Quickoffice Updates Android App, Additional MS Word Capabilities, Where Is LibreOffice?

Quickoffice has updated its Android productivity application, Quickoffice Pro v4.1. The latest user enhancements and features will be rolled out across its Word, Excel and PowerPoint editors, Quickword, Quicksheet and Quickpoint respectively.
Quickoffice Pro for Android is one of the best office suites for Android. But, there is a major drawback, which keeps me from using it. Quickoffice doesn't support the ISO approved and vendor-free ODF formats such as ODF. Android devices are extremely popular among Linux users and they use vendor-free and ISO approved odf formats instead of Microsoft's controverical OOXML (X) format.


QuickOffice should support the internationally accepted, adopted and ISO approved ODF format in order to keep its users out of Microsoft's vendor lock.

The latest version of Quickoffice Pro enables users to access, view, edit and share 'Microsoft' Office files on the device or in the cloud through integrated access to Box.net, Google Docs, Dropbox, Huddle, SugarSync and MobileMe accounts.

The company must also support industry accepted and adopted LibreOffice suite.

Quickpoint offers a new range of editing features, including: undo / redo for picture insertion and deletion; shape background editing; improved bullet rendering; and insert shapes and render vertical text in a presentation.

For users who mostly work on Spreadsheets, Quickoffice Pro v4.1 features a control redesign, which lets users actively edit inline, selecting and scrolling through different cells, rather that double tapping on different cells to make edits. Combined with the new formula builder that automatically activates when users edit inline and contextual input capabilities, consumers are able to quickly and easily revise cells for a more streamlined Excel editing experience.

IPad Office Suites: Quickoffice or Documents To Go

When the iPad was announced, Steve touted the virtues of how wonderful it would be to have iWork on your iPad. We at TheAppleBlog were unimpressed with Pages, Numbers and Keynote. You can read the full reviews for details, but our primary complaints revolved around the difficulty of getting documents on and off the iPad and syncing with the cloud.
If all you want is iWork files primarily on your iPad, no need to look beyond the iWork Suite for the iPad. However, iPhone users have been working with their spreadsheets, documents, and presentations in the cloud for a while with the iPhone versions of Documents To Go and Quickoffice and got used to not being locked into the iWork file format. Now that the iPad versions of these apps are finally out, which one is right for you? Let’s review the features first.

Documents To Go

Documents to Go for the iPhone was recently updated to support the iPad. Previous owners merely need to update and have full functionality on both devices. Two versions exist: Documents To Go and Documents To Go Premium. The Premium version adds support for cloud computing as well as presentations.
To sync with your computer, Documents To Go provides a desktop application for Windows and Mac that allows you to transfer files to and from your iPad over your Wi-Fi network without actually having to connect your computer to iTunes. The premium cloud support includes Google, MobileMe, Dropbox, Box.net and SugarSync. While you can use multiple cloud accounts, you cannot customize the names.

Quickoffice HD

Unlike Documents To Go, this is a separate iPad app. Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite for iPad is focused exclusively on the cloud, but does allow uploading files to your iPad via a web interface. Access to files on Google, MobileMe, Dropbox, and Box.net are all included. Unlike Documents To Go, SugarSync support is not included. Quickoffice has support for password protection as well as customizing the cloud account names.

Feature Comparisons

Both programs access files from the cloud and are integrated with the Dropbox iPad app to allow direct transfer of files to either Documents To Go or Quickoffice. However, Quickoffice does a more fluid job of accessing the cloud by connecting automatically in the background and quickly giving you access. Documents To Go, on the other hand, requires you to manually sync, refreshing your cloud file listing in the foreground and preventing you from doing anything else while the sync is underway. Additionally, it didn’t respect Google’s hidden documents so I literally had to scroll through hundreds of hidden files. At least Documents To Go remembered recent files making subsequent visits to the app slightly less painful.

