Our Verdict
Microsoft ’s PowerPoint for iPad ultimately makes it possible to give , edit , create , and present native PowerPoint filing cabinet on your iPad , no file conversion required . This is a huge benefit for anyone who frequently use PowerPoint on a Mac or PC but like the iPad ’s portability . But comparisons withPowerPoint for OS X 2011(4.5 mice , $ 119 ) on the one hand , and Apple’sKeynote 2.0 for iOS(4.0 mouse , costless ) on the other make it clear that , though PowerPoint for iPad is very nice as far as it locomote , it does n’t go far enough .
Like the other Office for iPad apps , PowerPoint requires you to have an Office 365 subscription — either Office 365 Home Premium ( $ 9.99 per month ) , the forthcoming Office 365 Personal ( $ 6.99 per month ) , or one of several stage business options — if you desire to produce or edit presentations on your iPad . Each such subscription includes accession to OneDrive , Microsoft ’s cloud - storage solution , which you ’ll need to transfer files to and from your iPad . ( you may also add a SharePoint location . ) Alternatively , if another app contain a PowerPoint file , you’re able to use the Open In command to send it to PowerPoint . There ’s no support for other cloud storage Service , such as Dropbox .
you could apply any cloud storage service for your document , as long as it ’s OneDrive , OneDrive for Business , or a SharePoint folder .
PowerPoint can read .ppt filing cabinet but prompts you to exploit a link that exchange them to the newer .pptx data formatting before they can be edited . All the PowerPoint files I imported from my Mac opened without incident .
Whatever else you might say about PowerPoint for iPad , Microsoft got the touch interface correctly . This is a tangible iPad app , with evident care given to easy fingertip operation . The controls are all where you expect them to be , and every cognitive operation from give boldface to rotating a graphic is intuitive and obvious . Anyone who has used PowerPoint on a Mac , or pretty much any iOS app , should be capable to pick up PowerPoint for iPad in minute .
When creating a novel slideshow , you’re able to pick out from among 20 stem , each in your option of widescreen ( 16:9 ) or stock ( 4:3 ) look ratios . Oddly , there is zero intersection between the themes in the iPad version of PowerPoint and those in the Mac version — and no readiness to create new one . The iPad version also miss templates ( which supplement themes with sample content you’re able to customize quickly ) .
Styles and layers
PowerPoint for iPad includes a reasonable raiment of text redaction controls — you may correct font , sizing , style , color , alliance , and indentation ; go for bulleted or numbered listing in a variety of styles ; and habituate any of 20 predefined school text styles . you may also add and format table , a phone number of figure and lines , and graphics from elsewhere on your iPad . Although you could apply picture styles ( that is , skeletal frame ) , shadows , and expression to imported images — and resize or rotate them to try out — you ca n’t pasture them . PowerPoint for iPad includes no built - in chart capacity , but you’re able to copy a chart from Excel for iPad and paste it into a slideshow .
you may choose from several predefined Picture Styles , which include frames and other visual element .
you may adjust the front - to - back layering of each factor on a sloping trough , and you may implement any of 36 slide transitions , admit 11 that do n’t appear in PowerPoint for OS X. Control over transition is limited , however — for example , you may opt a focussing for a wipe or dissolve burden , but not its duration , sound effects , or delays .
PowerPoint for iPad lets you apply transitions to slides and adjust major attributes but not detailed context such as continuance or sound effects .
When it comes to playing a slideshow , PowerPoint is also a bit dissatisfactory . On the positive side , as in Keynote for iOS , you may equal and hold for a faux optical maser cursor , and you may drop a line on the cover with a pen or highlighter . There ’s also a black - screen button , which Keynote miss . But there ’s no donor view — your slideshow always display full screen . It ’s especially weird that you could tally and edit speaker notes , but you ca n’t see them during your slideshow . There ’s also no on - cover timer or thumbnail panorama while presenting , even when using AirPlay or a video adapter connected to an external display ; Keynote offers both .
Microsoft declined to remark specifically on if or when any of these missing features would be total , but did manoeuver out that the company has made quite a few update to Office 365 in the last year , and take down that it is listening to customers ’ feedback .
Bottom line
I was pleased to see that what ’s in PowerPoint for iPad work well , but there ’s just not enough of it yet . Keynote for iOS is , on the whole , considerably more herculean ( and works even on an iPhone , which PowerPoint does not ) . If you ’re wonted to PowerPoint 2011 on OS X , you ’ll almost certainly be dun by miss feature , especially when playing a slideshow on an external showing . But for all that , PowerPoint 1.0 is a ripe starting point , and shows considerable promise for the future .
