Been mentioned here many, many times. MS wants you to buy a MS device or Windows machine, not an Apple product.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPad as a laptop replacement
- Thread starter Omar Comin' Yo
- WikiPost WikiPost
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
- Status
Been mentioned here many, many times. MS wants you to buy a MS device or Windows machine, not an Apple product.
I’ve noticed, but I switched to using Apple Pages and Numbers instead of Word and Excel. Much better experience, more desktop-class features, and it works fine with other people using Microsoft Office 365. I can export the documents I create as docx files, which are what Microsoft Office uses, and everything works fine back and forth, at least for me. Perhaps that could work for you as well, though it would require obviously learning a new app. I’ve asked Microsoft’s feedback for years to improve their iPad apps and add more desktop utility. The OS is definitely not stopping them. They just don’t care to do it, and the cynical part of me thinks they’re intentionally gimping their iPad and Android Office apps so that the only tablet with a good Microsoft Office experience is their Surface Pro. It’s infuriating how many basic features they refuse to implement, and how hard it is to even get them to address actual bugs in the apps. Microsoft seems to only want to do the bare minimum required and no more.
Another good alternative is the Google web apps. The same Google web apps like Google Docs, Google Sheets, etc. work on the iPad, just do yourself a favor and don’t install the App Store versions of the Google web apps, for some reason Google decided to make those versions different, and they lack some of the features. If you want to use the Google web apps, I think it’s much better to use the web apps the same way they’re used on the Mac.
Also, I should mention that the Microsoft Office web apps may be better and enough for your needs. I think they fall somewhere in between the iPad/Android versions and the desktop versions in terms of functionality. Why they don’t just make the iPad/Android versions have all the same features as the web app versions, I don’t know, but it’s annoying that they make things so segmented. A note on using the web app versions, if you have the App Store versions installed on the iPad, Microsoft will redirect from the web app to the native app, so if you go to open the web app version, it will instead open the native App Store versions. So the only way to use the web app versions well would be to not install the native versions.
There are also several other good alternatives to Word and other office apps. WPS office is a good alternative I’ve used before that has a UI that’s very similar to Office.
Hopefully some of this info is helpful. 👍🏻. It’s so frustrating that Microsoft seems to insist on hobbling their software on certain platforms to try to control and prevent competition. Hopefully they get enough pushback that they have to change these practices, or lose a large customer base to better alternatives.
This works if you are working on your own documents but not if you're sharing work on those documents with others who use the MS tools and you need ensured absolute compatibility. I don't see MS changing their approach - the size of the customer base that would switch is small compared to the greater pool of Office users. MS are Apple are competitors, not partners, in the end.
Yeah, I think probably the only rival in the marketplace currently that could force Microsoft’s hand would be Google’s web apps. I’ve seen several businesses moving over to Google Docs. Sadly, I agree, Microsoft will probably not change in this regard, they basically seem to want to force people to buy Windows devices. They even gimp office on macOS, though to a lesser degree. I absolutely hate having to deal with Microsoft for just about anything, and I grew up using Windows and Microsoft software. Recently I had to contact Microsoft support because my OneDrive app (which I use for some business work with others who use Office 365), it took forever to actually get a response, and after I took all of the time to explain the problem, send screenshots, etc., the support assistant decided that uninstalling and reinstalling the app periodically to resolve the issue was a good enough fix, and closed my support case. They also didn’t report it as a bug to the dev team, even though many others are having the exact same issue I am. Microsoft just sucks…
Your right, its a fact that the number of users using Apple products with professional grade software on a regular basis is a small % of owners, so financials probably don't stack up.
Its not as if Apple do not adopt similar practises even between their own devices (ie you have to pay twice to use the same app on macOS and IPadOS) and (EG FCP is not the same on Macbooks as IPads etc etc)
Family sharing does not come with 6TB of storage like Family Office 365 and so on
Sorry but others overly criticising MS in this respect is throwing stones in glass houses IMO
I get around comparability issues on my Macbooks by running Parallels and use the Win 11 versions
A. I’m asking for evidence for this “fact”. Plenty of people use pro software on Apple devices. How many, I don’t know, but I am not the one making fact claims about percentages of Apple users who use these types of software…Your right, its a fact that the number of users using Apple products with professional grade software on a regular basis is a small % of owners, so financials probably don't stack up.
