We may have done away with the stylus when we got rid of those Palm Pilots, but now your finger can serve as a substitute when you use Microsoft Office for iPhone. That’s right — you can now doodle, scribble, or be one of the few people capable of writing legibly with one of your digits in the iPhone version of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Thanks to a new app update, everything you can do with Microsoft Office on Windows and iPad, you can now do on your iPhone (at least, in terms of using your finger to write).
To access this new finger-painting feature, simply navigate over into the “Draw” tab, then let your creativity take control. Who wouldn’t want to scribble all over their spreadsheets and presentations, right? Once you’re in the Draw section, you’ll be presented with a simplified page layout, then have the opportunity to write all over a text document, cells, or slides.
You can even choose your writing implement for full customization. Whether you’re looking to use a pen (pick from a myriad of colors), a highlighter, or even an eraser, Microsoft has you covered. You can also make your lines a bit bolder by pressing down harder on your iPhone screen, as Microsoft has taken full advantage of the iPhone’s haptic feedback feature.
Sure, it’s not the most thrilling update of all time, and there are a few kinks that users might find annoying. For example, if you want to scroll around the page, you’ll have to get out of the Draw feature (unless you just want to draw all over the scrollbar). But if you’re getting a bit tired of typing everything with an iPhone keyboard and would rather do some good old fashioned handwriting instead, this may just be your chance. While you need a qualifying Office 365 subscription to create and edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, the apps themselves are free to download.