Editing and navigating files in Quickoffice seemed more like a desktop app. For example, spreadsheets retained page tabs at the bottom in Quickoffice while in Documents To Go I had to access the toolbar at the bottom and then choose which tab to activate. PDFs in Documents To Go do not allow scrolling in the document; you have to manually turn each page. Documents To Go also had a cryptic and unintuitive toolbar at the bottom (see example below).

Of the two programs, Documents To Go did do a better job of retaining the file formatting of the original document. Neither program did a 100 percent perfect job of retaining all formatting, though. Slight errors regarding font styles and sizing as well as spacing developed. I consider these problems minor since I see the primarily goal of editing on your iPad to be data entry and manipulation, not the look and feel of the document.

Verdict

For value, Documents To Go is an ideal choice. You can have access to your files on the iPhone and iPad with just one app. You can upgrade within the app to the Premium version for an extra $5 to get the presentation and cloud access. Users of SugarSync will have to choose this app if they want access via their iPad.
For most iPad users, Quickoffice is the better choice. Easy-to-use cloud support and quick loading of your files allows for fast editing while Documents To Go painfully makes you wait to sync back and forth. Be prepared for some quirkiness in formatting going back and forth between other apps, but otherwise you’ll have a user experience nearly identical to your desktop or web-based applications for spreadsheets, presentations and word processing.
And, yes, this article was written in both Documents to Go and Quickoffice on my iPad. I ultimately finished it with Quickoffice.
What’s your iPad office suite of choice?

iWork for iOS vs QuickOffice

iWork from Apple is a suite of office applications for the Mac, Pages (word processor), Numbers (spreadsheets), and Keynote (presenations). It's also available for iOS devices, now including the iPhone. The concept looks extremely impressive and promises complete integration with the desktop version of iWork application and even Microsoft Office applications. In practice I would be surprised if the compatibility was smooth as formatting and fonts often prove a challenge in these situations.


File transfers are via MobileMe's iDisk (subscription required) or iTunes file sharing (connection required). In order to make the best use of the app, integration with online services is a must, and for Apple to only offer their own premium service is a disappointment. An alternative is QuickOffice. It's a similar price to Pages or Keynote or Numbers but can work with the same Microsoft Office file types for each of the equivalent programs (Word, Excel & Powerpoint). QuickOffice has issues with fonts and formatting but only because it doesn't have the vast number of files that Word, for example, as behind it. For creating documents on the go and working on them later it's great. Particularly as it integrates with cloud storage services such as Google Doc's, Dropbox and Box.net. You can even manage the files on the device via your web browser if you are on the same Wi-Fi network. This flexibility is a preview of the Post-PC era.

Quickoffice Pro for Android

Create, Edit, Access & Share Microsoft® Office files. Recent Updates include PowerPoint editing, footnote/endnote support, faster file loading, and more.
Quickoffice® Pro takes mobile productivity to the next level with this must-have, award-winning productivity suite for Android smartphones. Work with Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations while conveniently accessing files remotely from your Google® Docs, Dropbox, Box.net, Huddle™, SugarSync, and MobileMe™ accounts or from your SD card with our enhanced Connected File Manager. For viewing PDF files, our advanced PDF viewer is included, as well.

NEW Features in Version 4.1

• Open files faster
• View footnotes & endnotes in documents
• Insert shapes into presentations
• Render vertical text in presentations
…and many more great new enhancements!

Quickoffice Pro

• Create, edit, and share Microsoft Word®, Excel®, and PowerPoint® files
• Get continuous and convenient mobile access to remote storage services
• Access and manage email attachments with the most popular file formats
• Experience advanced PDF viewing
• Save files locally, on your remote storage provider, or to an SD card
• Browse and open zip folders
• 100% data integrity - guaranteed Microsoft compatibility
• Localized in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese

Connected File Manager

• Advanced file management on your device and across the cloud
• Seamlessly Connect to Box, Google® Docs, Dropbox, Huddle™, SugarSync and MobileMe™
• Open Microsoft Office documents and view non-Office files within the file manager
• Easily share multiple files through e-mail, SMS, Bluetooth, etc.
• Create, copy, move, delete and rename files and folders
• Sort files and folders by name, type, size or date
• Browse and access Zip files as folders
• View and open recent documents