Its not as if Apple do not adopt similar practises even between their own devices (ie you have to pay twice to use the same app on macOS and IPadOS) and (EG FCP is not the same on Macbooks as IPads etc etc)
Family sharing does not come with 6TB of storage like Family Office 365 and so on
Sorry but others overly criticising MS in this respect is throwing stones in glass houses IMO
I get around comparability issues on my Macbooks by running Parallels and use the Win 11 versions
B. These are not “similar practices”. Paying “twice” for two versions of a software isn’t the same as not providing anywhere remotely close to the same functionality in one vs the other. Final Cut Pro on the iPad has the majority of the same features as the Mac version, and Apple continues to improve it to close that very small gap between them. Microsoft has had years and years, and isn’t doing squat to improve their iPad apps, they like to try to make people buy Windows machines to run their software. Apple even provides Pages and Numbers on Windows, and doesn’t severely kneecap the functionality like Microsoft does.
C. Cloud Storage isn’t free. Different companies charge different rates for cloud storage. Who cares? This is completely irrelevant to the discussion at hand.
Not to mention that Microsoft’s support absolutely sucks. Every time I’ve had to deal with them has been a bad experience. Apple has great customer support, and I’ve never had a negative experience with their support.
You’re in an Apple fan forum, why would you be surprised that we don’t like and criticize Microsoft?
Agreed! And I’m unaware of any major features in the desktop version of Pages or Numbers that are missing in the iPad versions. They seem full featured. I use Pages and Numbers now for all of my office software needs. 👍🏻
As I said your throwing stones in glass houses LOL and now adding anecdotal remarks and ignore how many years Ipad users had to wait for FCP etc etc so equally you should not be surprised to receive replies on this sort of rhetoric
Now you want to argue Apple has less short comings. This is just clutching a straws. Both companies have varying practices that are not always in favour of users and have biases to hardware.
As for facts it's straight from the horses mouth, I think Timmy said it was under 15% if I recall correctly
And you still have not provided any evidence for any of your claims, and you are making anecdotal remarks claiming things like we’re “throwing stones in glass houses”….
“I think x person said this” isn’t evidence… Can you provide a link to back up your claim?
As to me somehow “ignoring how many years it took iPad to get Final Cut Pro”, I’ve done no such thing. My criticism of Microsoft isn’t that it took them too long to get Office on iPad. It’s that they have added only the very bare minimum required, and don’t care a mouse’s rear-end about users who have made very simple and basic requests, they don’t even make any kind of substantive effort in improving their office apps. Microsoft seems to do this expressly to force people to buy Windows computers. They basically haven’t improved much since their original introduction. Meanwhile, Apple actually does demonstrate that they care about user feedback, and are actively improving their apps. There are observable improvements with Final Cut Pro on the iPad that close the gap between the iPad version and the Mac version, and Apple has been consistently narrowing that gap with updates. Microsoft has not, and they’ve had many many years now to do so… They are two very different stories…
As to whether or not Apple has less shortcomings than Microsoft, I have stated my opinion on the matter. I don’t claim Apple has objectively fewer shortcomings, or Microsoft has objectively more shortcomings. What one views as shortcomings or advantages varies by an individual’s preferences, needs, etc. What I have stated is my experience with both. For me, dealing with Microsoft sucks, and I have never had a single issue dealing with Apple. That’s my experience, YMMV…
The original topic was about the limitations of Microsoft Office on the iPad. This is 100% the fault of Microsoft, Apple is not preventing Microsoft from delivering more features… And that is the point I have made, that this is 100% Microsoft’s fault, and that Microsoft likely chooses to kneecap their iPad/Android and Mac apps to force people to use Windows computers for office work. The later part of that I have stated as my cynical opinion of their motivations, I am not claiming that as fact, and never have…
I don’t know why you’re here defending Microsoft in an Apple fan forum. I guess maybe you like Microsoft, and that’s fine. But why you’d be surprised that some of us really don’t like Microsoft seems odd to me…
Calling Tim Cook 'Timmy' or 'Tim Apple' or any of the array of derisive pejoratives doesn't serve your cause very well. How am I supposed to think your argument is sound when you resort to emotional name calling?
