The new app seems to be very much about delivering a seamless experience between packages for its users, allowing quick switching between Word, Excel and PowerPoint. It’s been further optimised for a touch-based user interface, meaning that there are improvements to its layout and general feel, making the most commonly-used features easier to access.
The new app was designed to replace the three individual apps, while retaining as many of the features of the individual apps as possible. Because it’s a single installed app replacing three, its storage requirement is much less, down from nearly 800MB on iOS to just over 250MB.
Scan documents with your camera and convert them into Word or Excel documents with Microsoft’s Lens technology. Capture the contents of a whiteboard and streamline your note-taking.
Some of the new features are designed to help with the tasks people often encounter while on the phone – You can sign PDFs, scan QR codes, quickly and easily transfer files between devices, and make quick notes using the new app.
Enhanced Word dictation, card view for Excel, and Outline to PowerPoint are some of the features that have been announced and will be available shortly.
The new Office app also includes support for third party cloud storage services such as Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox and Box – eliminating the need to save everything to OneDrive first if your team uses an alternative cloud storage solution. You can save everything directly to your cloud provider of choice.
As always, the software is available free to everyone, but paid Office365 subscribers will get access to more of the enhanced features available.
