Microsoft Office for Mac now offering 64-Bit support

An update is rolling out ot existing Microsoft Office for Mac users which transitions the suite of applications from 32-bit to 64-bit. This is expected to boost performance and allow the implementation of new features. 

This means that Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote  get upgraded to 64-bit for anyone running Retail, Office 365 Consumer, Office 365 Commercial, and Volume License installations of the software. What's more, the August release (version 15.25) will arrive just like any other update to the apps. 

Source: Engadget

Microsoft shows off new features for Office on iPad

It’s a strange sight having a Microsoft executive present at an Apple event but it has happened. Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Office 365 client applications, took the stage at Apple’s big press event in San Francisco to demo some of the new changes in its suite of apps for Apple’s tablet. Some of the new features include being able to draw freehand shapes on Word or PowerPoint and have these translated into shapes such as arrows and circles. This new feature is designed to take advantage of the new Pencil stylus for the iPad Pro. Users can now draw annotations on documents and have those sync across Office apps on iOS and other platforms. It wasn’t mentioned though it you’ll need the Pencil stylus and only the new iPad Pro to use these features.

The Office suite of apps also now takes advantage of the multitasking features available on iOS 9. You can copy and paste content from different Office apps running side by side. An example is you can copy a chart on an Excel file and paste it to the Word document you have running alongside it on an iPad Pro or iPad Air 2. You can see this push for Microsoft products as Apple’s way to attract the enterprise market to consider its products. Apple recently partnered with IBM and Cisco to push their enterprise entry further.

Source: PCWorld

Office gets better integration with Outlook for iOS

Microsoft's Outlook email app for iOS now offers better integration with the Microsoft Office productivity suite. Of course, you need to make sure you have the Office apps installed on your phone. And if you do, you'll be able to open and edit attachments easily and send them back with ease. You just need tap on the "Open in [Office app]" button make your edits, and then tap on the back button to head back to the Outlook app. It'll attach the edited document for you. 

Source: Lifehacker | Download: iTunes App Store (Free) 

Android phones now get Microsoft Office apps

Microsoft’s goal to expand its cross-platform development bears another fruit today. The company just released its Office apps to Android smartphones. Office for Android tablets has been around since the start of the year. Now, the apps have been optimized for a smaller screen. One of the big changes is the placement of the formatting settings at the bottom of the screen to make editing that much easier. OneDrive integration is a given but the app also adds support for Google Drive, Box, and Dropbox. Microsoft said some Android manufacturers will also be preloading Office apps into different Android phones. It’s bloatware admittedly but at least it’s something useful. You can find the free download links for Word, PowerPoint, and Excel below.

Source: Mashable | Download: Word + PowerPoint + Excel (Free)