Skip to main content

Microsoft adds new features to Office and OneDrive apps for iPad, iPhone

While the iPad is quickly becoming a computer replacement in many workplaces, it’s far from perfect. A lot of third-party apps have been slow to incorporate new features that bolster the iPad’s productivity features. Microsoft, however, is going against the grain by adding several new features to its Office and OneDrive apps for the iPad and iPhone that makes using the productivity powerhouse much easier.

Drag and drop

Perhaps the most useful new feature for both Office and OneDrive is the integration of drag and drop functionality. Apple introduced drag and drop to the iPad with the release of iOS 11 in 2017. With drag and drop, it’s easy to move images and files to different files on the iPad and iPhone.

Recommended Videos

With the latest update of Microsoft Office, it’s simple to move content to different apps. For example, if you’re working on a presentation, you can drag a graph from Excel directly to PowerPoint instead of having to import the data.

You can also drag and drop files in OneDrive. This is a much welcome addition that allows you to easily organize your documents in the OneDrive app. The update also allows you to quickly share files by dragging them to other applications like Mail or iMessage.

Co-authoring

Although co-authoring has been available on Office Online as well as the Mac and PC versions of Office for some time, it’s finally making its way to iOS apps. This feature allows you to share and collaborate on documents in real time. The co-authoring function also allows you to see who is in a document and track any changes so you won’t have to worry about losing past contributions.

OneDrive improvements

Microsoft gave OneDrive a major overhaul in its latest iOS update. The new OneDrive app is more user-friendly so it’s much easier to find documents. If you use list view, you can also see metadata so it’s simple to who you’ve shared a document with and when it was last updated.

Microsoft also gave the preview function in OneDrive a major boost. With the newest version of OneDrive, you can instantly preview more than 130 different types of files. You can now preview the majority of common file types without ever leaving the app. It also allows you to view files without having to download dozens of different apps that can quickly eat up storage space.

Other features

Improved accessibility features played a pretty big role in the latest iOS update. Users now have greater control over the way large text is displayed in Office apps. Office also features greatly improved voice-over features in the update, thanks to the VoiceOver rotor in iOS.

To use the new features, you need to update the Office and OneDrive apps in the App Store. If you don’t see updates available, check again in a few days as Microsoft plans to roll out this week.

Steven Winkelman
Former Staff Writer, Mobile
Steven writes about technology, social practice, and books. At Digital Trends, he focuses primarily on mobile and wearables…
iPad Pro with next-gen M5 silicon could arrive later this year
Magic Keyboard and iPad Pro.

It seems tablets are increasingly becoming the unofficial launch testbed for Apple’s next-gen silicon. The 2024 iPad Pro marked the debut of Apple’s M4 chip, ahead of its appearance inside the Mac hardware.
Carrying forward the torch, the next iPad Pro refresh could be “one of the first devices” to get a M5 series processor. According to Bloomberg, the next-gen iPad Pro has progressed into the advanced stages of internal testing. Moreover, it is expected to hit the shelves later this year, likely in the Fall season.
Apple gave the M4 series refresh to the Mac lineup, including the MacBook Air, Pro, and Studio models, earlier this year. The M4 Pro and M4 Max processors were only introduced late last year, so it seems increasingly plausible that the baseline M5 would arrive later this year, followed by its Pro, Max, or Ultra variants.
Given the “freshness” status of the current Mac hardware, the upcoming iPad Pro seems like the first candidate to get a taste of the next-gen M5 processor. “The new versions of that model, code-named J817, J818, J820 and J821, are in late testing within Apple and on track for production in the second half of this year,” adds the report.
What to expect from M5 iPad Pro?

Starting with the design , Apple is not expected to make any notable changes, given the company’s history. The iPad Pro got a major design overhaul in 2024, embracing a super-sleek look, one fewer camera, and a new keyboard accessory to go with it.
As far as the silicon goes, the M5 series will reportedly be based on the 3nm process and built atop ARM’s next-gen CPU architecture. In addition to the 2025 iPad Pro, Apple is also expected to launch new MacBook Pro models later this year, armed with an M5-tier processor.

Read more
The iPad doesn’t need AI, but Apple must fix something else
Top view of the rear shell on the 11th Gen iPad.

I just finished testing the new entry-level iPad, and so far, I am fairly impressed by the tablet. You can’t get a better value than this slate for $349. From the external hardware to the innards, there is hardly any alternative from the Android side that can deliver a superior experience.
This year, Apple delivered a couple of surprises, in addition to the expected chip upgrade. You now get twice the storage for the same ask, and the RAM has also been bumped up. In a nutshell, it’s faster, better at multi-tasking, and without any storage headaches, even if your budget is tight.
Apple, however, hasn’t fixed the software situation with iPadOS, which continues to bother with its fair share of quirks in tow. This year, however, the software gulf is even wider between the baseline iPad and every other tablet in Apple’s portfolio. Stage Manager has been the big differentiator so far, but in 2025, we have another deep chasm.

A good riddance with AI

Read more
iPhone now lets you make WhatsApp your default for messages and calls, here’s how
The WhatsApp logo.

iPhone users can now get setup so that WhatsApp is their default messaging and calling app.

If your iPhone is updated to iOS 18.2 then the functionality is already available for you right now.

Read more