[LoganSix]

Let me guess you are not a real heavy user of one of the MS office products, are you?

I am with Excel and macros are a big problem with 365 as well as anything not standard. VBA... Without it a lot can not be solved.

Not really. At one time in my career I had to program the Doc templates for the company, but didn't do many excel templates.

However, as I see it, when something is needed, like your macros, that seems to be an opening for an app. Basically, an excel sheet full of macros is just an app. You have data input, the macros manipulate the data and the provide back the output. The question is, what is the app and can other people use it? Or, can JScript in HTML5 replace those macros?

I understand your issue, but this wouldn't be the first time a better tool was thrown to the side because of demand by the masses.

[klinton]

I'm also pretty sure that Office for iPad IS coming, despite the denials. And what would this mean for RIM? Nothing good would be my guess.

Nevermind office apps, PB PDF Reader is awful. Why hasn't RIM addressed this last year. Docs To Go is ok but the lack of a proper PDF reader is a major issue for reading work docs.

[LoganSix]

Nevermind office apps, PB PDF Reader is awful. Why hasn't RIM addressed this last year.

I like Adobe, but based on the inconsistency between applications, I would guess that this is more of Adobe dropping the ball than RIM. How can a company that provides a tool for creating PlayBook applications not port all of their mobile applications to the PlayBook?

[FreeJACLive]

I don't understand the whole full Office product in my pocket mentality. Docs2Go does the job I need. That said, I don't understand why Corel hasn't brought Word Perfect back on iOS and other mobile platforms in a big way!! Would be nice if they would start with Blackberry.

[DenverRalphy]

Word provides, for me, a way to manage my sources, and automatically insert properly formatted citations and bibliographies. I spent some time with Open Office, but until I find an alternative that provides similar functionality, Word is still king.

OpenOffice, while functional is not a suitable substitute. Was good at one time, but has severely degenerated over the past few years. I personally use Softmaker.

Do you mean stuff like tex/ latex etc ? Give me names

As for ms excel I couldn't find a better/more powerful piece of software.

Openoffice is still far behind even lost more in the last years, I used On a lot but the last two years less. And less. And I even not like the ribbons but still office 2010 is the best (when I mean it office I mean mainly excel)

I still utilize the .DOC/.XLS format. Tex/LaTex is for an entirely different use (great for textbook curriculum). I just don't use Microsofts products to build/edit them. And yes I agree, as stated above, that OpenOffice doesn't cut it.

[laterBB]

While I recognize that I had to intentionally push myself to get away from Microsoft Office (and fully broke away a few years ago), and realize that many people still do use Microsoft's products...

Is MS Office still that important? Last I recall (and I could be wrong so... :shrug: who knows), the MS Office suite itself is not "all that" anymore. There are many better-than-competent alternatives to choose from today, both mobile and desktop.

MS Office is still important to business. Our shop has just finished a 1 year trial of the alternatives. It will be quite some time before we try again to replace MS Office. We are eagerly awaiting Windows 8 as we will likely move back to MS for all of our requirements. This includes smartphones, tablets & office suite.

The MS os and office suite are tightly integrated and everyone has enough experience with them, no training or experimenting required. Something better will be available eventually, maybe. Maybe not.

Our recent experience with RIM is telling us that experiments can be costly. Time is money, our wanderlust has been satisfied. We can't wait for Windows 8, a single ecosystem where everything just works is looking really attractive to us.

[kill_9]

Do you mean stuff like tex/ latex etc ? Give me names

There is otgTex available through BlackBerry AppWorld for CAD1.99 (bbTex on GitHub) for producing LaTeX documents but you need a separate text editor to create the raw document. This is a nice alternative for those people wanting a native application rather than relying on a hosted LaTeX editor such as ShareLaTeX and Verbosus.

[damianiw]

Id be very suprised if Office comes out for anything but their own Surface tablets, it will be their unique selling point much like BBM & Bridge for Blackberry

[bitek]

What's wrong with Docs To Go? It works fine with MS Office files. Sure, it doesn't have every single feature that a desktop version of Office would have, but the iPad version likely won't either.

