Microsoft boosts Office for iPad with printing support

Microsoft's Office for iPad.CNET

Aiming to please users, Microsoft announced Tuesday that it updated Office for iPad with printing support, along with a couple of other features. This is the company's first update to its Office apps forApple's iPad tablet.

Since the company released its Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote apps for iPad last month, users' No. 1 request has been for printing support, according to Microsoft

"Your top request is here," Microsoft wrote in a blog post. "You can now print Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations to an AirPrint printer. In Word for iPad, you can choose to print a document with or without markup. In Excel, print a selected range, a single worksheet or an entire spreadsheet."

Along with printing support, Microsoft also added a couple of other features. One is SmartGuides for PowerPoint, which helps users align pictures, shapes, and textboxes on a slide. The other is AutoFit for Excel, which lets people adjust the width and height of multiple columns and rows.

Microsoft debuted Office for iPad in March and says that millions of people have since downloaded the apps from Apple's App Store. Under Microsoft's "freemium" approach, the apps are free to download -- so users can view documents; but to manage and create documents, a $10 monthly subscription to Office 365 is required.