Office suites - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Office for tablets: Microsoft's Godot

  Apple launched the iPad four years ago, igniting a tablet frenzy that altered personal computing at home and at work, but Microsoft has yet to release an Office version for touchscreen devices.

• Open-Xchange adds cloud storage to its app suite

  Collaboration software vendor Open-Xchange added cloud storage to its offerings to allow users to sync files, folders, documents and pictures.

• Is Microsoft rethinking its decision to build Office for iPad?

  In appearances in September and October, Steve Ballmer said Microsoft would build native Office editions for iPads and Android tablets, but the company's marketing chief spoke with much less certainty when asked about this on Thursday.

• Microsoft offers multifactor authentication to all Office 365 users

  Microsoft is offering multifactor authentication free as an option to all users of its Office 365 suite, a hosted set of Microsoft Office tools and applications.

• LibreOffice enhances its enterprise spreadsheet abilities

  Open source office suite LibreOffice has overhauled its spreadsheet program, Calc, to try to make it better suited to the needs of enterprise users who handle big data sets.

• Microsoft preps mobile app for Office 365 admins

  IT administrators of the Office 365 cloud email and collaboration suite will now be able to check their management console from their mobile devices.

• Google integrates Apps Marketplace with the suite's admin console

  Google is trying to make it easier for Apps customers to find and deploy third-party applications from the Marketplace store it launched a few years ago.

• Microsoft adds real-time joint editing to Office Web Apps

  Office Web Apps, the browser-based, pared-down version of the Microsoft suite, now lets people co-edit documents in real time, a capability its main rival Google Docs has had for more than two years.

• Study: Despite bright, shiny rivals, good old Office still rules at work

  In the office, people still prefer Microsoft Office.

• Whirlpool CIO: Google's consumer-driven innovation led us to Apps

  In another example of the blurred lines between business and personal computing, Whirlpool chose Google Apps because it's convinced Google's focus on consumers gives it a special innovation edge as a provider of enterprise software.

• Google relaxes access controls to Apps documents

  Adding convenience possibly at the expense of security, Google will now let people without a Google Account view documents stored in its Apps cloud suite.

• Office Store app developers can now charge subscriptions

  Microsoft is adding subscription pricing for apps in its Office Store, besides opening eight new store fronts.

• Microsoft sharpens Office 365 tool to slice and dice data

  Microsoft has added features to Power BI for Office 365, a data analysis tool to complement Excel that the company hasn't yet released in final form.

• Microsoft lures nonprofits with Office 365 freebie

  Nonprofit organizations will be able to sign up for Office 365 for free or at a reduced price as part of a new program Microsoft launched on Tuesday.

• Microsoft Office 365 goes live

  Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer launched the much-awaited Office 365 on Tuesday, after a beta program of about nine months, as the company responds -- some critics say belatedly -- to the rising popularity of cloud-based applications for collaboration and communication.