Hi All,

Well I've taken the plunge, I've purchased my 1st Apple product, the ipad 64GB 3G. I bought it in Dec to take OS to have access to emails and the Net.

So now I know how to use it to access emails and get on the web, I would like to explore some of it's capabilities.

Being from the darkside (Windows) I am wondering how I can use it for business purposes such as viewing Word docs, Excel spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentations.

From trolling around on the site it sounds like I need Pages, Numbers and I'm not sure what else. From what I read it appears there is more than one app that one can use for these.

Can you please give me some guidance as to which are easier for a Newbie to use?

Drummo

Hi Drummo, welcome.

The big three Office-like suites for iPad are iWork (which contains Pages, Numbers, Keynote, each of which can be bought separately), Documents To Go, and Office2. The last two also have a word-processor, spreadsheet and presentation thingy).
All of them can read Office files to one extent or another. Actually creating/editing such files is a different kettle of fish. My general rule is, don't expect too much. That's it in a nutshell.

You should check out user reviews in the App Store section of iTunes. You can take a lot of those with a grain of salt, but take note of general trends.

If you haven't got it yet, I suggest you download GoodReader. It's pretty much indispensible.


Best of luck.

Originally Posted by Drummo

Hi All,

Well I've taken the plunge, I've purchased my 1st Apple product, the ipad 64GB 3G. I bought it in Dec to take OS to have access to emails and the Net.

So now I know how to use it to access emails and get on the web, I would like to explore some of it's capabilities.

Being from the darkside (Windows) I am wondering how I can use it for business purposes such as viewing Word docs, Excel spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentations.

From trolling around on the site it sounds like I need Pages, Numbers and I'm not sure what else. From what I read it appears there is more than one app that one can use for these.

Can you please give me some guidance as to which are easier for a Newbie to use?

Drummo

I use my iPad for business and 'Pages', 'Numbers' and 'Keynote' work fine. You can read about their capabilities on the Apple website

http://help.apple.com/iwork/1.3/mobi...ml#tan724868a9

They do a good job with Microsoft Office documents (Office 2007 & 2010 too). You can view, edit (or start new documents), insert graphics, photos and tables, handle styles and formatting. Some things they can display but you can't edit (footnotes, endnotes, super- and subscripts) - at least not without ugly workarounds. You can export documents in .doc, .xls, .ppt or .pdf format - either via email, the Apple MobileMe 'cloud' server (iDisk) and import them the same way - or when you sync with your PC or Mac via iTunes.

The list of fonts is not anywhere near as extensive as Windows, but it's OK and Pages etc make 'sensible' substitutions. But if you need a specialised font that's not common or doesn't substitute easily, you might have problems.

Documents with very complex formatting can cause them to struggle, but most things work OK and some, in my view, work better than in Office. Particularly good is the way you can insert, move, rotate and resize photos or diagrams. To re-size you use the iPad 'pinch' gesture, to move it's simply drag, to rotate you use the iPad two-finger 'twist' gesture. Multiple columns are no problem either plus you can print directly from these programs - either to an 'AirPrint' capable printer or via your PC or Mac using the widely available free AirPrint app that installs an AirPrint 'service' on your PC that makes it 'appear' to the iPad as an AirPrint printer.

I'm sure that other Forum readers will suggest and review other Office-capable apps; I know there are several more out there, but I have no experience of them.

Good luck and enjoy your iPad.

Tim
Scotland

Understood Tim, thanks for the helpful info.

I believe the best app for the reading and creation of .doc, .XML, and .ppt files is Quickoffice. The problem I have with Documents to Go is that I am not able to see multiple tabs in Excel files.

No user for Powerpoint here, but for Word and Excel, I've adopted Pages, and Office2HD (for the Excel). So far, the combination has really given me all that I need.

I use Pages for word processing and Numbers for spreadsheets. They both have some limitations when working in an office environment. For instance Pages cannot track changes and sometimes screws up tables which were created in Word (particularly hates merged cells). But for producing fairly simple documents it is fine. I have just produced a complex document with charts embedded from spreadsheets etc and I had to go to my laptop and Word for that. But that is the only occasion since I got the ipad.

Numbers is OK for small spreadsheets that don't have hundreds of worksheets or complex charts etc. Entering values in cells doesn't seem as simple as in Excel. But creating formulae is helped by a sort of construction wizard view which, once I got used to it, has been very easy to use.

I tried Documents to Go, Quick Office and Office 2 HD. But couldn't get on with their user interfaces/look and feel.

I have PDF Reader Pro and Neu Annotate for handling PDF's and annotating them in meetings. I sometimes use PenUltimate for simple note taking.

None of the applications are as powerful as the equivalent MS ones. But for almost all of what I want to do they are fine.

If you are using the ipad for business, I would suggest a keyboard and some kind of stand is a great addition. It helps when you have to enter lots of text. Apple do a great bluetooth keyboard and Amazon do a great stand. Or you can go for the Zaggmate keyboard/case combo.

Did any know Wich Excel application for iPad have autofilter capabilities ???? Like Excel for computer ???? I have Documents to go and doesn't have.thanks a lot !!!!!

I'm also from the dark side.

i dont use powerpoint, but for Excel and Word docs i use the Office2Plus app. it's free to try (just minus the save options) then literally a couple of quid to upgrade.
Lets you edit and ammend new and existing excel/word docs and transfer back and forth between device and pc easily either via itunes sync or wi-fi web transfer.

i love it.

Originally Posted by Shawn2774

I believe the best app for the reading and creation of .doc, .XML, and .ppt files is Quickoffice. The problem I have with Documents to Go is that I am not able to see multiple tabs in Excel files.

I use Documents To Go and there is a way to see multiple tabs in a single Excel file. The steps are:

1) Open an Excel file in Docs2Go
2) In the upper right hand corner (by the long white input bar) is a button that looks like two pages on top of each other
3) Press that button and you'll get a scrollable view of the tabs
- You can scroll to find the tab you wish, or,
- You can press the Edit button (again, at the top right hand side) to delete or add a tab. If you select to add a tab, you can add it before or after the existing tab in view
4) Once you find a tab you want to view, touch the viewed portion and you will go back to an editable view of that tab

I find Documents To Go Premium one of the better "all-in-one" apps at the app store. It's my go-to app when looking at Excel files. Plus, with Dropbox (and GoodReader!) interaction, I can view/edit any Microsoft Office file that I've come across so far.

Oh, and an additional plug for GoodReader: If you have a file in GoodReader, say, an Excel file, and you want to open it in Docs2Go for editing - GoodReader has an "Open In" function that'll let you open the file in Docs2Go (and vice versa). How cool is that?!

However, I've not tried the iWorks apps, so there's that.

Marilyn