Microsoft Office for iPad updated with printing and other new features

A month after launching Microsoft Office for the iPad, the company has released an update which include the ability to print documents. Additionally, there are a few other improvements, of which one is SmartGuides in PowerPoint, apart from bug and stability fixes.

Microsoft states in a blog that the printing feature was the number one request of users since the release of Office for iPad in late-March. Users can now print Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations on a printer connected to the iPad, using the inbuilt Apple AirPrint feature.

In Word, users can choose to print a document with or without markup, and in Excel users can print a selected range, a single worksheet or an entire spreadsheet.

As we mentioned earlier, Microsoft has also introduced a SmartGuides feature for PowerPoint which helps users align pictures, shapes, and textboxes as they move them around a slide. Additionally, the new AutoFit feature in Excel helps adjusting the width of multiple rows or the height of multiple columns at the same time. Moreover, Microsoft also includes a few bug fixes and stability improvements in the first update.

Microsoft's Office apps are free, but users need an annual subscription to Microsoft's Office 365 for making edits to documents. The Office 365 subscriptions cost $70 (roughly Rs. 4,223) or $100 (roughly Rs. 6034) annually, with the lower price placing more restrictions on the number and types of devices that can be used. Notably, Microsoft in April released the Office 365 Personal subscription or individual users, and renamed Office 365 Home Premium to Office 365 Home. The Office 365 Personal subscription starts at $6.99 a month.

Microsoft had recently announced how its four productivity apps for Apple iPad users - Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote - have collectively surpassed 12 million downloads from the iTunes App Store. Read the full review.