The upgrade was actually
released for a few days in September, but then withdrawn for undisclosed reasons. Newly available, it now makes Office Mobile more compatible with Microsoft's desktop Office suite, Office 2007, according to Microsoft.
Office 2007 introduced new
Open XML-based file formats for Office applications. These new file formats reduce file size, improve security and reliability, and enhance integration with external sources, the company claims.
Until now, however, the Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, and PowerPoint Mobile applications included with Office Mobile were not able to read the Open XML format. The Office Mobile 6.1 upgrade fixes that, Microsoft says, allowing viewing and editing of Word documents and Excel workbooks, and viewing of PowerPoint slideshows created with Microsoft Office 2007.
Other touted benefits of the free upgrade include:
- An enhanced viewing experience for charts in Excel Mobile
- The ability to view SmartArt in PowerPoint Mobile
- The ability to view and extract files from compressed (.zip) folders
Included on some but not all Windows Mobile devices, the Office Mobile application suite includes support for viewing email attachments, performing minor edits, sharing document versions, and opening documents from an SD card or a SharePoint server, according to Microsoft.
Office Mobile's Word, Excel, and PowerPoint screensTo upgrade to Office Mobile 6.1, devices need to have an earlier version of Office Mobile on board, plus one of the following operating systems: Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC, Pocket PC Phone Edition, or Windows Mobile 6. Also required, according to Microsoft, are 6MB of storage on the device or an associated memory card, plus ActiveSync 4.5 (for Windows 2000/XP/2003) or Windows Mobile Device Center (for Windows Vista).
The upgrade is available from Microsoft's download site,
here.
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