Microsoft updated its Word, Excel and PowerPoint iPad apps yesterday. My favorite new feature is that you can now export to PDF directly from the apps; when you email a document, the app asks whether you want to do so in the native file format (such as .docx) or as a PDF file. The apps also have enhanced features for working with photographs in documents and better support for third party fonts. If you use Excel for iPad, there are also lots of improvements for working with your spreadhseets. Click here to read all about the new features in a blog post from the Office team on the Microsoft website. And if you use Microsoft’s OneNote iPad app, it was also updated this week, as noted in this post on the Microsoft blog. All of this reminds me of how happy I am that we now have such great Microsoft software for the iPad. And now, the other news of note from this week:
- New York attorney Neil Squillante, publisher of TechnoLawyer, provides useful iPad tips in this post and associated video: (1) a cool way to share web articles using the Reader button in Safari, (2) tips on creating contact entries and (3) tips on using an iPad instead of paper.
- South Carolina attorney Jenny Stevens reviews the InkFusion iPhone case on the MacLawyer website, a case that lets you use whatever picture you want on the back of an iPhone. You can do something similar with the CaseMaker Pro, which I reviewed this past June.
- Attorneys Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss the role that iPads play for lawyers in this episode of the Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast.
- AgileBits, developer of the amazing 1Password app, previewed in this post and video on the company blog how the iOS 8 version of 1Password will (1) work on other iOS apps, so you no longer have to leave an app, go to the 1Password app, copy your password, then go back to the app and (2) use Touch ID so that you can use your fingerprint as your password. This all looks incredibly useful, and I cannot wait to try it when iOS 8 is released in the upcoming months.
- While Apple is renovating one of its stores in Switzerland, Apple moved the store into the middle of of the mall — the area where a person would typically walk from store to store. John-Michael Bond of TUAW has some pictures of the interesting temporary store. It reminds me somewhat of the open air feel of the Apple Store in Grand Central Terminal in New York City.
- Speaking of the Apple Store, Patty Ryan of the Tampa Bay Times explains how a criminal found a way to scam Apple Stores out of over $300,000. This sounds like a silly scam that you might see in a B-movie, but apparently it worked … for a while at least.
- And finally, Matt Walsh (who you may know from HBO’s Veep) shows how easy it is to make your own iPad in this Conan O’Brien video: