Best apps for working with PDF, Excel and Word files?

[DM51]

What is a dropdav account?

Great question!! It's good to know I'm not the only one driven mad by names which don't have any obvious meaning and which nobody ever bothers to explain. "Dropdav" falls into the same category as POP, LAN and other idiotic and infuriatingly obscure acronyms

.

It isn't too difficult to guess what "Dropbox" is, as it is a sensible name. But "Dropdav"? How is anyone supposed to work out what that is? I mean, what could "DAV" possibly stand for?

It can't be because it was invented by someone called Dave, or it would be called "DropDave". Except he would almost certainly have called it something less derogatory to himself, such as "Dave's Plunger", or "Plonker". However, those don't quite roll off the tongue in a way likely to lead to record-breaking sales of the product.

Perhaps instead it was invented by someone who had a major disagreement with a work colleague called Dave, but he couldn't spell properly so instead of dropping Dave from his team, he dropped Dav. That doesn't really sound too likely, and why name your product after someone you've had a fight with, unless the product is obviously no good? "FireDave" might have worked, though...

But let's assume it has nothing to do with anyone called Dave. What then could it be? The "Drop" part of it is obvious, but what about "Dav"? What could it stand for? I have no idea, but some possibilities which might fit are:

Definitely ain't vapor
Dumb a$$ version
Digesting awkward vegetables
Disorder and violence
Disappointingly abstruse verbiage
Disorganised and vague
Dukes and Viscounts
Debauchery and vice
Drown all villains
Dump and vanish

However, those don't quite have the ring of true authenticity, let alone the diamond-like brilliance of a truly inspired name.

Anyone else want to take a shot at it?

 

[Deggy]

Pages, Office2 HD, and Docs to Go is the way to go for viewing/editing of docs, spreadsheets, or whatever.

I agree Office2HD is very good and my tool of choice.

 

[markbnh1]

Great question!! It's good to know I'm not the only one driven mad by names which don't have any obvious meaning and which nobody ever bothers to explain. "Dropdav" falls into the same category as POP, LAN and other idiotic and infuriatingly obscure acronyms .

It isn't too difficult to guess what "Dropbox" is, as it is a sensible name. But "Dropdav"? How is anyone supposed to work out what that is? I mean, what could "DAV" possibly stand for?

It can't be because it was invented by someone called Dave, or it would be called "DropDave". Except he would almost certainly have called it something less derogatory to himself, such as "Dave's Plunger", or "Plonker". However, those don't quite roll off the tongue in a way likely to lead to record-breaking sales of the product.

Perhaps instead it was invented by someone who had a major disagreement with a work colleague called Dave, but he couldn't spell properly so instead of dropping Dave from his team, he dropped Dav. That doesn't really sound too likely, and why name your product after someone you've had a fight with, unless the product is obviously no good? "FireDave" might have worked, though...

But let's assume it has nothing to do with anyone called Dave. What then could it be? The "Drop" part of it is obvious, but what about "Dav"? What could it stand for? I have no idea, but some possibilities which might fit are:

Definitely ain't vapor
Dumb a$$ version
Digesting awkward vegetables
Disorder and violence
Disappointingly abstruse verbiage
Disorganised and vague
Dukes and Viscounts
Debauchery and vice
Drown all villains
Dump and vanish

However, those don't quite have the ring of true authenticity, let alone the diamond-like brilliance of a truly inspired name.

Anyone else want to take a shot at it?

So, after all that, what is it ????

Sent from my iPad2 using iPF

 

[DM51]

So, after all that, what is it ????

Sent from my iPad2 using iPF

I have no idea, LOL.

______________________
Sent from my Newton, using morse code.

 

[DLCrouch]

If you really want to know what DAV is, google WebDAV or look it up on Wikipedia.

 

[ASunners]

DAV = distributed authoring and versioning. It is a protocol to allow remote access to files via the Internet.

 

[Batpad]

Without making this into something it isn't, blessing you with a degree of commonsense, if you don't know what Dropdav (dropdav.com) is, look it up. If you don't like it or don't want it, don't do it. This is the way you learn.

Sent from my iPad using iPF - The only stupid question is the one you don't ask

 

[mobi1]

For PDF, I found iBook [free] quite good.

