One of Microsoft's key points of Windows Phone 7 was that it would include a mobile version of the company's popular Office suite. And since I currently have a review unit of the HTC Arrive, which was previously known as the HTC 7 Pro, I thought it was perfect time to review the mobile version of Word. The rest will come later.
Microsoft doesn't include a way to capture screenshots of your device yet, so I had to take this picture with a camera. Regardless, this is how Word is set up on Windows Phone 7. You can see that to the side, you have a formatting toolbar, a find tool, saving options, and outlining options.
Obviously, Stephen King won't be writing his next novel on his shiny new Windows Phone device. But for the mobile CEO and his office staff who really need the quick editing that this offers, I think that Word is fantastic.
What you're seeing above is a screenshot of my Word '11 window from my Mac (click to view larger). You'll also see that all of the formatting that was done on the Arrive was transferred over to the full desktop version. This only reiterates my previous statement about being able to be mobile while still doing worthwhile editing. If I were a busier businessman, I could be having lunch with a client of mine and editing a Word document at the exact same time, doubling my productivity.
However, there is one huge issue: copy and paste. The Arrive includes the update, but it's so frustrating to use that it's almost unusable! More on that in the final review of the device, of course, but for now, I think that Word for Windows Phone 7 is a great piece of software that will only get better with time.