Quickword® - Advanced Word Document Processing

• Create, edit and share Microsoft Word documents
• Cut / Copy / Paste text in documents and between applications
• Insert, resize, and rotate images from camera or gallery
• Text-to-speech document recital and speech-to-text input dictation
• Select and edit text intuitively with improved selection pins
• Use continuous zoom for flick scrolling through multi-touch zoom
• Apply extensive formatting of text styles (bold, italic, underline, etc.)
• Apply font and highlight colors
• View and edit bulleted and numbered lists
• Align paragraphs (Center / Left / Right / Justify)
• Eliminate repetitive scroll through wrapped text at any zoom level
• Find text in documents, and view images and tables
• Tap to follow hyperlinks, phone numbers and email addresses
• Highlight text and perform Google search from within document
• File support for Microsoft Word 97-2010 (.DOC, .DOCX, .DOCM, .DOT, .DOTX, .DOTM)

Quicksheet® - Advanced Excel Spreadsheet Editor

• Create, edit and share Microsoft® Excel spreadsheets
• Use continuous zoom for flick scrolling through multi-touch zoom
• Format cells, columns, rows and ranges while formulas dynamically update
• Insert, resize, and remove columns and rows
• Cut / Copy / Paste cell ranges and rows
• Format cell colors, alignment, and borders
• Format text color, sizes, styles, and fonts
• Easy formula editing - choose formula than select cells by tapping and dragging
• Navigate quickly with "Go to Cell" feature
• Find text within worksheets
• Add, delete, and rename worksheets on a single screen
• Use currency, accounting, date, time and scientific notation number formatting
• Tap, hold and drag dimensions to increase or decrease column and row size
• Support for many popular chart types
• Use 140 Excel formulas and functions
• File support for Microsoft 97-2010 (.XLS, .XLSX, .XLSM, .XLA, .XLAM, .XLT, .XLTM, .XLTX)

Quickpoint® - Advanced PowerPoint Presentation Editor

• Create, edit, and share PowerPoint presentations
• Insert, reorder, and delete slides
• Insert, move, resize, and edit text boxes and shapes
• Insert and resize images from camera or gallery
• Cut / copy / paste text in presentations and across applications
• Format font type, style, size, and color
• Use continuous zoom for flick scrolling through multi-touch zoom
• View presentations in portrait and landscape
• Present on device or using external display
• View slides in manual or automatic slide show mode
• Quick navigation with "Go To Slide" feature
• File support for Microsoft 97-2010 (.PPT, .PPTX, .POT, .POTX, .POTM, .PPTM, .PPA, .PPAM, .PPSX, .PPSM)

QuickPDF® - Advanced PDF Viewer

• Open PDF files, including password-protected and encrypted files
• Experience multi-touch zoom and flick scrolling
• Wrap text at any zoom level
• Find text in documents
• View and navigate with bookmarks
• Rotate documents
• Click and use hyperlinks, email addresses and phone numbers

Compatible with Android OS Versions 2.0 - 2.3 (éclair, FroYo, and Gingerbread)

 

Read at the orginal source HERE

Quickoffice Adds DropBox, Google Docs support

I’ve written about my love affair with Quickoffice before, but there’s always been one issues I’ve had with it: the only cloud storage service it supported was MobileMe’s iDisk. I’ve come close to plunking down the money for MobileMe a few times, but because Dropbox works for me, I’ve been hesitant.

