Word / office on a iPad

Nerfherder

Nerfherder

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So do any of you iPadders have something like word on your iPad ? Is it worth getting an iPad for some one that wants to do research ?

How good is it for data capture on a word document or even excel ?
 
Typing with an onscreen keyboard can be a bit of a schlep but you can always use a bluetooth or USB keyboard if you're entering copious amounts of data.

There are plenty of apps for editing word and excel documents including Numbers, Pages, and of course Google Docs.
 
i dont use them but i beleive that the office apps are: words, numbers and pages - check them out on itunes
 
Can you use any bluetooth keyboard ?


The other option is to get a Macbook AIR. Its quite steep but its got the small thin form factor that we are looking for and the Keyboard.
 
Nerfherder said:
Can you use any bluetooth keyboard ?
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I've got an old Apple one that doesn't work but in general, yes.
Nerfherder said:
The other option is to get a Macbook AIR. Its quite steep but its got the small thin form factor that we are looking for and the Keyboard.
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A different horse for a different course but they are nice machines. :)
 
Ya.... the AIR is an actual computer.

All we want is the small form factor but I can see the benefits of just getting a laptop that can be used for other things.
 
Pages
Numbers
Keynote
--> Apple products ($9.99 each! and very limited in what they can do)

Documents To Go, Quickoffice Pro (full suite of products, much better priced, about the same level of functionality as Apple's products).

Don't expect much functionality beyond simple editing from any of them though. And don't expect them to preserve the formatting of documents created on your desktop very well.

Quickoffice Pro does support cloud storage services such as Dropbox though, and isn't limited to Apple's cloud storage services like Pages etc are.
 
I forked out the $10 on Pages, and must be honest - I was a bit dissaponted. First off, it really does have the barest of functionality, so it doesn't have close to the same options available as Word on my pc/laptop.

Secondly, the font options are very limited, and I am not overly convinced that something dramatic would not occur were I to make major changes to a "Word" document on my Ipad in 'Pages', and then copy it back to my pc... Having said this, I haven't tried it yet - so I am speculating...

The single major advantage to having Pages, is simply that it does at least allow me the option, should I need to, to edit Word doc's on my Ipad... There will, and have been, situations already where I have had to make minor changes/editorial amendments to Word docs that were sent to me, and whereas I could have converted them to .pdf, and then commented via annotation in one of my other programmes (Goodreader etc), it was simply quicker to do it in Pages...

In spite of the above, even with my bluetooth kepyboard, whereas I might create a simple Word document from scratch on my Ipad, or edit basic Word documents on the pad as well, I cannot see my self doing large-scale editing of "heavy" Word docs, such as thesis etc. on my Ipad using Pages... But then again, maybe this is just me... :whistle:

One major word [ha-ha-] of caution though... not sure which of them it applies to - but have a very careful read through each of those Office package details in the App-store before downloading... One of them only accepts Word/Excel/Powerpoint etc. documents "up to" 2008, which presumably means it will not recognise Office 2010 documents... I only noticed that after picking it up in the comments section - it's literally the last line under the specs section, which you would only see if you "read more" and scroll down...

My 2 cents...
 
sometimes Microsoft is just too slow to react... I think they've possibly lost the advantage.
 
If they bring out something resembling office on pc that links up with sharepoint they might still be able to grab most of the market.
 
[)roi(];7318931 said:
sometimes Microsoft is just too slow to react... I think they've possibly lost the advantage.
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Nah I think it'll be a big hit, especially when it comes to maintaining compatibility and formatting between desktop and iPad. It probably won't be as light on functionality as the others either. The only problem will be price - if they can keep it to $10 per application then I think it'll succeed.
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Nah I think it'll be a big hit, especially when it comes to maintaining compatibility and formatting between desktop and iPad. It probably won't be as light on functionality as the others either. The only problem will be price - if they can keep it to $10 per application then I think it'll succeed.
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You're possibly right, but the price / functionality will definitely for me be the deciding factor. It has to be really good or very affordable, both being preferred.
 
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