Microsoft Office Mobile Apps: Free or With a Fee

Q. Do you need a paid subscription to use the Microsoft Office mobile applications? I thought they were free for Android and iOS devices.

A. The ability to use Microsoft Office mobile applications without having to pay a subscription fee depends on the device you are using and what you want to do with the programs. The free touchscreen editions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint allow you to perform basic tasks (such as creating a file and entering text into it) on most smaller tablets and phones. You must register to obtain a free Microsoft account to use Microsoft Office Mobile for Android, or the iOS versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. The files are stored on the Microsoft OneDrive cloud server.

However, if you have an iPad Pro, you will get a full version of the software for a free 30-day trial. Once the test is complete, you must subscribe to one of Microsoft Office 365 subscription plans. Prices start at $ 6.99 per month.

Signing up for an Office 365 subscription allows you to use the most advanced features of Office mobile applications, such as the change tracking tool in Microsoft Word. Credit The New York Times

If you are working with the free versions of the applications and want to unlock the rest of the editing functions on an Android or iOS device, you must also register to obtain an Office 365 subscription. Once you convert to a paid plan, you can do things like tracking and reviewing the changes made to the documents, insert page and section breaks, use more colors, create Excel data maps and take advantage of all the tools included in the Office Mobile suite. A subscription for home or personal use includes other benefits, such as a terabyte of OneDrive file storage, desktop applications, and technical support.

If the price is too high for you, Apple's office applications iWork, Google Docs, Dropbox Paper and Zoho are among the free or low-cost alternatives.