Quickoffice just announced its new iPhone app Quickoffice Connect which now lets you access and edit files on Box.net, Dropbox, Google Docs and Apple MobileMe. It’s available for an introductory price of $9.99, but it showed as a free upgrade for my existing Quickoffice application.
In my very brief testing, it has worked as advertised. I was able to connect to my Dropbox account, browse all the files and open a Word doc and edit it. The usual disclaimers apply: the formatting is still rough (the document I tested with has extensive formatting and fonts not available on the iPhone, so the results were a little rough), and editing documents on a small screen can be a dicey proposition.
It’s this type of functionality I think will make QuickOffice much more valuable to business users on the iPad than the iWork suite — assuming Quickoffice will be coming out with an iPad version; I’m betting they will.

iPhone Doc Editing: Documents to Go vs. QuickOffice Pro

A little while ago, QuickOffice ($19.99, iTunes link) brought Word document editing to the iPhone. This week, however, QuickOffice officially loses its corner on that market with the introduction of Documents to Go ($4.99, iTunes link) by Dataviz, a seasoned contender.

The iPhone may not be my device of choice when it comes to doing significant edits to text documents, but in times of duress, it might be the quickest, most convenient, or even the only option available, so I like to have the capability. Let’s see which of these two apps will earn a place of honor on my springboard.

User Interface

Full-featured word processing on an iPhone might not make for a very pretty experience no matter how you slice it, but there are definitely ways to make it more or less pleasurable, depending on your UI choices. It’s a challenging task, taking the ribbon and/or menu bar of a full-featured desktop app and trying to somehow incorporate the same features into a mobile app interface.
Both Documents to Go and QuickOffice try to tackle the problem in much the same way: Store features in a menu bar across the bottom using expandable icons that open up to reveal more functions. While both apps use this feature, they both do so in a very different way, and you will probably vastly prefer one over the other, depending on your personal taste.

Documents to Go editing interface

QuickOffice editing interface

As for me, I like the implementation found in Documents to Go. The main difference between the two is a multipage menu bar that you can scroll by swiping left or right. It means that more features are available to you in fewer steps. There are three pages worth of menu bar items for word editing, including document info, bulleting and numbering. QuickOffice offers far fewer functions from its own bottom menu bar, although both include a very necessary document search function.
Some might prefer QuickOffice’s full-text menu list items, but I like the icons used by Documents to Go. They may be a little harder to grasp at first, but the space they save is well worth the learning curve.

Features

In both cases, most of the features are spot on in terms of what you’d expect from a mobile word editor. You won’t get table editing/creation capabilities, but you will get font and paragraph formatting, list creation, and copy and paste. Interestingly, neither takes advantage of the newly built-in copy/paste functions of OS 3.0.
QuickOffice loses out to Documents to Go by not allowing you to create numbered lists, only bulleted. But it does offer some macro-level features that definitely trump Dataviz’s offering. For one, it has MobileMe iDisk integration baked in, so that all you have to do is enter your credentials and you’re off. Another incredibly useful feature is the ability to email documents you create to anyone from right within the app. Documents to Go doesn’t even have an export to mail function.
Documents to Go does have the ability to sync with a desktop client they offer for free, and to save directly to the desktop should you so desire, as long as you have a network connection. I tend to prefer not having to install any client software on my Mac, though.

Usability

In terms of actual editing mechanics for individual documents, Documents to Go beats QuickOffice on usability. The interface is nicer, you have more control at your finger tips, and the keyboard button is more conveniently located. It’s also just much more pleasant to look at, in my opinion, which can be a big plus if you’re stuck staring at a small screen for any length of time.
With overall usability, though, QuickOffice takes the cake. Being able to share docs so easily via email and iDisk is a huge bonus, and loads easier than using Documents to Go’s desktop client sync.

Verdict

I actually had a hard time picking a winner in this rumble. For the purposes of this comparison, I was only looking at document editing, so I didn’t take into consideration the fact that Documents to Go can’t yet handle Excel file editing. That’s supposed to be on its way in a future update, though.
What I did look at was price. There’s a big difference between the two apps in that regard. QuickOffice is $19.99, and even QuickWord is $12.99. Documents to Go, on the other hand, is only $4.99 ($9.99 for a version with exchange support), and will eventually include Excel editing for no extra charge. That’s a quarter of the price of QuickOffice.
Given that the primary reason I’d even want to have a Word document editor on my iPhone in the first place is for quick edits at the request of a client or employer, and that I don’t use Microsoft Exchange-based email, I decided that the ability to share via email trumps any advantage Documents to Go has with pricing and usability. If future updates introduce Mail integration, consider my verdict officially reversed, but for now, I have to give this one to QuickOffice.

