If your laptop is out of charge and you need to show a presentation or edit a Word document, your phone might just save your life, as Office gets rolled out to one more operating system.
From this week on, Office will join the ranks of the green robot, as Microsoft rolls out its Office suite of mobile applications to more than just the Windows Phone and Apple iOS systems it was on before, landing on Android phones and tablets now, too.
The Office suite on Android will consist of three favourites of users across the world, with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint making up the list, allowing current subscribers of the Office 365 platform much of the creation and editing they require on the go from compatible smartphones and tablets.
Access to files will come from your device (phone or tablet), Microsoft’s OneDrive storage system, and even other cloud storage solutions such as Google Drive and Dropbox, providing a fair amount of versatility if you store your documents in various places.
Those of you without access to Office 365 will still be able to write and edit files, but some of the advanced functions for formatting, inserting elements, and screens larger than 10.1 inches will require access to the full thing, with a paid Office 365 subscription necessary in those instances.
Another catch is there, with Microsoft sending word that these apps require devices with at least 1GB RAM, which should be the majority of Android smartphones and tablets in Australia, though budget devices sitting under the $100 mark may find it a little problematic to run any of the Microsoft Office apps on their Android phone or tablet.
That said, in the next year or two, you’ll likely see Microsoft’s Office apps on quite a few devices out of the box, as Microsoft has apparently partnered with a few manufacturers including Samsung, LG, and Sony, meaning the apps will be available on the device the moment you switch them on ready for you to use.
What’s more, logins to Microsoft’s Office 365 service should even see the files they’re already working on if they’re being stored using the OneDrive system. That could mean files you work on at work or home could be edited on the go in real time, checked and worked on from your mobile-connected phone or tablet, allowing you to get more done on whatever device you have.
Pricing for Microsoft’s Office apps rings in at a grand cost of free, though the apps themselves could take up a good 90 to 100MB each on an Android phone or tablet, and you then have the choice of whether to login with or without an Office 365 subscription.
Meanwhile, Apple devices have had this access for quite some time, as have Windows Phones, so this week, both can welcome Android into the fold.