Exactly… 👍🏻. It seems to me like he doesn’t like Apple and is a Windows fan. I could be wrong, but that’s the way it reads to me with his tone and wording.
This is getting silly now and why you are not surprised by alternative comments is beyond me. As I noted before both companies have their anomalies etc.
We would have to have very deep knowledge of Excel programming to claim its a 100% MS fault on cross compatibility and the same for Apple cross platform software.
I am sure you are capable of searching for Tim Cooks remarks on the point in question, I recall it was in an interview.
FYI I only own Macbooks and an Iphone 16P and a Samsung Fold 6, but I use MS products professionally on a daily basis
As others have noted this has been discussed many times before and we are distracting from the regular postings where others are offering help with their IPads etc
Fair enough. It's hard to judge tone in a text based discussion.My apologies it was meant in a humours tone and not a derogatory
We actually don’t need to have that terribly deep coding knowledge to know that this is definitely Microsoft’s fault. Features like, for example, custom document templates don’t require anything that iPadOS doesn’t support. In fact, Pages supports custom document templates, which further proves that Microsoft could support this if they wanted to. And any features that can be implemented in the MS web apps could also be implemented in the native iPad versions.
I tried searching your claim, nothing comes up. So no, I can’t “just search it” and I doubt that it’s actually true. I’m guessing you misunderstood something. Because I cannot find a single piece of evidence for that idea, let alone any quotes from Tim Cook…
Yes, this has been discussed before. But I’m tired of people blaming this on iPadOS or Apple (in various articles, comments, etc.) when this is clearly 100% Microsoft’s fault. Several people who actually know about coding have said as much, and I understand enough about coding to recognize that Microsoft could easily incorporate every feature from at least the web versions of the Office apps if they wanted to. Any code that runs in a web app is natively supported in iPadOS. And just take a look at the feature requests in the feedback forum, tons and tons of users, myself included, have repeatedly requested very simple and basic features like custom document templates support, and Microsoft doesn’t care. They don’t do anything. In fact, they haven’t made any major feature improvements like this in Word for at least 2 years, basically all of the updates when you look at the version history in the App Store are labeled Bug Fixes.
We should probably just agree to disagree.
I disagree as to calling it a fault - it's a business decision. All companies do similar things.
Whatever you want to call it, I don’t really care. I’m just tired of people complaining and getting angry at Apple and saying it’s Apple’s fault that MS Office is gimped on iPadOS and even macOS when it’s literally not something Apple could possibly control or should be held at fault over. It’s Microsoft’s decision, not Apple’s. Microsoft chooses to limit it the way it is.
There's one feature that's missing from iOS/iPadOS Numbers that frustrates me is it doesn't have "instant calculations" where you highlight number cells and it automatically calculates and displays statistics. On iPad, you have to manually choose a statistic and then it has to insert the formula into a cell. Not the end of the world, but pretty annoying once you get used to the convenience.
The other thing stopping me from using iPad for Numbers for more serious spreadsheets is the UI is clearly optimized for touch, even when there's a hardware keyboard. And I don't mean the size of buttons, but the animations that always take the full time. For example, if you open the find view (⌘F) and start typing, it will eat the first few keys pressed while it's waiting for the animation to finish...
You do get some extras though like the form input to add rows to a sheet, which is pretty neat.
There's some very minor things missing, like being able to adjust shadow settings. Other than that, I think it's fully featured and I use the iWork suite at my job and home.