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Since the day the iPad launched, zealous mobilophiles have wondered whether it might signal a new dawn in mobile computing--namely, one in which we all use a tablet in lieu of a desktop or laptop PC. With the abundance of native iPad productivity apps in the App Store, the iPad has held a clear lead in the race to tablet-centricity. But the real measure of the platform's productivity power is not the number of apps in the App Store but the quality of its best productivity apps. So I downloaded six of the most noteworthy iPad office apps and spent a week using them for all my daily work.
Because you can't ignore Apple's iWork apps as a force to be reckoned with on the iPad, I made Pages, Numbers, and Keynote my first priority in testing. These three apps bear the distinction of selling separately, which represents a departure from the selection criteria I've been using for roundups. The other three products I tried--Office2 HD, Documents To Go, and Quickoffice--are all-in-one suites that include word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation tools (among other features) within a single app. Since it would have been a glaring omission had I not included Apple's offerings, I've modified the qualifications here in the interest of diligence.
As I did in my roundup of Android productivity apps, I tested each of these leading suites for three important qualities: interface and usability, compatibility with Microsoft Office, and support for cloud services. I also took into account additional features, such as PDF viewing and support for other formats, and I considered price in the final evaluation. For each app, I created documents from scratch, imported rich documents with images and complex formatting from Microsoft Word, and exported edited documents back to Word to check for fidelity. The winner of this roundup is the app (or set of apps) with the best overall performance across all of those considerations.
In the course of testing, two general facts emerged that are well worth noting. First, an external keyboard is an essential accessory if you plan on doing a significant amount of document editing on the iPad. It doesn't really matter which keyboard you use. I've spent a fair amount of time on both the Apple Wireless Keyboard and the iPad Keyboard Dock, and both are excellent. Less-expensive third-party keyboards mostly work well, too.
Second, Dropbox is a phenomenally valuable app for anyone who uses the iPad for frequent document editing, as it acts as a file manager on the device and includes integrated links to all of the apps in this roundup. This means that you can use Dropbox to browse for a document in your synced folders and then launch it in Pages, Documents To Go, Quickoffice, Office2 HD, or just about any other compatible app.
Byte Squared Office2 HD
Office2 HD crams all of its navigation into one long, narrow menu, but it offers a good blend of cloud connectivity and basic editing features.Within the realm of all-in-one office apps for the iPad, Office2 HD has been a leader from the beginning. It's not nearly as robust or intuitive as Apple's iWork apps, but it packs far better cloud support.
Office2 HD creates and edits Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, and treats Microsoft Office formats as native. You can set the app to use .docx or the older .doc format as its default. It also views iWork documents and PDFs.
Office2 HD's Microsoft Office compatibility is generally very good. Partly because the app itself lacks many of the editing capabilities of its Office counterparts, you'll find it fairly tough to create a document in this app that Word, Excel, or PowerPoint won't preserve pretty much perfectly. And in my tests of importing complex documents containing special formatting, tables, and charts from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, the app did a good job of displaying formatting options that it couldn't create on its own.
Interface design is Office2 HD's great weakness. All of the app's navigation happens in a single-column drop-down menu, and the way to reach all of the app's features is not immediately obvious. Once you get the hang of it, you can find your way around, but everything seems to take three or four more taps than it should. Meanwhile, the menu ribbon at the top of the screen scrolls sideways to reveal additional formatting options that you may not immediately realize exist. A novice user could be forgiven for thinking that the app doesn't support image embedding (it does, on the second page of the menu). My sense is that Byte Squared is trying to be clever by packing all of the nav controls into two narrow menus, but the execution falls flat.
When it comes to cloud support, however, Office2 HD comes nicely equipped. The app supports Box, Dropbox, Google Docs, MobileMe, MyDisk, and generic WebDAV accounts.
At $8, Office2 HD is certainly the cheapest office app in this roundup, and it offers some of the best cloud support I found. Its fidelity to Microsoft Office formats is admirable, but the app's interface leaves a lot to be desired. Still, it provides more formatting options than its non-Apple competitors do.
DataViz Documents To Go PremiumContinuing its long tradition of mobile document editing, DataViz has brought Documents To Go to the iPad. The app has come a long way from humble beginnings, and it sports some of the most compelling connectivity and sharing features of the bunch.
Documents To Go Premium is supposed to be able to edit presentations, but instead it forces you to do that work in some other, more capable app.At $17, Documents To Go Premium makes no bones about its purpose: This app is designed as an interim editing tool for those times when you can't get to your full-blown desktop or laptop. Its formatting options are pretty basic, but highly competent in preserving the integrity of whatever Word or Excel document you're working in.
Unfortunately, despite DataViz's claims to the contrary on the App Store listing, even this Premium version of Documents To Go doesn't actually edit PowerPoint files. Amusingly, if you create a new PowerPoint document within the app, you can add and rearrange slides on it, but you can't put in any text or pictures. If you tap the little triangle button in the bottom menu, however, the app will give you the option to open (and edit) your presentation in any other Office-compatible app that you have loaded. At first I thought I must have been doing something wrong, but the reviews on the Apple App Store are rife with criticism over this problem. It's almost certainly a bug, and I hope to see it rectified quickly. Otherwise I have to suggest that anyone looking for a way to edit presentations on the iPad should look elsewhere for that functionality (particularly given that even Documents To Go Premium looks elsewhere on your iPad for that functionality).
Where Documents To Go Premium stands out in a good way is in its cloud and sharing features. In addition to support for Box, Dropbox, Google Docs, iDisk, and SugarSync, it includes support for DataViz's Documents To Go Desktop App, which lets you sync files easily between the app and your desktop over a Wi-Fi connection.
Frankly, I had expected Documents To Go Premium to offer a far more compelling blend of features and performance than what it's delivering on the iPad right now. DataViz has had a decade's head start over its competitors in the mobile arena, but between the app's apparent bugs and its outright lack of common editing features, Documents To Go Premium is a big disappointment. There's simply nothing "premium" about it.
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Robert Strohmeyer is a veteran journalist and entrepreneur covering tech since the boom of the mid-90s. He's worked in the field as both a consultant and in-house IT pro. When he's not writing about technology, he can be found exploring the wine world at VineCult. Follow Robert on Twitter.
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Yesterday, after Facebook accidentally leaked their long-overdue official iPad app, the blogosphere errupted with instructions on how to unlock the hidden app. Facebook quickly responded by blocking Facebook for iPad. Clearly there is a lot of interest in the app, because today hacker chpwn released a tool called FaceForward that re-enables the hidden feature.
Just a few years ago, a large oral surgery practice in Connecticut relied predominantly on a few PCs for its tech needs. Some 15 employees had a mixed bag of cell phone models and plans, generating high bills for M&D Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. Billing and vendor management systems needed improvement. And doctors relied on small flatscreen monitors to show patients images related to their treatment.
The tech overhaul took about 20 hours and cost close to $3000, with no need for future maintenance costs. Purchasing the tablets cost several thousand dollars more. As a result of the changes, M&D Oral Surgery immediately reduced its mobile phone bills, producing an estimated $10,000 in savings annually. And improved software, including mobile apps, have helped the staff streamline scheduling.
--Case study submitted by Ubiquitour. All recommendations and opinions expressed represent the independent judgment of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of PCWorld or its editorial staff.