering a year’s subscription free. However the deal runs only from 28 March to 30 March.
