How To Open Office Files On Unsupported Devices

Many people feel confused when trying to open Microsoft Office files on unsupported devices. This is because devices like tablets and smartphones often don’t support office applications like MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access. However, you can use a number of workarounds. For example, if you are looking to have support for Office on Kindle Fire, then you can simply use cloud based services or install Google Play to install apps like Kingsoft Office, which enables working with MS Office files on Android devices, which includes Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets.


Office For Android Users
Similarly, you can use cloud based services like Google Drive, Zooho, Office 365 or even Box to view, create and make amendments to Microsoft Office files. Furthermore, you can use applications which support various file formats and are properly licensed to provide support for MS Excel, PowerPoint, Word, PDF and other file types (e.g. audio and video files). If you are an Android user, some great free apps that you can use include DocumentsToGo and Kingsoft Office.

Office For Mac And iOS Users
In case you are an Apple user, you can opt for DocumentsToGo (iOS version) or SmartOffice 2. However, unlike Android apps, these applications costs around $10. In case you use Mac OS X then there isn't much of an issue, since Mac already has several Microsoft Office application suites (e.g. Office for Mac 2011).

Office For Linux Users
Unfortunately, Linux users don’t have too many options for opening Office files, perhaps because many Linux users prefer to use alternative application suites like OpenOffice and LibreOffice. Nonetheless, these users can still use Box, Google Drive, Office 365 and other such services to open, view, edit and create files from Microsoft Office formats.

On the whole, cloud based services provide a reasonable solution to the above mentioned problem, however many of these services can often both documents when they are opened online. This is why paid services like Office 365 can provide better support but only at a cost. For users who like free alternatives, the only option is to find suitable free apps for your platform.