Depending on where you sat, Microsoft’s move to bring its Office software suite to the cloud in the form of Office 365 may have reinvigorated it, helping productivity at a time where the workplace can be almost anywhere.

Office — and more specifically, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote — has long been the dominant productivity suite. Not to mention a significant cash cow for Microsoft’s coffers. The evolution of the suite has been maligned along the way (who can forget the famous ribbon in Office 2007?), but moving it to the cloud was an overdue pivot that may have breathed new life into what it means to be productive on the go.

In a nutshell, Office 365 takes the five applications that make up the suite and presents them in a Web-based interface that syncs with Windows PCs and Macs, as well as mobile apps on devices, like the iPad, iPhone, Windows Phone and Windows-based tablets. Android devices have Microsoft Office Mobile, allowing users to access Word, Excel and PowerPoint files stored on OneDrive, OneDrive for Business or SharePoint. BlackBerry also has some support for the cloud-based platform, even if there isn’t a specific app.

Making use of all this access doesn’t come without a cost. A Personal subscription is good for one user and one PC or Mac, plus one tablet and unlimited access on smartphones. It allows for a full download of the desktop version of Office on the computer and use of all the apps on the tablet. It also includes 1TB of extra online storage on OneDrive and 60 minutes of for outgoing calls on Skype to over 60 countries. It costs $7/month or $69 for a full 12 months, a savings of $15 from going month-to-month.

The Home subscription is good for up to five users, five computers and five tablets, along with unlimited access on smartphones. In addition to the five core apps, both Publisher and Access are included as well. The 1TB OneDrive storage and Skype minutes apply to all five users as well. All that goes for $10/month or $99 for the full year.

There are also Office 365 options for small businesses and enterprises that vary in scope and access as well.

The suite isn’t without its challengers, be it Google Docs, Apple’s iWork and the various free or subscription-based platforms that either interface with Office documents or eschew them altogether. And while upstarts have nipped at their heels, some of which have innovated better, in some respects (Prezi over PowerPoint, for example), it’s a tall order to stroll through an office environment and not see or find an Office document somewhere.

Using Office 365 ourselves, we liked that we could view and edit documents on a laptop or iPad without any real hassle. Granted, if we had a laptop with us, it would probably be the one that already has the desktop version installed, so we can work offline. The limitation of smartphone access is that offline productivity isn’t necessarily there. The iPad or Windows tablets, on the other hand, at least offer something offline that works, so being mobile and productive with the suite doesn’t have to include lugging around a laptop.

We preferred the integration with Word and Outlook more than that of Excel and PowerPoint, partly because we don’t use the latter two as much, and because there are some third-party options that we like, too. Writing documents in Word, and having them readily available at all times online is valuable to anyone doing word processing. Same with Outlook, where it’s more than just email access, it’s also access to the features that make it a unique program.

OneNote wasn’t bad, and we didn’t mind that it compelled us to jot down ideas that we could always go back to later on a different device.

The Skype integration is more limited than it might appear, but that can always be remedied with software updates. The extra OneDrive storage is great to have, especially now that Microsoft lifted restrictions on uploading larger-size files. However, that storage is tied to the subscription, so if you’re not signing up again, all that data could be lost.

Using Office 365 while out and about is better suited to Wi-Fi connections, rather than relying heavily on your mobile device’s data. With downloading and uploading happening behind the scenes, in some cases, because of changes to documents being synced, bandwidth usage can creep up without you realizing. Speed factors in here, too, since a spotty connection will almost certainly lead to a frustrating work situation.

All that being said, Office 365 isn’t a mixed bag, but rather a work in progress. Its shortcomings should be addressed sooner than later, and it should be noted that the platform may not be everything to everyone in its current form. The offline desktop version still has the stability and convenience that the online side has yet to attain. But having all that online access trumps the traditional desktop version for the sheer fact documents can come to you, rather than you seeking them.

Would we recommend Office 365? If you’re a student, small business user or generally looking to be productive and mobile, then we would say yes. The subscription can pay for itself in the time that you might save by getting to your files faster.  Enter to win a 1-year subscription to Office 365  with WhatsYourTech.ca

Where we would hesitate is in cases where you might be a single user carrying around a laptop all the time, or if online access won’t change your productivity in any meaningful way (though it’s worth a try).

We should note that using the full suite on an iPad or Windows tablet, or even a smartphone, requires a subscription, so if that is a determining factor, signing up is the only way to ensure the gates are open.