Question about office apps

[loribinca]

Does anyone know if Microsoft are going to eventually replace the Office apps with 'true' tablet versions of the apps?

As in not just the desktop version of the app - not something that drops you to the desktop and runs? - this seems a little bit messy to me -

just wondering if the versions pre-loaded on the surface are just stopgaps and we'll be getting different versions in 2013?

thanks

 

[TeknoBlast]

The office that's already installed on the Surface is the official one. There's no inbetween. I've used it plenty of times and I find it working just fine.

 

[Dos101]

There's a OneNote Metro app. And when you have Word open for example, you can select Touch mode which spaces out the icons more. As far as Metro versions for Word, Excel, and Powerpoint I don't believe MS have commented on it.

 

[loribinca]

Yeah it works fine. but its not really touch optimized is it? I guess it's designed to work with the touch cover in trackpad mode.

Look at OneNote Mx app vs OneNote2013 - the former I would call more of a tablet app and the latter a desktop app running on a tablet - if that makes sense.

 

[loribinca]

- oops - dual post

 

[Dos101]

Yeah it works fine. but its not really touch optimized is it? I guess it's designed to work with the touch cover in trackpad mode.

Look at OneNote Mx app vs OneNote2013 - the former I would call more of a tablet app and the latter a desktop app running on a tablet - if that makes sense.

I understand what you're saying. But, if you use Office without a touch/type keyboard, the on screen keyboard takes up like 65% of the screen, with only a small area to see what you're typing. Ideally, Office needs to be used with a keyboard, so I don't see how metro versions of those apps would help anything other than making it look "clean".

EDIT:

Like I said before, there is a touch mode in Office that space the icons out so they are easier to touch with fingers, so in a way it has been optimized for touch, but given the nature of the program you'll want a keyboard to get the best experience.