As I continue to learn how to use my iPad as a productive business tool, one major stumbling block was how to edit Microsoft and Google documents on the iPad. I am still learning about Apple’s Pages and Numbers applications, which are the Apple equivalents of Microsoft Word and Excel. I also love using Apple’s Keynote as a PowerPoint replacement, but my friend Jimi Gibson put it best when he said that we have to keep using Microsoft products because that’s the way the world is. I also love using Google Docs to work on documents and spreadsheets in a web-based format, but you cannot edit Google Docs in the iPad’s Google app or in Safari as far as I have tried. In order to make the iPad a useful business tool, I had to find an application that would allow me to easily edit Microsoft and Google documents.
That’s where QuickOffice Connect has filled a major gap in how I use the iPad for business. QuickOffice is the best application I’ve found so far that allows me to edit Microsoft Office documents. This is very important in my business, because I run Office in both Mac and Windows PC versions (many of the reports I run for clients depend on Windows-only Excel add-ins, so I have taken advantage of my teaching activity to secure an academic version of Windows Office). I am able to use QuickOffice to view and edit MS Office documents as if I were at my desktop.
The best feature of QuickOffice is how you can link it to several web-based services and edit documents in those services. I already mentioned that I use Google Docs extensively. I also use the excellent Dropbox service as a great and inexpensive substitute for a network server (I will review Dropbox in more detail in a future blog post). QuickOffice Connect lets you sync your Dropbox, Google Docs, and MobileMe accounts and edit documents in these services. For example, QuickOffice allows me to open the checkbook register that my wife and I use for our joint checkbook in Google Docs. I can enter receipts from my iPad instead of having to open my laptop and go into Google Docs.
Cliff Ravenscraft and Andy Traub also discussed QuickOffice Connect on their most recent Business Tech Weekly podcast. While Cliff and Andy expressed some constructive feedback about QuickOffice Connect, they agreed that the tool is a very worthwhile application for mobile professionals. The iPad app is $25, and the iPhone and Android apps are $10 apiece. I have enjoyed the iPad app so much that I plan to purchase the Android app as another way to stay connected and productive while on the go.
My ultimate goal with the iPad is to use the iPad with a remote keyboard for my only computing device when I attend conferences and other events where I will not do heavy spreadsheet activity. QuickOffice Connect goes a long way toward making that goal become a reality.
