What's the best app(s) for MS office documents on iPad ?

Hi there,

Please may I have some advice for apps on my new iPad ?

I have an iMac on which I run MS word, excel and powerpoint. I have just bought an iPad which I would like to use to store and edit some of these files. I know that plenty of apps for storing and editing MS office documents are available..... BUT if possible, I would like the documents to automatically sync with the iMac over iCloud, so that the most up-to-date versions are available on both devices, without having to keep copying and updating manually.

The app store is quite bewildering. There are so many apps promising to do the same thing, but when you read a little deeper there are subtle differences e.g. I understand that Pages will sync documents over iCloud, but I would have to install Pages for Mac and move documents on my hard disk - I would prefer to leave the organisation of my Mac hard disk alone if possible.

So,

1. Can anyone recommend bug-free, practical and easy-to-use software to store and edit MS Office documents on iPad ?

2. What's the best way of getting them to sync with the Mac effortlessly ?


Many thanks indeed for your time. Your help is much appreciated.

Cheers,


John.

Right now there is no official Microsoft Office for iOS and it may be some time before we see one. An interesting article was posted back in November regarding the possibility of MS doing an Office for iOS which you can read here.

I use a third party iOS application and Dropbox to sync Office documents between my iMac and iPad. As you said, there are many apps which can be used. Two that I like are "Office HD" and "QuickOffice Pro HD". If it wasn't for the fact that Pages and Keynote are not entirely compatible with Word and PP, I would use those instead since they do sync using iCloud.

One thing that you could do while we wait for microsoft to release an iOS app is use keynote, pages and numbers and from your computer access the documents from icloud. That is about the best thing that we can use right now.

MS Office alternatives

Open Office and Neo Office are possibilities. They're both available on the App Store. You can open, view and edit office docs. I don't remember if you can create new docs.

Neither one of them will run on an iPad, Mac only. The OP is looking for an Office app that he can use on his iPad.

Open Office

chscag said:

Neither one of them will run on an iPad, Mac only. The OP is looking for an Office app that he can use on his iPad.

Click to expand...

You're correct. I was working from faulty memory. I have QuickOffice on my iPad.

I also use Quick Office on my iPad since it syncs nicely using Dropbox. I thought of purchasing the iWork apps for iOS since I received a free version of iWork when I purchased my new iMac, however, I was disappointed with its compatibility. Too many differences between Word and Pages; and especially between Powerpoint and Keynote.