Need app for Excel, Word and PDFs

**JsGrandma** · 09-28-2012, 11:32 AM

I'm new to theiPad3 and am needing an app that I can use to open, edit and save Office docs that are sent in emails as attachments. I also need to be able to print them out. Which apps are best for this?

**kch50428** · 09-28-2012, 12:09 PM

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**Alli** · 09-28-2012, 01:04 PM

You might have better luck searching the App store. But a quick search here in the forums suggests a few apps including Docs 2 Go.

**JsGrandma** · 09-28-2012, 01:11 PM

Thanks Alli i will do that. I know I can go to Google (kch50428 reply) and do a search but I prefer asking here for more personal hands on reviews of apps.

**manutd7** · 10-01-2012, 07:10 AM

I use Quick Office HD for Excel, Word, and Power point docs. For PDF, you should be able to open this fine on the iPad. To highlight and write notes on PDFs I use Notability. I am not sure about editing PDFs with any of these.
For printing, this all depends on your printer and set-up. I use Printer Pro and/or Epson's own app for printing to my home, wi-fi enabled printer.

**JsGrandma** · 10-01-2012, 05:11 PM

Thank you for the suggestion about Quick Office HD and Notability. I will definitely do some research on them. My printer is old, so I've decided to get a printer with AirPrint capabilities so printing shouldn't be an issue.

**Karenkcoulter** · 10-01-2012, 08:59 PM

If/when you just need to open Office documents, iOS has built in viewers for those. I think you can also print from those viewers.

For editing, the 2 main competitors are QuickOffice and Docs2Go. I think one of those was just bought by Google so you might want to check on that and see what their intentions are with it.

You also can use the iWork Apple apps which have an option to save in .doc .xls .ppt format depending on which app you are using. Not sure if iWork supports the newer .docx, etc formats, so if you need the newer format you should check on that.

**JsGrandma** · 10-02-2012, 10:40 AM

Thanks Karen....I do need to edit and print the docs. I did look at Quick Office and Docs2Go but am seeing that there are some issues with iOS6, Google Docs/Drive and printing.........I think I will wait for some of those bugs to get fixed before buying one of the apps. Thanks again for your suggestions. Very much appreciated.........

**John Yester** · 10-02-2012, 12:40 PM

Doc's 2 Go or Google drive work best for me. Though there are other app's out there that may work.

**mobileapp** · 10-06-2012, 05:10 AM

Thanks for sharing info regarding app for Excel, Word and PDFs, Keep it up.

**zunex** · 10-08-2012, 09:33 AM

Quick Office. It's kinda expensive, but believe me you'll never regret buying it.

Edit: Oops I forgot, I also use PDF Max for reading ebooks, it's free & of good quality app thogh.

**Fit24** · 10-08-2012, 05:04 PM

I've used Docs2Go on several OS in the past and I'm currently using it on iOS 6 with no problems.

**gordol** · 10-08-2012, 10:57 PM

Originally Posted by Stevieboysgirl

I'm new to theiPad3 and am needing an app that I can use to open, edit and save Office docs that are sent in emails as attachments. I also need to be able to print them out. Which apps are best for this?

The two biggest (ie, most known) are Documents To Go and QuickOffice. I have both. Documents To go makes desktop syncing a snap with its desktop sync client, and I have never lost a file with it. It does support reading and writing files to some cloud storage sites such as Google Docs/Drive, Dropbox, etc. This is a rudimentary function, and does not really (or at least readily) support the actual transfer of files between cloud and device. However, I am having major problems with some Excel files in D2G, it does not support some data functions that call data from other sheets in the workbook. QuickOffice does not have that problem.

However, QuickOffice does not sync with anything. Rather, it depends on cloud services such as Google Docs/Drive, Dropbox, etc. And this is fully integrated, you can copy/move files between cloud and device, and even between cloud services if you configure more than one. QuickOffice has no problems with those same Excel files, and it has, imo, a better editing UI. However, and to me this is a fatal flaw, it has corrupted several of my document and spreadsheet files so badly, I had to recover from backups and rebuild the new data. Once is a fluke, twice is an accident, three times is a program flaw.

I now use Apple's Numbers for my Excel files on the iPad and just deal with the fact that it can only save out to xls and not xlsx and I am considering doing the same thing for Word documents with Apple's Pages.

Rumor has it, though I haven't heard anything in the past couple of months, that Microsoft is working on an iOS version of their mobile Office suite. It's in their interest to do so.

**JsGrandma** · 10-09-2012, 08:53 PM

Thanks. Your comments and reviews of these apps (as well others who have commented) have helped greatly. At this point I've not decided on which app to get because all seem to have issues that I'm just not ready to deal with. Hopefully updates will be coming out soon that improve all to the point that they are worth considering. Thanks again.

**subuipad** · 02-21-2013, 10:09 PM

Dear Original poster

Hi

I see this thread is a little old

Have you taken a decision on which office app to buy ?

I am looking for free apps

I do NOT need editing. However I need offline reading for PDF , XL , doc and ppt

Thanks

Subu

**miguel cordovil** · 05-14-2013, 03:39 PM

Originally Posted by JsGrandma

Thanks Alli i will do that. I know I can go to Google (kch50428 reply) and do a search but I prefer asking here for more personal hands on reviews of apps.