Office suites for the iPhone OS

[LeoNobilis]

Hello, dear fellow MacRumors posters.

As many of you may know, there is a number of interesting note-taking applications and primitive word processors - TextGuru (does not format selected text alone; has no .doc, .pages support), MagicPad (comprises no autocorrection; has no .doc, .pages support), ShapeWriter/Writing Pad (the latter is an excellent input method, but is not much of a word processor. Alas, Apple seems to have no intention to embrace it as an alternative system keyboard.) and so on. N.B.: I like them all, and have purchased them, but call things what they are - these are no proper word processors (not yet, at any rate!).

Then we have two companies, namely Dataviz and QuickOffice, who have pledged support for the iPhone. QuickOffice doesn't include a word processor (and probably won't for a long time), while Dataviz hopes to port their Documents to Go to the iPhone OS in the coming millennium - alas - or thank God perhaps - we won't make long to the coming millennium.

Now, there is another very experienced office suite developer, SoftMaker. They have been developing for the WM exclusively (I'll dismiss their desktop software as it's irrelevant to the matter of my post). As much as I loathe WM (or anything M$ except for Office for Mac), I must say that the capabilities of their office suite (SoftMaker 4.x) impress much more than Dataviz and QuickOffice together (I tested it a few days ago on an HTC Touch HD of a friend). Reviews rave about SoftMaker Office. Up to recently SoftMaker had had no intention of developing for iPhone/iPod Touch, but they are open to suggestions/persuasions of iPhone fans/users.

Here's their website: http://softmaker.com/english/ofp_en.htm . Mind you, the GUI of SoftMaker Office (for those who don't know) is much more impressive than the outdated screenshots on their website suggest.

Here's an iPhone-related thread in their forum: http://softmaker.com/forum/viewtopi...e&sid=6c5713f10ad2534c1d639ef8e15dd0ca#p25846


My question is the following: which of the three suites would you like to see ported to the iPhone first - and if they all were - and costed equally much - which one would you buy (fancy that the iPhone version of each has the same capabilities as their WM/Blackberry/Palm/Symbian counterparts)?

1.SoftMaker

2. DataViz Documents to Go

3. QuickOffice MobileFiles Pro

4. None. I'm perfectly happy with a simple note-taking application and need nothing better.

*On http://www.handango.com you will find their respective user reviews.

 

[LeoNobilis]

Curious, curious…

I am quite astounded that most of you (so far) have shown predilection for having no Office suite for iPhone at all, and one choosing Documents to Go above the much more capable SoftMaker (I believe based solely on the fact that the latter has been coded and distributed for Windoze Mobile alone. The fact is that the suite itself is anything but your typical WM software).

 

[iTech Dev Sys.]

It seems that iPhone users are not interested in this type of applications
You only have a few votes and all of them seems to be happy with a simple note-taking app.

 

[zap2]

Ughh...meant to hit DocstoGo, hit QuickOffice by mistake


I'd like DocstoGo, iWork, OpenOffice or MS Office

Something to that effect

 

[jaseone]

An Office app sounds like a great idea for the iPhone and I would probably buy it in a snap but then it would just sit there and I would never use it except to show friends hey look my iPhone can edit Office files. It just isn't practical to edit such documents on a device like the iPhone especially in formats as proprietary as Microsoft's and lets face it that is the only reason you would use it, to be able to edit work documents when out and about.

 

[kas23]

I would definitely be interested in a word processor for the iPhone that could handle MS docs. I wouldn't write new documents using this method, but would mostly use it to edits docs on the run. I'm just worried why this type of app hadn't been developed months ago. Are they being turned away by Apple?

 

[LeoNobilis]

Why, I ponder

Ughh...meant to hit DocstoGo, hit QuickOffice by mistake


I'd like DocstoGo, iWork, OpenOffice or MS Office

Something to that effect

Why Documents to Go above the much more capable SoftMaker?

 

[LostLogik]

Well I voted QuickOffice and meant to. I've used it extensively on S60, like it and am familiar with it. So the sooner they get it on the iPhone the happier I will be.

And Im not too sure about your implied insistence we all vote for Softmaker. Smacks just a little of personal involvement (but quite happy to acknowledge I'm wrong in that respect).

 

[LeoNobilis]

Believe me, I'm not involved

Well I voted QuickOffice and meant to. I've used it extensively on S60, like it and am familiar with it. So the sooner they get it on the iPhone the happier I will be.

And Im not too sure about your implied insistence we all vote for Softmaker. Smacks just a little of personal involvement (but quite happy to acknowledge I'm wrong in that respect).

LostLogik, by all means, I assure you I've no stake in SoftMaker but my high esteem of their software. I've tested it on a friend's PDA (HTC Touch HD), and I'm most impressed!
I do, however, like both Documents to Go and the QuickOffice (and have experience with the former: I'd owned 3 Palm Tungstens in the past), but half an hour with the SoftMaker suite has excited me more than Documents To Go ever did (as much as I liked it).

Have you any experience with SoftMaker?

 

[ayasin]

Until the iPhone can attach to an external keyboard (there are lots of foldable bluetooth ones) it's an impractical tool for editing anything of consequence. Once an extrenal kbd is possible I think there will be much more demand for this as editing a doc on a plane would be much easier on an iPhone + kbd than a laptop.

 

[Jeonat]

I can't see a tremendous amount of usefulness for an Office suite app until, as the poster above said, you can connect an external keyboard somehow - and I reckon that one (whether wired via the dock connector or wireless) will be coming sooner rather than later.

Having said that, I bought Mobilefiles Pro and find it good. I don't use the Excel editing functionality but it's nice to know that I can if I ever need to, and I hope that when they develop Word/Powerpoint editing functionality it will be included in the price I already paid as updates.

 

[LeoNobilis]

Comparison table

Ughh...meant to hit DocstoGo, hit QuickOffice by mistake


I'd like DocstoGo, iWork, OpenOffice or MS Office

Something to that effect

Here's a comparison page (comprising a rather comprehensive list of WM office suites): http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofpcomp_en.htm

 

[Mac In School]

I too am surprised there isn't more interest here.

Writing long documents from scratch on a mobile device doesn't interest me in the least, but I could definitely see some good uses for an office suite. Mainly, the types of documents (bids, invoices, etc.) where you do very little creation, but just plug data into a template. I'd love to be able to do that stuff. Especially if you could merge data in from Contacts.