Microsoft Office is now available on every Chromebook

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,294   +192
Staff member

Android app support arrived on Chromebooks well over a year ago although the rollout wasn’t exactly universal. You see, support trickled out initially to a limited selection of devices meaning the experience from one Chromebook to the next isn’t necessarily the same.

Microsoft is doing its part to unify the Chromebook experience by bringing its entire Office suite to the affordable Windows alternative.

As Chrome Unboxed correctly highlights, this won’t mean new functionality for all. Some Chromebooks have worked flawlessly with Office apps for over a year. Most others, however, have either never seen the apps on offer or have had a sporadic, inconsistent experience.

Of course, why it took so long for Microsoft to iron out the kinks remains a mystery.

Microsoft provided no formal announcement on the matter but support does seem universal (or at the very least, much more universal) than it did before. Chrome Unboxed checked the Samsung Chromebook Pro, the Acer Chromebook 15 (two different models), the Acer C771 and the Pixelbook – all of them now show Microsoft’s Office suite in the Play Store.

Office is far from the only game in town as there are multiple productivity-minded alternatives to choose from. That said, Microsoft has a dedicated Office fan base, many of which aren’t exactly hip to the idea of change and trying something new. With Office now widely available, it’s plausible that some holdouts may finally take the plunge and give a Chromebook a shot as a productivity machine.

Permalink to story.

 
Still a limited data mining platform. No business user will want to be stuck with a limited support chromebook VS a fully fledged laptop. Without access to standalone apps, chromebooks still are not "productivity machines", just fancy web browsers.
 
Does this mean 365 is supported or just the free app from the play store is just widely supported? Article needs to be more clear on that part.
 
Still a limited data mining platform. No business user will want to be stuck with a limited support chromebook VS a fully fledged laptop. Without access to standalone apps, chromebooks still are not "productivity machines", just fancy web browsers.
Outlook.com online apps from Microsoft, or the Google set of online apps, which can work offline as well, work just fine. I have used them for years. A Chromebook and Chrome OS is fine, as is using Windows, Linux or macOS, take your pick. Not sure of the motivation of those trying to knock-down ChromeOS is. Perhaps they have not tried the OS. The average person using the Internet is doing so via a browser -- browser can do what the average user does. It is a simple solution, and is inexpensive. Need more - but more. Doesn't mean others will not find the Chrome OS to everything they need. Choice is an excellent thing in life.
 
Does this mean 365 is supported or just the free app from the play store is just widely supported? Article needs to be more clear on that part.
I have the apps on a Samsung Chromebook Plus and when I opened Word to create a new doc, it replied with "You need an Office 365 subscription to do that."

I can View docs ,but not create or edit, because the screen is larger than 10.1".

BUT... on a Lenovo N22 with an 11.6" touchscreen, I Can edit and create docs. Today.

This--to me--is not surprising. The journey of using the Microsoft apps has been sometimes I can use them, sometimes not; sometimes I can edit & create *when* I can use them, sometimes not. This has been changing, what I can or can't do, at least monthly. (But that shows how often they are, um, 'working' on the apps.)

Their Outlook app still needs a lot of help: can't modify/change fonts, can't search in Calendar (calendars are essentially databases and searching is kind of a primary operation in db's).
 
Back