For viewing DOC?/XLS?, most file managers (Dropbox, Goaruna etc.) will work fine.

However, I'm personally searching for a good Word/Excel editor.

My shortlisted ones are - Pages/Number (too pricey) and Quick Office.

Office 2 HD seems cheapest but review not very encouraging. Doc2Go has mixed reviews.

Wish Apple gave some discount for buying Pages + Number combination .

 

[4phun]

I use Pages as it is fast and you can paste copied graphics from the iPad clipboard directly into Pages. If you are sharp there is a lot more that you can do with Pages that justify taking the time to learn the product. I email a Pages generated PDF to others or upload the native file to DropBox using email to DropBox.

I do not care to export to WORD as WORD does not understand the advanced page composition you can do in Pages, particularly the use of the use of the Pages MASK command with layered graphics.

For PDF the best tool is iAnnotate especially if you use colored bookmarks for rapid document navigation. The search PDF feature is a strong productivity tool in iAnnotate. Last open any Microsoft document in iAnnotate and it converts it to a PDF. Everyone knows iAnnotae can be used to convert web pages to a PDF and that six PDFs can be open at the same time in tabbed windows.

The best note taking app that produces PDFs is Notability which was enhanced yesterday. There is a hidden option in Notability in the volume slider called TUNE. That opens a popup window that allows you to really punch up the audio in your notes with a ton of options. Also the current version allows you to hide screen tool bars for a clean note taking interface. Notability and iAnnotate work best if you kill other memory intensive apps lingering in the background.

Sent from my iPad using iPF

 

[Luvntravln]

Without making this into something it isn't, blessing you with a degree of commonsense, if you don't know what Dropdav (dropdav.com) is, look it up. If you don't like it or don't want it, don't do it. This is the way you learn.

Sent from my iPad using iPF - The only stupid question is the one you don't ask

This deserves a second vote!!

All you have to do is Google Dropdav account instead of asking and complaining.

 

[Luvntravln]

For PDF the best tool is iAnnotate especially if you use colored bookmarks for rapid document navigation. The search PDF feature is a strong productivity tool in iAnnotate. Last open any Microsoft document in iAnnotate and it converts it to a PDF. Everyone knows iAnnotae can be used to convert web pages to a PDF and that six PDFs can be open at the same time in tabbed windows.

Sent from my iPad using iPF

Questions about one app at a time:

As I understand, you can use this app to highlight etc a pdf file. Can you explain how you are able to do that and not have the words move across the screen while attempt to highlight them? What happens when the text continues off of the screen and you want to continue the highlight.

I carry with me in my iPad all of my photography books and other materials related to photography - all converted to pdfs. I have been using GoodReader; would love an app that allows me to EASILY highlight and search.

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

For PDF the best tool is iAnnotate especially if you use colored bookmarks for rapid document navigation. The search PDF feature is a strong productivity tool in iAnnotate. Last open any Microsoft document in iAnnotate and it converts it to a PDF. Everyone knows iAnnotae can be used to convert web pages to a PDF and that six PDFs can be open at the same time in tabbed windows.

Sent from my iPad using iPF

Questions about one app at a time:

As I understand, you can use this app to highlight etc a pdf file. Can you explain how you are able to do that and not have the words move across the screen while attempt to highlight them? What happens when the text continues off of the screen and you want to continue the highlight.

I carry with me in my iPad all of my photography books and other materials related to photography - all converted to pdfs. I have been using GoodReader; would love an app that allows me to EASILY highlight and search.

If you go to the Developer's website - access via the App Store - they have a very comprehensive User Manual available for free download, so it's easy to check out very precisely whether it would meet your requirements.

Tim

 

[AlunReynolds]

If you want to annotate PDF's on the fly an in a meeting, NoteTaker is good. Using a finger or stylus you can scrawl handwritten notes on the PDF or add shapes for callouts or add typed annotations.

The office suites like Docs to Go, Quick Office and Office 2. Are all good at some bits, but not at others. So I don't find it possible to stick to one to do everything. So, I have settled on Pages, Numbers and Keynote (accepting their limitations). They all lack key functions of MS Office equivalents, such as track changes, so you have to accept that, with the current software, your iPad will not be the full blown work PC replacement you might have hoped it would be. But for the average Joe who just wants to consume media, surf the non flash net and do a few letters to the bank etc it's a perfect solution.

