With Microsoft's push to prioritize cross-platform services as well as be a mobile-first company, it's become very important to provide programs on iOS and Android, instead of trying to convince users to adopt software on Windows and Windows Phone.
As part of this strategy the company has delivered Office apps (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) for iOS and an Office Mobile suite for Android phones. Now the company has released a touch-optimized beta version of Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Android tablets.
Late to the party
Given that Google's office suite has been out for some time, Microsoft is lagging behind in the touch-optimized productivity suite market, but it the company is hoping to find success from the many people who have already bought into its ecosystem.
Currently PowerPoint for Android tablets (along with Word and Excel) is only available for ARM-based Android tablets with a 7" to 10.1" screen, 1GB RAM and running KitKat (4.4.x). But Microsoft is working on expanding it further, specifically to Intel-powered tablets, as well as those with different screen sizes and running Android Lollipop 5.0, the latest version of Google's mobile operating system.
In the beta version, there is no need to have an Office 365 account to download these apps; a Microsoft email address is enough to sign up to this 'Freemium' version.
Full of features
While PowerPoint for Android tablets is not as fully featured as its desktop sister version, it comes pretty close. You can easily create PowerPoints from scratch or chose one of a number of different themes. Most of the features you need to create fantastic PowerPoints are there, including inserting tables, pictures, shapes and text boxes; adding transition effects; making comments and notes; and changing the way you view the PowerPoint.
You can sync your OneDrive and Dropbox accounts so you can open documents from and save them to the cloud (as well as your device, if you prefer). Support of other cloud services would be useful.
Currently PowerPoint for Android tablets lacks editing options, or the ability to add video and audio, and alter the way you view the PowerPoint (you only have the option to see one slide at a time).
Usability issues
If you're already familiar with PowerPoint (Office 2007 and onwards) then the ribbon interface will be very recognizable and you'll be able to easily flick between menus in the slick interface without problems. It's makes simple and straightforward to use and quick to find what you want. Navigation is also very smooth.
There are some issues with the smooth running of the app. The slide show doesn't run automatically and has to be manually moved from slide to slide by clicking on the screen. The app in general is quite slow and struggles to perform commands at times.
Manipulating images is a clunky process. Firstly, not all pictures can be uploaded â€" the reason for this is not apparent, although it seemed to be linked to the device location I tried to upload them from. Then there are no image editing options - all you can do is move the image and resize it. Trying to move the images or resize them causes PowerPoint for Android tablets to freeze and crash and you must force close to be able to use it again.
Perfect for tablets
PowerPoint for Android tablets has a comprehensive list of features, with video and audio, as well as image editing options being the only major ones to add. This app works very well for both the creation and consumption of PowerPoints, which is not always the case for mobile and tablet applications.
There are some usability issues, but it's important to note that this is only a beta version and Microsoft will likely have made many improvements by the time of general release. PowerPoint for Android tablets works great on any size tablet screen and is the most complete of the Office for Android tablets applications.
Download Microsoft PowerPoint for Android tablets
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