Funny thing about Office for iPad, Microsoft Corporation’s long-awaited tablet-friendly version of its flagship productivity suite that is a core application of every law department and big law firm on the planet. We’ve waited so long for this, and now that it’s here, it’s exciting to see it get so many things right. Yet at the same time, the three apps in the set—Word, Excel and PowerPoint—expose the inherent shortfalls of the iPad as a front-line business tool. So while Office for iPad will earn a lot of justifiable praise, it may stir up some disappointment, too. After all these years waiting for the full potential of the iPad to be unleashed, that potential, perhaps, is a bit less than we had hoped.
Don’t get me wrong: The decision to download these apps is a no-brainer. They retain much of Office’s functionality. They’re easy to use. They look great. And if you simply want to view Office docs with formatting intact and maybe present some PowerPoint presentations, you can do that, and do it well, without paying a dime. (Editing requires an Office 365 subscription, which runs $100 a year.) The key is not to expect these apps to replicate your desktop Office experience. They won’t. But they will complement it—extremely effectively.
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