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Microsoft released free Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps for Android tablets earlier this year, but until recently there were no equivalent apps for Android phones. Microsoft has now launched Preview versions of the phone apps in the Play Store. To install them, you’ll first need to become an ‘app tester’by joining the Microsoft Office for Android ‘community’ on Google+, after which you can install the apps from the Play Store.

To do this, open Google+ (tap the red G+ icon) on your phone, tap Home at the top to reveal the search box, then type Microsoft Office for Android and tap Enter (this brings up a list of posts from that community). Tap the green ‘Microsoft Office for Android’ link  to go to the community page, then tap ‘Join community’. Next, scroll down to the see Word, Excel and PowerPoint Preview links. We’ll show you how to install Word, but the process is the same for all three.

Tap the Word Preview link, then tap the blue Become A Tester button. When you see ‘You are now a tester’ in green, scroll down and tap the ‘Download Microsoft Word from the Play Store’ link.Tap Install on the app entry, Accept, then Open. Swipe across the introductory screens, until you see ‘Sign in’. Tap this and log in using your Microsoft account, then tap ‘Create and edit for free’. If you have a OneDrive account, you’ll see all your saved documents. Tap one to open it and begin editing. To create a new document, click the +New tab at the top, then tap ‘Blank document’. Type your text. To format the text, tap and hold a portion of it until you see sliders, then drag the start and end points to select the text you want to format. Next, tap the small dropdown menu at the bottom right to see formatting options (including bold, italics, underline, colours and highlight options). To save your file, click the floppy-disc icon at the top, then select OneDrive or ‘This device’. Rename your document by typing in the field at the bottom, then tap Save.