Put To The Test Microsoft's Office 365 on the iPad and Mac

For years, the world has been asking Microsoft to launch its Office suite for the iPad. Finally, in February, Microsoft finally did it - and Microsoft has produced a robust set of applications in the form of the Office for the iPad. But there was a price: You must have a subscription to Office 365, and files are locked, essentially in its storage service Microsoft (OneDrive and SharePoint).

However, for the first time, people who do not use Windows or non-Windows could only work as equal partners in an environment dominated office - which is most of the companies. Or could they? I decided to find out how Office 365 actually works on OS X, iOS and Android.

Office on the iPad and OS X: A decent experience

Microsoft has had Mac versions of its suite for decades - Excel and PowerPoint has its beginning in the Mac, actually. It was sad to see Microsoft continues to make the Mac version of the bottom of the Windows version of Office. His performance is always significantly slower on the Mac, although this is not true for other companies to cross-platform software for Adobe AutoDesk . Mac users often wait several years before a new version of Windows is ported to OS X, creating a gap of compatibility.

Compatibility functions are usually compromised in the way. For example, Excel for Mac supports only a subset of the macro, thus accounting departments must use Windows PCs. SharePoint is essentially a limited access to a Web-based mode of read-only using Office for Mac, which ironically encourages users to configure Dropbox scores or random box. Office 2011 for Mac cannot use all the fonts on your Mac if you have a large library installed, and the full Adobe Font Folio - just stop charging sources when it is "complete" , making them inaccessible to your documents. Yet, for the majority of users, Office for Mac provides the functionality they need - even if you feel disrespected in the process.

Office for the iPad is not capable of Office for Mac, but it is approximately equal to Apple's iWork suite, which is perfectly adequate for most labor productivity. Office for the iPad iWork is missing a key advantage: automatic synchronization of files on all devices, so they are available offline. In the office, you move a file explicitly local storage for iPad to work on it, while, for example, during the flight. (If a document is open and the connection is lost, the office is smart enough to save a temporary copy.)

Microsoft has been aggressively marketing the reliability of the document as an advantage of the Office for the iPad, but you only get moderately complex for simple documents using the same sources. If you use the same font in Office documents on your Mac , Windows PC and iPad , it turns out that files moved between the three versions of Office rarely reflux due to platform differences . The same is true in the movement of files between iOS and OS X iWork documents - generally provides a design source fidelity fidelity. Office works best in a single office workflow, as done in iWork unique work flow.

But the fidelity between iWork and Office is also quite good, as long as the sources are coherent and design complexity is moderate. Frankly, document compatibility and fidelity come from the use of common elements across applications and platforms, not any inherent feature of Microsoft or Apple applications.The conclusion is that the Office works quite well on the iPad as a Mac and Office for Windows. But it works much better on the iPad that I could not use iWork and Office there for other platforms.

You could also use iWork for Mac, which is fine, as long as you are making the tasks of the Office supported. But iWork offers features such as built very cool presentation and worksheets from multiple tables, the Office, so that the exported files will not work as expected. Ditto in the opposite direction: Office is equipped with features such as anchors of the page and linked spreadsheets that iWork does.The truth is that the workflow is more important in their decision to follow an applications environment of any exercise or allow a mix of applications compatible with Office.

Outlook and Exchange on OS X, iOS, and Android: Often better to go native than to go Microsoft

The situation is much messier to use applications based on the stock. I know very few users who are not running Microsoft Windows Outlook to Mac or OWA for iOS or Android. I do not blame them. Charge more slowly (although the latest version of OS X is much faster) , and are very difficult to use than the native OS X , iOS , Android and customers, all of which have a strong support for the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol (EAS ) .

In addition, all native clients allow you to put together email , calendars and contacts from various services (maintaining separate rear ends ) , in order to obtain a more complete view of messages , calendar and contacts . Outlook and OWA cannot, and for employees expected to work anywhere , at any time, that the inability to see the whole context is a big pain .

Email client for Apple OS X also allows for - of - ( . Click the Exchange mailbox in Mail to have this option ) replies Office Other native clients cannot do it - but I cannot and OWA for iPad , iPhone ( it only works on the iPhone 4S or later models ) or Android. In these cases, use the OWA site, but note that appears very little in mobile browsers and can be difficult to use in them. You really need a Windows PC or Mac to set off notifications - office, even when the mobile client using Microsoft.

