Gone are the days where the best productivity using Microsoft Office tools was done on a Windows platform. Recent news about Office for iPad and OneNote being available free for the first time for Mac users made cross-platform users like me who seek fluidity between all devices do a little dance for joy!
As a tech blogger who likes getting to know all kinds of devices to keep you informed about your many choices, when I test products, I TEST them. I put them through the paces of using them as I normally would while also testing battery life, speed, and ability to multitask but one thing that always held me back was my ability to access documents across all of my devices, make changes, collaborate with others on projects, and save them in real time.
With Office now available for iPad, my devices help maximize my productivity as I embrace a more modern mobile office. The free Word, Excel and PowerPoint for iPad that are free to download from the App Store allow you to read Word files, view data in Excel, and present with PowerPoint but if you have an Office 365 subscription like I do, you have the ability to edit and create new documents right on your iPad!
I love that even though I’m using an iPad to create a new document, the look and feel is familiar and I’m not sacrificing any of the capabilities using the app versus the desktop/laptop version. I also never have to worry about formatting. The content and format of my documents remain the same whether using Office on a PC, Mac, tablet, and phone.
To use Office on my iPad, all I have to do is sign in to my Microsoft account to access all of my Word files, PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets, and even OneNote notebooks that I store in OneDrive. I can work on my documents, share them with others for collaborative purposes, and they’re always saved and synced to the cloud. By being connected to the cloud, my documents will always travel with me, regardless if I’m using my Surface 2 or Kirabook Windows machines as a Microsoft Windows Champion, traveling light with my iPad mini, or am on the go with just my Samsung Note 3 or iPhone. It’s reassuring to know I can go back to my work at any time, whether on the same device or a different one, without any interruption to my workflow.
But wait! There’s more good news from Microsoft! OneNote is now free everywhere! Install OneNote for free on all your devices including Windows, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android and Web. It also comes preinstalled on the Windows Phone.
This means that you can always have your OneNote notebooks with you. This is especially helpful for me because at any given time, I’m using any number of devices for my reviews. Regardless of which device I’m testing, I always have access to my content in OneNote. Another benefit is that unlike physical notebooks, I don’t have to worry about switching purses or forgetting it on my desk at home. OneNote is always there for me to use to capture ideas and thoughts, jot my to-do list, or organize my travel schedule. I know that when I access my OneNote notebooks on one device, they’re immediately synced in the cloud thanks to OneDrive.
Microsoft’s OneNote and Office for iPad are now part of my essential tool arsenal. How do Microsoft tools help you maximize your productivity to be efficient on all of your devices?
Images courtesy of Microsoft.
