I'm about to get my first iPad. My wife, who goes back to the iPad 1, just lost hours of work yesterday to a corrupted file. In both our cases, the most important business-like use cases are word processing.

Features we both want include:

• Doesn't rely on internet connectivity to work.
• Has an AutoSave that works. Failing that, has a really simple UI for saving a file (in particular, one that doesn't require entering a new file name).
• Has a Save As that works. Failing that, has some other way to make snapshots, preserving one version of document while one goes ahead and tries out further edits.
• Saves documents in a format that Microsoft Word is happy to read and write.

We differ in how completely seamless we want Microsoft Word interoperability to be. I'd be happy to read/write .txt files, and have a separate program that handles .docx files well but suffers from other limitations. She wants something that plays nicely with .docx. Neither of us is relying much on formatting beyond basics such as italics, bold, and bullet points.

Is there anything that actually meets our needs? Thanks!

QuickOfficeHD ticks all the boxes IMHO.

Originally Posted by dhewson777

QuickOfficeHD ticks all the boxes IMHO.

QuickOffice, I gather, claims to be autosaving without really autosaving. Is that an unfair characterization?

Anyhow, QuickOffice is what ate hours of my wife's work, the day before yesterday.

Pages will do what you require, and of you are sharing an AppleID you can collaborate on documents, since they will update on all devices automatically.

Sent from my iPad 4 HD mini

Originally Posted by KevinJS

Pages will do what you require, and of you are sharing an AppleID you can collaborate on documents, since they will update on all devices automatically.

Sent from my iPad 4 HD mini

Thanks.

Are there issues with Pages and Dropbox playing nicely with each other? How would you gets documents moved between Microsoft Word on a Windows PC and Pages on an iPad?

Also, according to iTunes, reviews, Undo/Redo wasn't working well in Pages as of March. Is that still a problem? It's a feature I should have put on my list ...

Originally Posted by Curt Monash

Thanks.

Are there issues with Pages and Dropbox playing nicely with each other? How would you gets documents moved between Microsoft Word on a Windows PC and Pages on an iPad?

I don't use Dropbox, so I can't answer that one. Other users here swear by Dropbox though, so I assume it does as it is supposed to.

Two ways to get docs into Pages. Either email them to yourself and open them in Pages, or plug the iPad into the PC and use the file-sharing section of iTunes to transfer them into Pages.

In iTunes, click on your iPad, then go to the APPS tab, scroll down and select Pages in the file sharing section. Click Add... , browse to the file you want to add to your iPad, and click Apply. Your document should now be available in Pages, and will automatically be copied to other iDevices sharing your AppleID.

Originally Posted by Curt Monash

Also, according to iTunes, reviews, Undo/Redo wasn't working well in Pages as of March. Is that still a problem? It's a feature I should have put on my list ...

Unless I'm missing something, Undo/Redo works perfectly. When I was exploring Watermarks for another user, I used it extensively and it works. I'm using the latest version of Pages. It could be an older version that had the problem, although I've never noticed it.

Originally Posted by Curt Monash

QuickOffice, I gather, claims to be autosaving without really autosaving. Is that an unfair characterization?

Anyhow, QuickOffice is what ate hours of my wife's work, the day before yesterday.

As with Microsoft Word, you need to initially give your file a name (save for the first time) or else it has nothing to save to. I'm not sure if Quickoffice claims to autosave, but I know that if I jump out of QuickOffice to another app, I can come back and continue where I left off.

And it is always a good idea to build good saving habits and no rely on the software to make you lazy.

The big plus though is the cloud storage compatibility with the likes of Dropbox, Evernote and others. Pages does not give you that currently.

Originally Posted by dhewson777

As with Microsoft Word, you need to initially give your file a name (save for the first time) or else it has nothing to save to. I'm not sure if Quickoffice claims to autosave, but I know that if I jump out of QuickOffice to another app, I can come back and continue where I left off.

And it is always a good idea to build good saving habits and no rely on the software to make you lazy.

The big plus though is the cloud storage compatibility with the likes of Dropbox, Evernote and others. Pages does not give you that currently.

Does Pages at least do it through iCloud?