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Microsoft launches Office for iPad

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Re: Microsoft launches Office for iPad

#251

Post by hrktb »

codeulike wrote: post #168
hrktb wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have yet to see any iOS app doing a reliable job in even just displaying Excel and Word documents. A long time ago I thought that LibreOffice or Pages were close enough, good enough to not need Office, but in reality there is still some random document once in a while that has the history messed up, or the layout hides a part of the text, or images are not at the right place. It might be 98% OK, but you can't alway…

but in reality there is still some random document once in a while that has the history messed up, or the layout hides a part of the text, or images are not at the right place We really should get a campaign going to persuade people to keep their Word and Powerpoint formats simple. Usually interop problems only happen when people do weird formatting things that look terrible anyway.

IMO the issue is more with the document format than what people are doing with it. The most recurrent problem I've seen was with text that was deleted at some point appearing instead of the current version.

What I'd really want in the first place is people to care if what they are sharing is in the right format.

When a non technical clients asks a designer to see some early drafts of a site's UI, they will usually receive rendered jpg or png files, not Photoshop or Illustrator files. Most school teachers would be pissed of if students were to turn in home assignments in tex. I find it inconsiderate to send me docx files for documents that are read only on my side, just send me the PDF instead.

Re: Microsoft launches Office for iPad

#252

Post by ksk »

jmspring wrote: post #3

A review comparing the Apple apps (native and cloud), MSFT Office (native and cloud), and Google Docs compare would be interesting. Specifically usability (touch as well as external keyboard attached), on and offline modes. Playing up the ribbon in the presentation? Curious as ribbon really has triggered a love it or hate it reaction.

> Curious as ribbon really has triggered a love it or hate it reaction.

What do you hate about it? I find it to be just a bigger toolbar.

The thing I care about the most is UI responsiveness, so Apple's iOS (upto 6, hate 7) UI has always impressed me with its fluidity. Google is web based which I hate the most. I cant understand how any sane person could use a shitty bloated web app over a high performance native application.

Re: Microsoft launches Office for iPad

#253

Post by NicoJuicy »

sz4kerto wrote: post #4

MS is changing, and make no mistake, this has started with Ballmer. If you watch(ed) the press conf, it's quite apparent. App store for Android, Office for iPad, AD for Azure.. quite nice stuff, that's what we expect from a software giant: just release stuff for everything, everywhere, and make things be able to work with each other nicely. Good to see that, competition is always good for the users, and Apple, Google…

And they are changing good... For example, i'm Bizspark and i have 115 €/ month sponsored by Microsoft for using Azure (for a max of 3 years)... And it's a great platform to..

I needed help from some of them to transfer management (have my own domain name now). He called me within 2 hours, the same evening he watched my screen and we followed the additional required steps (wouldn't have found those steps solo i'm affraid).

Great and fast support, i guess that's why Microsoft is "enterprise".

(ps. Subscription wasn't hard, you have to explain your idea and what you're trying to build. Then you get access to Media Services, Virtual Machines, ...)

Re: Microsoft launches Office for iPad

#254

Post by tallanvor »

rlu wrote: post #190
chrisdevereux wrote: post #12

The pricing structure is interesting: Free to view, requires an expensive Office 365 subscription to edit. Seems like they're missing an opportunity to drive adoption of Office as an online platform. Why would I want to publish using Office instead of Google Docs when I can't assume that people I send the Office doc to will be able to edit it? Sure, Office is better, but not better enough to overcome that. If it was…

It's somewhat expensive at first sight for an individual, but it's a pretty phenomenal pricing for a family. Lets you buy 1 "license" and it works on up to 5 Macs/PCs and 5 mobile devices/tablets. 2 parents + 3 kids? Not bad. Not sure what the stance is on doing some "framily" thing where you share it with friends.

It's not even that bad for many individuals - let's face it, many of us have more than one computer, so being able to install Office on all of them is quite nice. And I have to admit, the SkyDrive, er, OneDrive integration works quite well - I'm able to update documents on one of my computers and then not have to worry at all about getting the latest changes to another computer, my phone, or tablet.

And even the 60 Skype minutes has come in handy when I've needed to make international calls.

I'm still not a huge fan of applications I'm used to buying once every few years moving to the subscription model, but admittedly there are some positives with what MS has done here.

