Hands-on with new Office for iPhone (pictures)

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    Microsoft Office for iOS now lands in three separate apps: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

    Photo by: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

    Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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    Users can now create documents and use a number of new edit features in the new apps, without the need for an Office 365 account. 

    Photo by: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

    Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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    Dropbox support has been integrated. Other cloud options are bare-bones, but Microsoft's own OneDrive is included.

    Photo by: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

    Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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    Some documents are read-only unless you sign in with a Microsoft account. But that doesn't have to be tied to a paying subscription of Office 365. 

    Photo by: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

    Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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    The new opened-up editing features makes the app accessible to millions of its existing customers, who before had very basic editing capabilities. Users without a paying Office 365 subscription weren't able to create new documents on the go.

    Photo by: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

    Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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    Nearly everything you might need in a Word document, you now have on your iPhone or iPad. From highlighting to font changes, review and track changes, and even inserting tables and pictures — it's a pretty comprehensive productivity suite for mobile.

    Photo by: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

    Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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    Users can now create documents without a paying Office 365 account. However, it's easier editing and tweaking than composing documents on the go, due to the display limitations (even in the larger iPhone 6).

    Photo by: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

    Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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    The Word app has a tendency to want to display the full text all of the time. You can, however, go into a draft-style mode which wraps the text — making it easier to read.

    Photo by: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

    Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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    You can easily set the font size so it scales up and down, without missing text that's fallen off the edge of the screen.

    Photo by: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

    Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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    Almost every feature you will ever need is here. Bets are placed on at least 95 percent of Office users will have everything they want and need in a document processor.

    Photo by: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

    Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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    You can even add collaborators to your documents, and make review and edit changes, allowing you to track what's been changed in future revisions.

    Photo by: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

    Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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    All of the other handy features, like word count, are buried away in the various menus at the bottom of the screen.

    Photo by: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

    Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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    Excel is a pleasure to use, with a fluid interface and unjarring scrolling. It works ideally in landscape mode, but portrait works well for long listed items.

    Photo by: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

    Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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    Like Word, you can import files and worksheets from Dropbox. You can pan and zoom in easily, and edit individual cells with a simple tap.

    Photo by: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

    Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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    Users with complicated (or even simple) worksheets can now add charts and tables to their Excel spreadsheets with a tap of a button — without the need for a subscribing Office 365 account.

    Photo by: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

    Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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    You can shift and drag around charts, scale them, zoom in, and embed them exactly where you want to.

    Photo by: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

    Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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    PowerPoint acts almost exactly like it does on the desktop. It's always been relatively easy to use, but because of the smaller display it's better for editing rather than full-on presentation creation.

    Photo by: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

    Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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    You can do the vast majority of what you might need to do on the iPhone version, like adding new slides and editing text.

    Photo by: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

    Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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    Where's the keyboard...?

    Photo by: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

    Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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    For those truly embracing "death by PowerPoint," you can always add transitions and effects to your presentations on the fly using the iPhone app.

    Photo by: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

    Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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    The best part about the app is you can AirPlay your display over to a compatible Apple TV or other device and give the presentation you just created (or edited).

    Photo by: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

    Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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Microsoft took its Office for iOS and split it into three separate apps: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. And now even non-Office 365 subscribers get the near-full feature set.

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Microsoft Office for iOS now lands in three separate apps: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Caption by: Zack Whittaker

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