There are some reasons that sometimes these client applications Microsoft. The main reason is that access to shared calendars in Exchange. Only Microsoft applications - Outlook and OWA - can do in Windows, OS X, iOS and Android. This requirement is the reason why the employees of my company use Google Calendar, however, the shared calendars as we are 50-50 Mac and Windows; many of us use iOS devices as well. We are not willing to give up the only native clients for accessing shared Exchange calendars, especially when we can share through a different service ( Google , in this case) and access to shared calendar with the rest of our calendars easiy in our native clients . This is not the IT solution officially supported, but is the solution really offers in our job situation everywhere.

Another possible reason to use Outlook or OWA for delegating email exchange. You can manage only in Outlook for Windows or Mac - not the native OS X, iOS , Android or Apple and Google customers . Ironically, you cannot handle the iPad version of the OWA address delegation application, either. More ironically, you can manage delegation Planning Calendar in Apple OS X, but not on any of the Android mobile phone customers of Microsoft OWA.

As you can see, in terms of features, there are very few reasons to use Microsoft client communications, instead of native OS X, iOS , Android or options for functional capabilities .

However, some organizations may want their data to enter into a separate application from the one in which your personal data is going old school with the usual fears about the loss of business data in a world where everyone wants modes on call 24/ 7. And the OWA application can be configured to require the use of a security code, which makes it a bit safer than the native clients that do not. Just remember that native clients suppose you have an access code for the device, which can be easily applied with Exchange ActiveSync policy from the management tool Exchange Office 365.

This separation may be desirable as a user, how can you create a greater separation between work and personal, a move that many “work from anywhere, at work, at any time”, users could benefit. If Apple or Google Mail email messages do not appear to work at night, because your work email is on the OWA, maybe you’ll be less tempted to respond after hours. iOS, Android and OS X can be configured so that their work will OWA email and your personal email goes to the native client , but all your work and personal calendars appear in the native clients for a unified view. In other words, you can combine the separation.

Connectivity woes plagued our deployment

It ' hard to say if this is a problem with the Office 365 service , with the complexity of installation or the skills of our IT- Exchange experience, but Office 365 has been plagued with connectivity problems , which seemed to affect users than Windows disproportionately. For example, when you log into OWA for iPad , some users have had to wait a day or two so that the credentials for the record, even if they were already enrolled and active in Outlook or Apple Mail on the Mac .

Although users like me can access SharePoint and Business OneDrive our iPad using the OneDrive for business applications and the Office suite for the iPad, we could not do it documents Microsoft service connection on the Mac (which add-on for Office for Mac is an incredibly bad hack, by the way) . No OneDrive applications for OS X, so it can be used as a solution to the problems in creating a direct link OneDrive Office for Mac. Instead, you must use the OWA in the browser to access your merchant account OneDrive in the MAC.

Connectivity issues wren't limited to Access file. Maybe once in four OWA for iPad has problems connecting to the server, causing delays Signin to a minute or more. My Connections EAS with Exchange servers feel noticeably slower than it was in our local Exchange server , while OWA is much faster - which may be associated with a lower limit concurrent connections in our implementation of the EAS office 365.

Then there's Lync , the Microsoft Conferencing: According to different users here , Lync for Mac and iPad is often crashes or loses its connection session . We, the employees did what all employees of modern society do inform insects, we hear tell us that there are no problems in Windows, then we have our own tool (Citrix GoToMeeting , in our case) that runs through our devices . I'm not sure Microsoft is aware of this reality yet, given its argument selling standard TI is still very much about control, rather than the users of the utility.

However, Office 365 feels shabby when it comes to connectivity and interoperability. Operations of my company car hadles Office 365, says bluntly that the problem is that the compatibility with Microsoft services through platforms is poor, with OS X and Android in particular cheated. Problems with Microsoft have been raised, with the hope that Microsoft will level the playing field.

What about Android, the iPhone, Windows Phone, and Windows 8 tablets?

The new CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella , has hinted that a version of Office and Office for iPad was developed for Android and Windows 8 Metro environment, which is what Windows tablets supppsed to function as the primary operating system . The fact that Microsoft Office gave ' iPad before Office for Windows 8 speaks volumes about the failure of Windows 8 on the market.

