Reprinted from TidBITS by permission; reuse governed by Creative Commons license BY-NC-ND 3.0. TidBITS has offered years of thoughtful commentary on Apple and Internet topics. For free email subscriptions and access to the entire TidBITS archive, visit http://www.tidbits.com/ Microsoft Office Is Now on iPhone, and It's Free Julio Ojeda-Zapata Microsoft raised eyebrows earlier this year when it released a full, polished iPad version of its flagship Office productivity suite (see '[1]Office for iPad: A Deep Look,' 3 April 2014) without providing comparably touch-friendly software for its own Windows platform. That trend continues today in what is clearly a new and aggressively cross-platform age for the once Windows-centric software company. Microsoft had a slew of Office-related announcements [2]involving the iPhone, iPad, and Android, while still treating its PC platform as a bit of an afterthought (at least publicly). Most shocking of all, many Office features are now available for free. This isn't Steve Ballmer's Microsoft anymore. Office for iPhone -- Perhaps the biggest Office news for Apple aficionados involves the iPhone. Microsoft released new and universal versions of [3]Word, [4]Excel and [5]PowerPoint that will work on either the iPad or iPhone ' with the latter displaying a new, phone-friendly interface. [6][tn_Office-for-iPhone.jpg] Word, for instance, makes the most of the iPhone's restricted on-screen real estate by keeping the formatting pane hidden, but available with the tap of a button. It slides up from the bottom and can be dismissed with another tap. That formatting pane is nicely designed to save space. The traditional Insert, Layout, Review and View menus, which on the iPad are in a toolbar along the top, are in a tidy little popover menu on the iPhone. There are lots of controls in that formatting pane, but they're a cinch to find with a quick scrolling motion. Word users now have two viewing choices: the default view and one Microsoft calls an 'easy-to-read layout' or 'reflow view.' [7][tn_Word-iPhone-views.jpg] These new, standalone versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint for the iPhone replace a single Office Mobile app that iPhone users could use to open and edit Office files. Office Mobile had limited features, didn't have many fans, and won't be missed. Relatively minor feature upgrades apply to both iPhone and iPad. The Office apps have more-customizable charts, for instance (but this is for paying premium users only). PowerPoint also tweaks animations, theming, zooming, and background formatting. [8][tn_PowerPoint-tweaks.jpg] Microsoft did not announce updates to its OneNote apps for [9]iPhone and [10]iPad, but late last month it pushed out an update with iOS 8 support and optimized viewing on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The OneNote updates also included iCloud Drive support and improved security, including compatibility with Touch ID. Editing for Free -- Microsoft's Office apps for iOS used to be of limited use to those without an Office 365 subscription because they could only open and read Office files ' editing and saving wasn't an option. Now it is'¦ up to a point. Microsoft has made core editing features in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint free for all users while keeping advanced, business-centric features as premium offerings. The new Office apps are now akin to certain iOS games that are technically free to play, but include in-app add-ons for those wanting the full experience. Want to level up? Pay up. Average Office users might not feel much pressure to upgrade, though, since Microsoft has been generous in what they can do at the free level. I am writing this article in Word on my iPhone 6 Plus without paying a dime (but I can't sync my work with Word for the Mac). But figuring out what you can and can't do in the free apps can be a bit tricky, and some of the differences are silly. Only premium users can switch orientations in an existing Word document or create a document in portrait mode. Seriously? Macworld has [11]a detailed rundown of free-vs.-paid features. Microsoft's move to make its Office apps essentially free is not much of a stretch when you consider it had already done so with the robust browser-based versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, along with OneNote. Dropbox -- Microsoft has expanded saving options, too ' including the option to save documents to Dropbox. This comes courtesy of a new Dropbox-Microsoft alliance (see '[12]Dropbox Is Coming to Office,' 4 November 2014). As a result, when I fired up the Office apps on my iPhone and logged into my Microsoft account, I was prompted to also log in to my Dropbox account. Naturally, you still have the option to save documents to a Microsoft OneDrive account. Dropbox and Microsoft are working to make their offerings more compatible. Other [13]announced features include the option to edit Office files from within the Dropbox app, Dropbox integration with the Office Web apps, and the sharing of Dropbox links from Office, but these features did not appear to be fully active as of this writing. Hello, Android -- Microsoft had promised an Android version of Office, and that came to pass today. Sort of. The company has launched a preview program for early adopters who want to kick the tires on beta versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. They have to register, but using the apps costs nothing. As of this writing, [14]the preview is invite only. The Android apps appear to be near-twins of the iPad versions, and are important for those individuals or companies who use a mix of mobile devices and want Office consistency across multiple platforms. Android users only had limited-compatibility Office-like apps from third-party sources. Some such apps are nice ' but for many companies only the official Office will do. [15][tn_Office-for-Android.jpg] Poor Windows users -- Those on Windows PCs continue to suffer as they see iOS and Android enjoy the latest in Office goodness. (I am one such Windows user feeling that discomfort, since I am a heavy user of a Microsoft Surface tablet, and I don't like using the current, traditional Office on a touchscreen.) Microsoft has said that touch-optimized Office apps for Windows will be released alongside the Windows 10 operating system, which is slated for release late next year. Microsoft said nothing more, except to promise that 'additional details will be shared at a later date,' and to post a picture of the upcoming Excel. [16][tn_Excel-Windows-preview.jpg] References 1. http://tidbits.com/article/14647 2. http://blogs.office.com/2014/11/06/bringing-office-everyone/ 3. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-word-for-ipad/id586447913?mt=8&at=10l5PW 4. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-excel-for-ipad/id586683407?mt=8&at=10l5PW 5. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-powerpoint-for-ipad/id586449534?mt=8&at=10l5PW 6. http://tidbits.com/resources/2014-11/Office-for-iPhone.jpg 7. http://tidbits.com/resources/2014-11/Word-iPhone-views.png 8. http://tidbits.com/resources/2014-11/PowerPoint-tweaks.png 9. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-onenote/id410395246?mt=8&at=10l5PW 10. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-onenote-for-ipad/id478105721?mt=8&at=10l5PW 11. http://www.macworld.com/article/2844476/office-goes-free-on-phones-and-tablets-what-you-get-and-what-you-dont.html#tk.rss_all 12. http://tidbits.com/article/15213 13. https://blog.dropbox.com/2014/11/dropbox-microsoft-office-partnership/ 14. http://www.instant.ly/s/w7taW/nav?sessionId=DB8YoS68cyr4vYMdgV3EPax1#p/186a0 15. http://tidbits.com/resources/2014-11/Office-for-Android.png 16. http://tidbits.com/resources/2014-11/Excel-Windows-preview.png .