Microsoft has made yet another Office announcement … not a big announcement but an opportunity to explain the idea of Universal apps for Office and how they compare with traditional desktop apps. The Microsoft announcement was that a preview version of Office for Windows 10 for phones will be available
Microsoft has released an Android version of their Office Lens app. What is Office Lens? Office Lens main feature is an image to text conversion. You can take a photo of a document, receipt etc and it’ll convert into plain text (OCR) for use in OneNote, Word etc. It comes
Yet one more for the list of things you’d never thought you’d see from Microsoft. They now have a deal with major Android phone and tablet makers to include Office software in some of their products. That’s right, Microsoft is paying companies to put their software on non-Windows devices. At
We’ve been looking closely at the Outlook app for iOS and Android as well as online reviews and the many comments from Office-Watch.com readers. We’ve come to the conclusion that there are two different apps. The preview versions that the public are trying and there’s other, quite different, apps which
Rene Winkelmeyer was the first to detail the worrying and undocumented way the Outlook apps store your email account logins. Normal programs and apps keep your login details (server, name, password etc) encrypted on the computer or device. When needed the name/password is sent direct to the mail host to
The Outlook app for iOS and Android is a ‘preview’ release, meaning it’s not a fully tested release, ready for the general public. But some people at Microsoft don’t realize that and are promoting it as a fully public release. The app itself is called ‘Microsoft Outlook Preview’ and the
We ignored all the hype and spin to spend some time ourselves with the new Outlook app on various devices. Here’s what we’ve found so far … Microsoft has released its own Outlook app, it’s hyped as a combined email, calendar and contacts app. You might like to get the
After a public preview and some bug fixes, the three major Office programs are now available for some Android tablets. Microsoft Word for Android, Excel for Android and PowerPoint for Android are now available from Google Play. There’s also an OneNote app already available. If you’ve installed the preview/beta versions
CloudOn, the online service that lets you use ‘real’ Office programs on a range of mobile devices, has been bought by Dropbox. We looked at CloudOn back in 2012. It runs a copy of the full Office programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) on a server and virtualizes the screen display to
Hot on heels of the Windows 10 demonstration was a Microsoft post with more images of the new touch-capable Office for Windows 10 apps. In all these images you can see the ‘Universal’ Windows 10 apps at work. You’re seeing the same program running on different size screens and adapting
Microsoft has now confirmed what was long suspected; later in 2015 we’ll see two new versions of Microsoft Office. Office 2016 An update to the main Office suite for 32/64 bit Windows. The successor to Office 2013, Office 2010 and so on. Office for Windows 10. A new set of
At the Windows 10 announcement there was also a glimpse at the next Office – the long-promised touch screen version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. The overall concept is that the ‘same’ Office programs will act similarly whether you’re on a Windows 10 phone, tablet and PC’s. How that
Microsoft has expanded the beta testing of Microsoft Office for Android to anyone with a compatible device. Not just the approved beta testers. But there’s a catch … you need a compatible Android device and not all Android tablets will qualify. Office for Android needs: An ARM based device (most
Slow, but surely, the online version of Microsoft Office gets better. Word online will never have everything that Word for Windows or Mac does, but it’s becoming more viable for occasional users and as a backup in case your usual software fails. It also adds some interesting features that’s aren’t
UPDATE: we’ve totally updated this article see How to get a refund of Office 365 With the release of the ‘free’ Office for iPhone/iPad apps with many editing features, there’s probably some unhappy Office 365 subscribers out there. If you bought Office 365 for the editing features in Office for iPad
We’ve already mentioned that the ‘free’ Office Mobile apps (for iPhone, iPad and soon Android) actually have some features that are only available to Office 365 subscribers … but what? The editing options available in the current apps is quite extensive and surprisingly generous. For most people, they’ll be able
Microsoft is having a good laugh having just fooled journalists and customers all over the world with their announcement of ‘free’ Office for iPad and iPhone. It’s not free at all. For as long as Office-Watch.com has existed (19 years now) we’ve known to closely read Microsoft announcements and press
The Office rumor mill has been running hot this week. Office for Android Plenty of rumors that Office for Android is coming soon, possibly in early November. If that’s the case it can’t come soon enough for Office users. If Office for Android is as good as Office for iPad
Microsoft has really made Office 365 more compelling by raising their online OneDrive storage from 1 Terabyte to Unlimited for Office 365 subscribers. If you have Office 365 Personal, Home, University or Business account, the OneDrive storage limit will be effectively removed entirely. For Home subscribers, shared among several people,
An iOS 8 trap for iPad users who have an external video connection cable. Many people have a little plug-in for their iPad that lets them put the video on any HDMI display … like most monitors and TV sets. This is great for anyone who needs big screen support,
Microsoft has announced the existence but not availability of a new part of Office, Microsoft Sway. https://sway.com/ Sway is a new way to make a web based presentations with text, images, video, social media integrated. It certainly looks interesting. We think of it as a 21st Century version of PowerPoint,
In addition to the new 10GB file limit in OneDrive, Microsoft is rolling out two other improvements that may be of interest to Microsoft Office users. Share from Explorer Coming to Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 ‘soon’ is an addition to the right-click menu in Explorer. ‘Share a OneDrive link’
Microsoft has increased the maximum size for a single file on OneDrive to 10GB. That’s a sensible change since Office 365 customers now have a Terabyte (1,000GB) available online. The 10GB limit applies to files transferred via the desktop or mobile apps. Uploads via web browser seem to remain limited
Microsoft has made it easier for students to get a free copy of the Microsoft Office suite with a major streamlining of their existing Student Advantage program. How to get the free Office The student (13 years and older) has to be enrolled at a school which has MS Office