The fact that Microsoft has not gotten around to Android Office also reflects the truth that Android tablets are rarely used for commercial purposes; are basically entertainment devices , and even then for a small percentage of people. Much of the data on the market shares declared for tablet Android simply is not true - Samsung has been caught repeatedly misrepresented its sales figures , for example - and reflects what we are actually electronic readers such as the Kindle Fire from Amazon tablets and popular in poorer nations such AOSP , Android tablets that have no plausible business use .

That leaves smartphone. Apple iWork works great on an iPhone, but Microsoft Office for the iPhone is a barely functional text editor. The Android version of Microsoft Office is so useless - as your version of Windows Phone. For now, at least, Microsoft does not think people will use smartphones for anyone for serious office work, so it is trying to deliver there.

Office 365 is Microsoft's walled-garden answer to Apple's and Google's

You can see where this is going : if you want to run applications and services across devices , requires a subscription to Office 365 , you are limited to where you can store your files and how you can work out Office 365 , and are largely confined to Windows , OS X and iPad.

Which is narrower than Apple offers iWork , which requires no subscription , but does not require iCloud.com account control ; modestly offers collaboration capabilities ; and is limited to OS X , iPad , iPhone, and (through its Web version less capable ) of Windows. Apple and Microsoft are, at least for now, leaving Android out in the cold when it comes to Office. Google Docs works on multiple platforms and offers the most comprehensive set of collaboration capabilities , but it is a productivity suite very weak ( especially on mobile devices ), which do not satisfy the majority of users .

Difficulties Office Mobile File Sharing is particularly irritating. I find it very frustrating that the Office for the iPad, you can open or save files from other cloud storage services like Dropbox and Box - this short stretch of the stool shows how Microsoft Office 365 is treating the PC as the center of the universe , "mobile" in spite of the first budgets .

Office for the iPad can also share files with other applications for the iPad, but you can send documents to yourself or others to open in other applications or outside a prison in Office 365. And it is very difficult to make file management basics such as creating folders and rename files - they must make application in OneDrive OneDrive or SharePoint site, which works fine on Windows only. L ' only positive note is that you can combine both business and personal accounts OneDrive the Office of iPad applications, so you can do the work and personal business with them.

Yet , all of these restrictions and obstacles make it difficult to work with documents across multiple applications and people who are not part of your Microsoft environment . Of course, this is the classic strategy walled garden, and like many companies because it provides more control over the flow of documents of its employees, or at least barriers to help keep the data in the row.

However, “more control " does not mean that the windows control level : Not applicable information rights management Microsoft Office for iPad, as you can in Office applications for Windows and OS X through Microsoft servers. In addition , you cannot password protect files of Office for iPad, as you can in Office for Windows and OS X - and Apple iWork for iPad and OS X.

The truth is that Apple and Google play the same game walled garden, especially in the mobile environment. Although Apple's iWork suite on iOS lets you open and save files from any storage service in the cloud, the process is difficult and easy to lose. Quickoffice and Google Apps unit also allows you to share files with other iOS apps , including customers of cloud storage, but Google will not allow you to edit files stored in the cloud - Driving in your Quickoffice app for iOS or Android - although it is much more capable editor of the drive. We are again forced to stay in a locked storage cloud. ( I wonder how long the box and Dropbox can stay in business , such as Microsoft, Google and Apple are increasingly squeezing competitors storage and sharing service . )

The situation is less oppressive in the computer world. On Windows and OS X, Office can work with local files, as well as storage services in the cloud beyond OneDrive and SharePoint ; the same goes for iWork on OS X and through the web version of iCloud.com , users of Windows. In PC and Mac, Google users can make site car limited edition, and files on local drives and other cloud storage via computers can share.

Given the realities - walled garden suite delivered today the Cloud application (or at least co-ordinated in the cloud, in the case of iWork ) , for Microsoft Office 365 offers a good experience on Windows, OS X and iPad. Depending on the trends in the workflow and control, you can be the best walled garden for the different platforms.

In general, however, Office 365 is rarely better and sometimes worse than an environment that allows users to download their favorite applications and customers. It is a step forward for Microsoft, but not necessarily for all of us.