Wondering how to open doc or excel or ppt document on your android mobile or iPhone, well there are several apps available on Google Play Store or iTunes store for the same but why use them when official MS Office app from Microsoft is available for free. It is called Microsoft Office Mobile. It was not free earlier as it required Office 365 subscription but Microsoft has made it free for home users now. This move is really welcome. There are already nice office apps available for free in Google Play Store or iTunes store so the decision to make it free is a wise choice if Microsoft wants to gain traction in mobile niche as well. With this app, you can create, edit, save documents easily. You can continue your document editing on mobile phone right after you left your desktop, thanks to its cloud feature. Since the app is direct from Microsoft, you won’t face documents compatibility, design or typography issues.
- Cloud feature: Access office documents from OneDrive. Continue editing on desktop or smartphones are the documents are synchronized via the cloud feature.
- Support for charts, animations, SmartArt graphics and shapes.
- Create and edit word document, excel sheets or powerpoint presentations easily via its mobile UI as it is optimized for small screen of smartphones.
- Resume reading – It remembers your last position and starts from the same position the next time you open a document.
Microsoft Office Mobile app doesn’t require office 365 subscription for home use but business users need to pay. However, there is no official tablet version of MS Office for android. On the other hand, Office for iPad is already released. Moreover to my surprise, I couldn’t install Office app on my Samsung Galaxy S4 as it is not compatible as per Play Store. Microsoft is already late in mobile niche and the company needs to work on its mobile attitude faster.
A popular handset like Samsung Galaxy S4 is not in the compatibility chart of Microsoft Office Mobile app. Surprisingly bad!
Download Microsoft Office Mobile app for free for android from here, for iPhone from here