Note:  Microsoft recently announced that the Office for iOS apps will support AirPrint, well, Novell iPrint does that too.  We have created a second post with this information.

How to Print from Microsoft Office for iOS

Perhaps you are one of the 12 million plus people who eagerly downloaded the “free” Microsoft Office for iOS within the first week. Certainly some of the end users in your organization have done so. I have found it really easy to download and open my documents, but like many of our 12 million peers I am wondering “Now what?” While Office for iOS does a great job, you can’t realize its full potential unless you have a Microsoft Office 365 subscription. Even then, one critical element is missing—the ability to print. Fortunately for you, Novell iPrint can help.

If you are wondering, or if your users have asked, how to print Office for iOS documents, here are two ways you can use Novell iPrint to solve your problem.

Method One – Email to Print

Using Email Printing in iPrint, and specifically Private Email Printing, is by far the easiest way to print your documents. Within Office for iOS there is a Share link in the upper right corner. Simply select Email as Attachment:



You will be presented with a mail view. If you have Private Email Printing enabled, you can then simply fill in the email address of your printer and click Send.



If you only have Global Printing enabled, you will need to specify the printer you want to print to in the subject line. You can also use the subject line to specify additional print options: color versus black and white; number of pages; duplexing; landscape or portrait; and so on. You can get a complete list of commands by sending an email with a subject of ‘Help’ to the printer or in the iPrint documentation here.

Method Two – Using the iPrint App

This method requires a couple of additional steps, but because users have access to the Novell iPrint app, they have greater control and don’t need to remember a number of subject line commands for print options. Office for iOS does not support Apple’s “Open In” directly. Unless you have a subscription to Office 365, the only place you can really save to is Microsoft’s OneDrive. From OneDrive, Microsoft will then let you “Open In” into any other app (such as Novell iPrint or Novell Filr). Once you are finished editing your document, you will therefore need to save it to OneDrive before you can pass it to iPrint. Switch to OneDrive and view the file by tapping on it. (Note the image below has been truncated to reduce the white space).



Once you have selected the file, click on the three circles in the lower right corner and select Open in Another App. Next select Open in Novell iPrint.



The Novell iPrint app will launch and give you an easy-to-use user interface to select your print job and print options. Once you have all your options set, simply hit Print and you’re all done.



Pretty simple, right? If you do not have mobile print licenses – give your Novell account exectutive a call or contact us.

(Credit to Lothar Wegner, Novell Systems Engineering Manager for writing the script!)