I'm pretty sure the majority of people don't actually use mobile versions of office suites to CREATE large complicated documents. They're mostly used for viewing, and maybe making small changes right before your presentation.

it is psychological really issue. it is not called microsoft office.

[BennyX]

I have always said that if RIM wants to retain their hold on the enterprise, they need a killer software package (Office or Office-like). Well, it seems that Microsoft is releasing Office for iPad soon and no Android version is planned. Sorry, but Documents To Go is not a final solution.

So if you're that determined to be able to use Office on your tablet, you can always use Remote Desktop. Works great.

[Sriman]

So if you're that determined to be able to use Office on your tablet, you can always use Remote Desktop. Works great.

I understand that people think different.. But why the heck use a tablet to remote desktop when you can directly use that desktop/laptop.. Why need a tablet in between.. I agree with the OP that a good Office solution is required for PB....

[Tre Lawrence]

Id be very suprised if Office comes out for anything but their own Surface tablets, it will be their unique selling point much like BBM & Bridge for Blackberry

Could be a smart move to release it to other platforms. In fact, barring complete annihilation of competing platforms and a complete rewrite of the current marketshare percentages, MS almost has to release it to other major platforms if it wants to keep people tied into that part of its ecosystem.

[BennyX]

I understand that people think different.. But why the heck use a tablet to remote desktop when you can directly use that desktop/laptop.. Why need a tablet in between.. I agree with the OP that a good Office solution is required for PB....

I suggested remote desktop because OP asked about Office on the Playbook. Which will never happen, btw. So the next best thing is to either use remote desktop, or go with a tablet that does have Office. That last option will be more expensive, but if he/she really needs to run Office... cost is obviously of secondary importance.

[Bla1ze]

Soon for iPad and Android.

Date article posted: February 21, 2012

You'd be better off picking up a Surface at this point if MS Office is really that important.

[dbmalloy]

Money talks.... why we do not have Skype on the Playbook and the reason we are unlikely to see Office either...... IOS and Android have such a large user base it would make sense to develop for them... To be charatable... there may be one million Playbooks in the Wild... hardly worth the effort for Microsoft... top it off... RIM has actually become Microsofts competition at this point... If the MS hardware does not take off them RIM will remain their main competition if BB10 is marginally successful... such is business...

[BerryClever]

Money talks.... why we do not have Skype on the Playbook and the reason we are unlikely to see Office either...... IOS and Android have such a large user base it would make sense to develop for them... To be charatable... there may be one million Playbooks in the Wild... hardly worth the effort for Microsoft... top it off... RIM has actually become Microsofts competition at this point... If the MS hardware does not take off them RIM will remain their main competition if BB10 is marginally successful... such is business...

I don't believe MS views RIM as their main competition. For one, MS is eyeing Apple and then Google. MS isn't in this for 3rd place and I don't believe they are even in it for their hardware. MS hardware is really a means to an end. They want Windows on a variety of devices and to assure the success of W8 on tablets/ultrabooks/all-in-ones/etc and MS made their ideal hardware to run it and to hype up the use. W8 as a software is the success that they are looking at and taking down their real competitor (Apple) is what they are after. Google is second to them. Google isn't as big of a threat because their Chrome OS isn't mainstream, but if they can capture a piece of their pie, well they get some good money.

[Marauder2]

I've got my own little set up going. On my laptop, all documents are stored in the Skydrive folder. This folder syncs online almost instantly when I close the Office application. On my playbook, I either use Splashtop to access my desktop when I have wifi, or use skydrive.live.com when all I have is bridge (yes I know I could use mobile hotspot). The website is actually quite nice and smooth, I can open and edit my files, and will sync again so my changes appear on my laptop too. For some reason though, Word web app won't let me actually edit (powerpoint does), so I download the document, make my changes and upload to Skydrive (won't let me replace the old file so just keep both). I know it's not perfect, but it's the closest free synced system I've come up with.

[Herve5]

That's one complaint I have with DocsToGo...why can't we insert pictures

Smart Office 2 can insert images, from the PB photo library.
Now, this is not perfect if like me you handle hundreds of pics on you PB, because of the pathetic picture handler in the PB system, that'll halt you for 10s before showing all 1000 photos at the same time. But otherwise it does work.