Office Web Apps upgrade offers better iPad experience

22.10.2012
An upgrade of Microsoft's Office Web Apps has been finalized, and a combination of enhancements makes this Web-hosted Office version work much better on iPads than previous iterations.

As a result, Microsoft, which has been reticent to create a full-featured Office version for iOS, may be able to at least appease unhappy users who want to use Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote on their iPads.

This new Office Web Apps version has "embraced" HTML5, has been optimized for tablets and smartphones, and has been further "fine tuned" for iOS 6 specifically, Microsoft on Monday.

With the HTML5 enhancements, Office Web Apps runs in "virtually" all modern browsers, including Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox and Safari, without the need for plug-ins, according to Microsoft.

Moreover, as detailed in an August , the new touch capabilities of the new Office Web Apps -- then in preview mode -- were designed "to bring the full-fledged capabilities of viewing and editing" to browsers and tablets such as IE on Windows 8 and mobile Safari on iOS.

At the time, Microsoft said its goals included letting users get up and running with touch-based Office Web Apps right away without learning a new user interface. In addition, Microsoft strived to offer users of touch-based devices the "full feature set of the Office Web Apps, including editing tools."