Re: Microsoft launches Office for iPad

#255

Post by randomafrican »

jsolson wrote: post #194
DigitalSea wrote: post #192

Finally. Yes, there are alternatives to Microsoft Office for the iPad, but make no mistake, none of them even come close to that of Microsoft Office. I just downloaded Word and Excel, couldn't find a flaw in either of them. The subscription part for editing sucks, but subscriptions are fairly cheap. We are witnessing a new Microsoft that began when new CEO Satya Nadella took the helm. This is his first of many acts t…

You realize that this had to have been in development for months if not years prior to this release, right?

There are been rumours saying that it has been ready for months if not years.

The decision to release it is Nadella's.

Re: Microsoft launches Office for iPad

#256

Post by yaeger »

DigitalSea wrote: post #192

Finally. Yes, there are alternatives to Microsoft Office for the iPad, but make no mistake, none of them even come close to that of Microsoft Office. I just downloaded Word and Excel, couldn't find a flaw in either of them. The subscription part for editing sucks, but subscriptions are fairly cheap. We are witnessing a new Microsoft that began when new CEO Satya Nadella took the helm. This is his first of many acts t…

>couldn't find a flaw in either of them.

I have. It's just a viewer for office formats.

If that subscription model takes be ready for Windows 9 to come as an Ad Supported Free Version and a paid version that costs 100 bucks a year cause you were so onboard with continuously paying for office for years on end.

Re: Microsoft launches Office for iPad

#257

Post by yaeger »

mediaman wrote: post #46
k-mcgrady wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this lame? If you only require viewing docs on the iPad you can do that for free. That's fantastic and most people will probably be satisfied with that. A subscription is only to edit and I believe gives you access to Office 365. For software you use daily a subscription shouldn't be a problem.

It's just the anti-corporate parade of users on HN who aren't used to paying for software. The majority of users here are wholly outside the target market. There's a huge universe of companies more than willing to pay for these, and it's about time that MS take advantage of re-establishing Office as a cross-device dominant platform for the everyday office worker, rather than losing its edge as an office platform beca…

>It's just the anti-corporate parade of users on HN who aren't used to paying for software.

Close. We aren't used to keep paying for software with no end in sight. Don't know about you but I subscribe to things I know I will be using regularly. Like daily. Guess were office software falls? Not under the daily usage at home.

Am I supposed to start writing word docs each week and mail them to my family just so I don't feel ripped of cause I am continuously paying for office?

Just wait until the next Windows costs 100 bucks a year. Cause that is where this is headed and apparently people don't seem to have any problem overpaying Microsoft for software.

Re: Microsoft launches Office for iPad

#258

Post by voltagex_ »

batoure wrote: post #221
malandrew wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does she use VMware for?

she has been an avid user of PC Gourmet (Big Blue Disk 39) since the eighties. I have never been able to extract the recipes easily and she has been using it pretty much constantly for 20+ years so there are too many to do by hand. It worked ok in xp but won't run since windows 7/8 so ... vmware

Runs pretty well on DOSBox - found Big Blue Disk 93 on cd.textfiles.com.

Re: Microsoft launches Office for iPad

#260

Post by voltagex_ »

batoure wrote: post #221
malandrew wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does she use VMware for?

she has been an avid user of PC Gourmet (Big Blue Disk 39) since the eighties. I have never been able to extract the recipes easily and she has been using it pretty much constantly for 20+ years so there are too many to do by hand. It worked ok in xp but won't run since windows 7/8 so ... vmware

Sorry for the multiple posts on this. You sent me on a bit of an adventure:

* Downloaded a modified DOSBox build with printer support from http://ykhwong.x-y.net/ (linked from DOSBox wiki so not too worried)

* Mapped LPT1 in DOSBox to LPT1 in Windows

* installed CUPS-PDF [1] on a CUPS server in a VM

* shared virtual PDF printer via Samba to Windows

* ran net use lpt1: \\vm.local\pdf /persistent:yes

* printed from DOSBox and got [2]

1: http://www.cups-pdf.de/ (or apt-get install cups-pdf)

2: https://mega.co.nz/#!ehpxha4b!U2q9lhH2RoniPKucW862Y2qRxCgMJ6...

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