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IMAGE: MASHABLE, CHRISTINA ASCANI
Microsoft just beefed up its support for third-party storage apps — adding ways to hook up to Box, iCloud Drive and other storage apps to the iOS version of its Office suite Tuesday.
The updated Office apps for iOS, including Word, Powerpoint and Excel, now allow users to save files directly to Apple's iCloud Drive — which any iOS user can access for free — and Box. Other services will likely be added in the future.
Microsoft initially had the Office app connecting to its own cloud service, One Drive, but is now opening up this functionality to third-party file storage services.
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"While these may seem like small enhancements, these new features represent a big step forward for Office integration into the apps and services that are important to our customers," Microsoft writes on its blog.
Right now, the third-party support is only available within the iOS versions — but Microsoft says its "hard at work" at rolling out similar capabilities to the Android and upcoming Windows 10 versions of the apps.
Additionally, Microsoft launched a cloud storage partner program, so third-party services can integrate Office Online into their apps. The enterprise-focused program allows companies like Salesforce and Citric — both of which have already signed on — to more closely integrate Microsoft Office directly into their business software.
The move comes just months after the company announced a partnership with Dropbox that allows users to edit Office files from within Dropbox and save documents directly to the cloud storage service.
Under the leadership of CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft has become increasingly focused on making its software more open and accessible to all users, regardless of their hardware.
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