woman looking at her cell phone in an office

A new view: File Cards in Office Mobile for iOS

Feature deep dive
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn

Howdy, Office Insiders! My name is Priya Mehta, and I’m a Program Manager on the Apple Shared Experiences team. I’m pleased to be able to tell you about File Cards, a new way to preview Office Mobile files in iOS without opening them.

File Cards in Office Mobile

File Cards offer a rich, modern way to consume Office content on your iPhone or iPad. This view features:

  • Inline previews
  • Contextual information (who shared the file and the context in which it was shared)
  • Quick actions that allow you to share or save the file offline

As part of this rollout, File Cards in Office Mobile will be available for your Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF files stored in your OneDrive for Business and Personal accounts. Word and PDF files stored locally on your device will be supported in a future update.

How it works

On the app home screen on your iOS device, tap the new grid icon (Grid icon to access the File Cards view in Office Mobile for iOS.) in the top-right corner of the files section to switch between list and card view. Scroll through your files to see the File Card previews.

GIF showing File Cards view in Office Mobile for iOS.

Scenarios to try

  • Select File Cards view on the Recent, Shared with me, and Pinned tabs, and open a file from each.
  • Switch between portrait and landscape mode in File Cards view.
  • Pin, share, or download a file by clicking the three dots (More Actions menu) at the bottom-right corner of the file card.

Coming soon

Be on the lookout for future developments for File Cards in iOS, including:

  • Further refinements to improve the scrolling bar and resolve design issues in landscape mode
  • Ability to have your view preference retained when switching between tabs, and when you exit and return to the app
  • Availability in standalone apps (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint)

Availability

We will be rolling out File Cards in Office Mobile to Office Insiders running Version 2.57 (Build 22010600) or later.

Don’t have it yet? It’s probably us, not you.

Features are released over some time to ensure things are working smoothly. We highlight features that you may not have because they’re slowly releasing to larger numbers of Insiders. Sometimes we remove elements to further improve them based on your feedback. Though this is rare, we also reserve the option to pull a feature entirely out of the product, even if you, as an Insider, have had the opportunity to try it.

Feedback

If you have any feedback or suggestions, tap Help  & Feedback, and then tap Tell Us What You Like or Tell Us What Can Be Better

Learn what other information you should include in your feedback to ensure  it’s actionable and reaches the right people. We’re excited to hear from you!

Sign up for the Office Insider newsletter and get the latest information about Insider features in your inbox once a month!