Although Pages, Numbers and Keynote are fantastic applications for creating any type of document, their format is not, a format not compatible with Word, Excel and PowerPoint. If the files you regularly create have to be shared with other people who use Office, you don't have to pay for the Microsoft 365 subscription (formerly Office 365) from the iPad. The solution is called Office.
Microsoft launched the Office application in February last year, an iPhone application that includes a reduced version of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. This application, which allows us to edit any document created in Office formats, has just landed on the iPad, so now no need to pay for Microsoft subscription to edit, create or modify documents on the Apple tablet.
Best of all, the application is completely free and does not require any type of subscription. But it also incorporates the same functions that we can find in the iPhone version, so we can scan documents, create notes, sign documents, convert images or documents to PDF format ...
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are still available on the App Store and to be able to use them it is necessary to pay the Microsoft 365 subscription. If you work collaboratively with Office documents, this reduced version is not the solution, since it is one of the limitations that we find.
With this version for iPad, Microsoft ensures that users who have the need to use the full version, go to the paid version without considering other options (although there are not many in the market), an option that is available from this new application.
If you would like to download Office for iPad or iPhone You can do it through the link that I leave below.
I just downloaded it for my iPad 2020, and you have to continue paying for the subscription to be able to edit and other options.
It gives you the option to subscribe at the beginning to take advantage of the full potential of Office, but it is NOT necessary, you can edit the Office files without problems.
As I have commented in the article, this is a reduced version that incorporates the 3 Office applications. Microsoft does not make you pay to use a reduced version, but what is the point of the Word, Excel and PowerPoint applications that are still available in the store?
Greetings.