If you are one of the thousands of business users with an iPad you may appreciate that Microsoft released Office for iPad (available through iTunes) earlier this year for those running iOS 7.
This week it updated the suite to version 1.1, adding the ability to send files from Word and Excel as PDFs and a new Presenter View for PowerPoint.
Details were available at ArsTechnica, which lists the new capabilities from the release notes.
Briefly, users can now also crop pictures inline, and reset changes made to pictures. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint can also use third-party fonts, presumably in addition to the Microsoft- and Apple-supplied fonts that come with iOS and the Office apps themselves. Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote pick up more features that will be appreciated by heavier users of the desktop Office apps, ArsTechnica says.
Excel users gain the ability to flick a cell’s selection handle in any direction to quickly select all the data in a row or column. Users also gain the ability to interact with PivotTables that have source data in the same workbook. When you want to print there are more paper sizes and scaling options available. Finally, using an external keyboard is easier — use the same keys for inputting data and move around a worksheet as you would on a PC or Mac.
For those who want to run PowerPoint slides from a tablet, there’s a Presenter view so you can view and edit speaker notes, see the next slide or jump to another slide while presenting, as well as erase highlights and drawings. You can also play videos, sound effects and background music.
You’ll need a Microsoft account to view files in all of the applications. If you want to edit those files you’ll need to subscribe to Microsoft’s Office 365.
