App for editing/reading/writing Excel, Word, Windows notepad text documents

Thanks everyone for the help/advice, it's much appreciated. I'm torn between Docs to go and Quick Office. From what I have read about the two. QuickOffice is a standalone app and I would need to purchase two separate versions if I wanted to install it on my iPad too, which when I think about it, I would find it useful to have the documents of both my iPhone and my iPad, whereas Docs To Go is a universal app and would then mean one purchase of the app could be installed on both my iPhone and iPad, thus saving me additional cost.

But I have read that the UI on QuickOffice is better, but the syncing options are better on Docs To Go.

Any further help from users of Docs To Go and QuickOffice or any other alternatives would be much appreciated.

EBSkater wrote:
I'm a big fan of DocsToGo.

If you want a work-around, setup a Google Docs account, and you can edit it through Safari.

Thanks for the tip. I've got a Google email address/account already so I imagine it would be easy to setup a Google Docs account. You mention about "edit it through Safari", can you use other Internet Browsers, it's just I mainly use Firefox and don't use Safari?

I forgot to mention earlier, that the Office documents I am wanting to view, edit etc are Microsoft Office 2010 documents. I just thought I would point this out in case some of the apps were not compatible with Office 2010 documents.

Thanks everyone for the help it was much appreciated.

After debating, I decided on Docs To Go at £9.99. For this amount its a universal app and as such I can have it installed on my iPhone as well as my iPad (which is what I have done), so £5 for to have it on each device is good value I feel. Quick Office on the other hand would have cost £8.99 for the iPad version and £5.99 for the iPhone version a total of almost £15, which is quite a bit more than I paid for Docs To Go.

Upto now, I find Docs To Go does everything I want from it, with regards to editing, reading, writing my Excel files. I tried transferring a Microsoft Windows Notepad text document over to the iPad/iPhone, I was able to read this and also add additional text/words to it and save it too. I do use text documents sometimes because if I want to add them onto a friend's computer for example, I know that they will be able to read them because with them having a Windows PC and also my friend does not have the Microsoft Office program on their PC.

The transferring of files from the computer to the iPhone/iPad is done via a free download of the Docs To Go desktop software program (which is both PC and Mac) compatible). You first need to go into the Docs To Go app and select 'ADD DESKTOP'. This then allows you to add a device to the Docs To Go desktop program thus enabling transfer. You are shown a pin number on the screen which you enter into the Docs To Go app, this procedure only needs to be done once.

The Docs To Go desktop program creates a folder during installation, where all the files etc are stored that are transferred/going to be transferred over are kept.

Some people might think needing to use a program to transfer files over is a bit of a nuisance, when other similar programs allow transfer via a web browser. Personally I find that those programs, the transfer is a bit cumbersome and can be a bit slow. I find the transfer via the Docs To Go desktop program is a lot easier and faster than using the web browser. The only downside I can see with needing to use the Docs To Go desktop program is that.. If I am at a friend's house and want to transfer something on to my iPhone/iPad. My friend would need to install the program, but saying that, its a very small program and its not a big deal having to install it. If they didn't want to install it, then there is either emailing the file or transferring the file to my Dropbox account. I forgot to mention that Docs To Go supports cloud/online storage such as Dropbox, GoogleDocs as well as others.

Once the above is done, you switch the wifi on, load the Docs To Go app, load the Docs To Go desktop program. You then just drag and drop the folders etc that you are wanting transferred over into the The Docs To Go desktop program, then you click on the circular arrow button and they are then transferred over onto the iPhone/iPad.

Once on the iPhone/iPad, you can view them, add additional information, when you make any changes you can press the circular arrow symbol (bottom left of the Docs To Go app) on the Docs To Go app and the changes are then synced back to the same file that is stored on the computer, so its very easy to keep everything in sync and up to date.

It is possible whilst using a Microsoft Word document to have a word count, you just touch the symbol at the bottom right of the Docs To Go app and choose Word Count from the drop down menu. I have heard a few people in some reviews saying that 'Docs To Go doesn't have a word count', when indeed it does.

One surprise is that Docs To Go, does not have a spell checker, but hopefully during later updates, the feature might be added. I sent my feedback to Docs To Go requesting this feature on future releases. I expect that there will be many other people who have requested this feature too.

I just thought I would share my experience with using Docs To Go.

Thanks again everyone for the help, it was much appreciated 🙂