When I first got mine, I used it exclusively for about 2 months, both at home and work. Now it is my preferred tool for the stuff I listed above and I have gone back to using a laptop at work. I literally haunt the App updates screen in the hope that one of my office software apps will finally be upgraded to an adequate business tool. I also keep returning to Microsoft online apps and google apps to see if they have been 'truly' iPad enabled. So far nope.

 

[Readdle.com]

Hello again guys,

I would gladly jump into this conversation.

If you been with Readdle for a while, you know that we always listen to you and continually improve our products.

Now, I will answer your questions about PDF Expert for iPad:

PDF Expert is a swiss army knife for PDF documents and file management on your iPad. It combines rich set of features with simplicity of UI and navigation.
1) It will handle big PDF easily, especially if you have the new iPad, which makes PDF Expert super fast.

2) We did file transfer as easy as possible by giving a variety of options: 2-way Dropbox sync (the unique feature: works like charm. Let's say we're working on a new project of Facebook client for iPad. I had a flight, so I decided to work on board. All I had to do is a couple of taps to get all those files from Readdle Dropbox, you log in, chose folder you need and press 'Sync' - voila! you have all those files on your iPad. Moreover, if you add files from iPad to that folder, it will automatically upload into Dropbox), cloud storages, e-mail, direct wi-fi transfer and Readdle Storage (free 512 MB if you register yourself).

3) You will have the ability to search inside PDF files. Additionally, you will have annotation summary, so you can quickly jump between your annotations within the same documents (very good for students, who read academic papers and writing essays).

4) You will be able to annotate in 2 ways: using your fingers/stylus or by selecting the text. While using finger annotation (free-draw) you can chose color, size and depth of a marker. The main difference with iAnnotate here is that this works intuitively and easy, without cluttering the UI and giving tons of settings.

5) PDF Expert also combines all qualities of a perfect file manager, so yes, you will be able to organize files in folders, rename, move, copy, etc.

Moving to unique/core features:

-PDF Expert lets you to Fill in PDF Forms and submit them
-Flatten annotations, so your annotation will not be edited (useful for business)
-Signature support (for example: I received IO from MacTech director, I had to fill it in to get advertisement in their magazine and web-site for PDF Expert for iPad. I tapped on 'signature' at the place I wanted it, and it automatically appeared there: I had previously created my signature in PDF - you have to do it once, it will be in the memory, but you can always edit it; useful tool for signing contract with customers, agreements, etc.)
-Text typing (same case with IO, I had to put my name in the agreement, I just typed it in)
-Recent tab makes it easy to navigate between the files you've recently opened

Also, we have: live/static forms, auto-save annotations for crash resistance, print, e-mail annotation summary, Save as button (as copy, as flattened, stamps, sync improvements.

There are much more ways in which you can use PDF Exper for iPad.

So yes, PDF Expert for iPad is different from competitors. We managed to save clear and intuitive UI, while adding some core and unique features.

I use it daily tbh.

Few more words about our plans. As you know, we always improve our products, PDF Expert is not an exception. So, we are working on version 3.0, which will be the biggest update:
-Insert images into forms
-interface changes
-created pdf forms from Word
-efit pages of PDF files
-much more, will not disclose it yet - competitors are watching

I hope it helped a bit.
If you have any questions - feel free to ask, I will try to answer all of them.

Best,

Denys
Readdle

 

[zenonp]

iPad - Microsoft compatibility overstated

It's a bit of an exaggeration to say that Keynote exports to Powerpoint and vice versa. I tried to read in my Powerpoint presentation and it made a mess of the main format of PP -- the bulleted lists. Not only ended up misinterpreting my (two level) list but it's not easy to correct. Other features of PP did not come out either but I never expected the custom animation conversion to work seamlessly. But Bulleted lists? Format conversion is generally one of the worse executed functions in all of computerland -- even Open Office does not do a great job of it. (I have not tried Pages-Word conversion yet but expect the same marginal performance on anything but straight text).