Dropbox gets better integration with Office and vice versa

Microsoft will integrate Dropbox into Office, in addition to its own OneDrive web storage service. In return, Dropbox will integrate Office into its mobile apps and alert users to install Office if they don’t already have it on their device.

For example, thanks to the collaboration announced by Microsoft and Dropbox, users of Office for the iPad can open, edit and save files if they are in Dropbox. The same goes for the web version of Office programs.

In return, Dropbox will open files that Office can open in Microsoft programs. If users do not have the office software on their system, Dropbox notifies users of the option to install the appropriate app via a download link for the Play Store or App Store.

The collaboration is striking, because Microsoft competes with Dropbox with OneDrive. Support in the Dropbox apps for iOS and Android will be available in the coming weeks, with Dropbox integration in the web versions of Office applications to follow in the first half of next year.