One of the best office suites that can be found within the Apple ecosystem is undoubtedly that of Microsoft. This acts as a good alternative to Apple’s own suite called iWork. Within Microsoft Office 365, Word is one of the most used programs to edit text and is present in both macOS and iPadOS. In this article we analyze the differences between the two options.
Text layout and editing options
Despite the fact that the iPad is presented as a real laptop that can perform the same tasks as a Mac, the truth is that some applications or programs have more than notable differences between the two operating systems. The Word application on iPad is much more limited and it is clear that it lacks a lot of options when compared to the computer version.
Although, you will hardly miss anything if you are a basic user who does not seek very advanced tools. Available with the possibility to format the text, change the font color, underline or make bold. But unfortunately you cannot apply special characters as easily or create default formats as this is made much easier in the Mac app.
As for the insert section, you will hardly find any differences. On both platforms you can insert a page, table, photo, geometric shapes or text boxes. It is also possible to enter the page number or a simple equation. Here they did not want to make distinctions because they are functionalities that must be used by any type of user. If we put ourselves in the shoes of a student, these are tools that you should always have on hand. We must remember that the iPad is one of the most used products by students to take notes and that is why Microsoft must pay close attention in this regard.
Within the provision section, there are some limitations in the iPad edition . Although you can adjust the margins or the size of the page itself, you cannot make a customization in the indentation or in the spacing of the text itself. Images are more complicated to adjust within the text, such as their size or to arrange them in an integrated way with the text. Thanks to the compatibility with an external mouse it can be adjusted in a more comfortable way. With the touch function it cannot be adjusted as precisely as you would like.
Correspondence
In the iPad version of Word there is no section dedicated to correspondence. This way you can’t start a mail merge or design your own envelopes. This can be really useful if you are inside a company of considerable size and it is essential to design your own personalized company letters.
Within this section you can also create the labels that you think are appropriate to be able to print them. These options as we say are not on iPad surely because it is not a team that is focused to perform this task. Word on iPad is very student-centric as we discussed earlier so there is no point in including correspondence.
Make draws
One of the most positive aspects of the iPad with your Apple Pencil is drawing. This is very useful especially for students who need to perform different schemes or operations in the middle of class while taking notes. This is something that cannot be done in the Mac edition of Word basically because the Cupertino company laptops at the moment do not include any type of touch screen. In addition to making different strokes, you can also customize the color type of the line being made and the thickness itself.
Plugins and extensions
Because the operating system that is on iPad is more limited than what we have on macOS, the experience is also very different. The fact of interconnecting different documents such as a Word with Excel is something really complex on the iPad since you cannot navigate in the same way. There are some extensions that are not ready for the iPad, such as the Mendeley one.
The developers still have a long way to go to develop all the applications in order to make them compatible with the iPad browser and therefore with the Office office suite. Likewise, iPad includes a small accessories store that allows you to have a wide range of varied tools in order to work in a more comfortable and complete way.