Quickoffice Pro HD for iPad IPA Download

Quickoffice is the essential Microsoft office productivity tool for your iPad. Award-winning #1 Business App for iPad! * Save files as PDF’s
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The Global Leader in Mobile Productivity Solutions
* Apple iTunes Rewind – Top Business iPad App 2010
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We take mobile productivity to the next level by redesigning our award-winning office suite from the ground up and customizing our app to create an incredible high-definition iPad experience. With our iPad-enhanced mobile office solution, you will have full control of creating, editing, formatting, accessing and sharing Microsoft Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. Our Connected Filemanager also enables you to remotely access, transfer, share and manage your files on remote storage service providers including MobileMe, Dropbox, Google Docs, Box, Huddle, and SugarSync. Get the most out of your iPad with our mobile office suite – the best experience ever!
Quickoffice SmartTouch – Exclusively designed for iPad!
Power Edit Mode – Easily make edits across entire documents or spreadsheets with our Multi-Edit Toolbox. Quickly format text, numbers, paragraphs, backgrounds, and cells without opening and closing multiple menus. Great for power users and beginners alike.
Single Screen Viewing – Experience the easiest and most intuitive way to navigate horizontally and vertically through your folders and files, and conveniently review file information within a single-screen view.
Advanced Touch Control – Enjoy managing your files with our simple–to-use touch, tap, and drag controls in our advanced Connected Filemanager. Scroll in any direction and drag and drop to e-mail, move, copy, and delete files on your iPad or in your remote storage account.
Smooth Page Scrolling – Amazingly cool, single-touch navigation lets you preview page thumbnails and jump to any page in any size document.
With Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite you can:
• Create, Open & Edit Microsoft Office Files
• E-mail, View & Access Attachments with Popular File Formats
• Remotely Access Files via Storage Providers
• Share Files via E-mail or Storage Providers
• Transfer Files via WiFi or via iTunes using USB
• Open Attachments in Quickoffice from your native iPad e-mail client
Quickword – Advanced Word Document Processing
• Create, Open & Edit Microsoft Word documents
• Multi-Edit Toolbox for fast and convenient edits
• Edit in Page-layout mode, retaining full format print view
• Scroll bar to preview page thumbnails and jump to any page in any size document
• Extensive text formatting; bold, italics, underline, font sizes/styles
• Edit bulleted & numbered lists
• File support: Edit (97-2008) DOC, DOCX, TXT
Quicksheet® – Advanced Excel Spreadsheet Editor
• Create, Open & Edit Microsoft Excel spreadsheets
• Multi-Edit Toolbox for fast and convenient edits
• Professional-grade calculation engine, over 125 built-in functions
• Formula builder to easily create calculations
• Supports advanced Excel features
• Copy/paste cells, columns, rows, cell ranges & formulas are dynamically updated
• Extensive number, cell, and text formatting; bold, italic, cell background, font color, symbols, wrap text
• File support: (97-2008) XLS, XLSX
Quickpoint® – Advanced PowerPoint Editor:
* PowerPoint 2003 – create, edit, view & save
* Extensive text formatting – font type, colors, size, underline/italics, bold
* View presentations in slide show mode & on external monitor
* Graphical editing/manipulation – insert common shapes, text box, images from local directories, rotate/resize objects, change object layering order
* Built-in laser pointer for presenting
* and many more great features! Release 2.2.0 Updates:
* Find and replace functionality in Quickword and Quicksheet
* Product enhancements for improved user experience.
* Changed product name from “Quickoffice Connect™ Mobile Suite for iPad” to “Quickoffice® Pro HD”. Application icon also updated and will change on your device after installing this release.