Microsoft Office Mobile for the iPhone Makes It Easier to Work on the Go

Mobile devices such as the iPhone have become essential to everyday business. But without an official version of Microsoft Office on a device, accessing important work documents, spreadsheets and presentations can be hit or miss.

This week, Microsoft announced the release of the new Office Mobile for iPhone for Office 365 subscribers, which alleviates frustration by providing the full force of Microsoft Office in the palm of your hand.

Desktop or smartphone, the device you work on no longer matters. Everything from spreadsheets to presentations created using any of the Microsoft Office tools can be viewed and edited from the iPhone just as well as from a desktop. This is possible thanks to Office Mobile’s ability to maintain a cohesive process for formatting and layout across all devices.

That means complex elements like SmartArt and PowerPoint animations are now seamlessly executed. Office Mobile also keeps track of work in progress, letting users pick up where they last left off.

Cohesion and Collaboration Are Here

The ever-present cloud makes much of Office Mobile’s functionality accessible. SkyDrive or SkyDrive Pro, Microsoft’s cloud storage solution, provides user access for viewing, editing and saving documents.

Perhaps most important, Office Mobile acknowledges the unique touch-based design of the iPhone screen. For example, the mobile version of Excel spreadsheets will have many users’ fingers dancing through the data like figure skaters on ice.

Additionally, Microsoft made sure that a decrease in screen real estate did not take away from the full potential of any of Office’s products. The flexibility to transition from portrait to landscape view comes in handy when building a PowerPoint presentation.

Julia White, general manager of the Office Division for Microsoft, provides more detail in the official announcement:

For instance, the Slide Navigator allows you to page through PowerPoint presentations fast while Speaker Notes help you practice presentations on the go. When reviewing Word documents on your phone, the Resume Reading feature takes you to the exact point in the document where you left off on your computer so you never miss a beat.

For people who’ve been hesitant to jump on the iPhone bandwagon, Office Mobile provides one less reason to worry about taking that leap of faith.

Watch Microsoft's demo of the new Office Mobile app on the iPhone below