Office 365 Arrives @ Apple - Sort Of

Timing is everything. We here at the Borough of West Chester have been in Microsoft's (email) cloud for over 2 years now and in fact just a couple weeks ago we were upgraded to Microsoft 365. This week after more than a year of rumors, Microsoft has finally released a version of its Office suite for the iPhone (yes the iPhone). If you use an iPhone you can now access Office 365 from your smartphone.



Office 365 in the iPhone App Store!

The app, available for subscribers of Office 365, includes iPhone versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, which will allow you to create, edit, and update all of your documents and sync them with Microsoft's SkyDrive cloud storage service.

However the app is currently only being offered for the iPhone, not the iPad. You can get around this somewhat by searching in the store for it on your iPad but selecting iPhone apps. Once downloaded you will need to increase the size (2x) to fill your screen. Until a true iPad app is available this is the only option if you want to access your Office 365 account on your iPad.

Here is How to Setup Office 365 on Your iPhone or iPad

1. Search for Office 365 in the app store. If you are using an iPad make sure to select "iPhone Apps" or you will not see it. The app is free so there is no reason not to install it - if you have an Office 365 account.

2. Once downloaded slide through the short tutorial and at the end you will be promoted to log into to your account. Select "I have an Office 365 subscription" and enter your email address to activate Office.

3. It will then ask you what type of account you have. Select "Organizational Account".

4. Once completed you will have access to any documents you have saved in SkyDrive or SharePoint.

5. If you have an additional Skydrive account you can add it by selecting the "Open" folder and choosing Add a Place.

With Microsoft now selling Office 365 as a subscription service to consumers I am sure a true iPad app as well one for Android devices is around the corner as well. Stay tuned.