Some of the first apps I purchased for my Apple iPad were the three iWork apps since they were the only Office apps available at launch. We have since seen the rollout of more applications that were previously on the iPhone and today we have a wide selection of Office apps for the iPad. I recently wrote an article on a few of these apps for the upcoming fall edition of iPhone Life Magazine and wanted to also present you readers with a comparison of these apps to help you make an informed purchase decision since there are no trials of these apps available. In this article you will see information on the iWork apps (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote), Documents To Go, Quickoffice HD, and Office2 HD. You can check out several screenshots the apps in my image gallery, a more thorough walk through each application in my video, and written thoughts found below.
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| Image Gallery: Check out some key screenshots of Office applications for the Apple iPad. |  |
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I have been using my iPhone and other smartphones for Office Word and Excel work, but the Apple iPad provides me with a MUCH better platform for working with these documents thanks to the large display and long battery life. My iPad has traveled with me on a few recent business trips as my only computer thanks in large part to having applications that allow me to work on the go. Documents To Go and Quickoffice have been on the iPhone for quite some time and I have covered them extensively on my Smartphones & Cell Phones blog. As we have seen on the iPhone developers have worked hard to improve both of these applications and now we are seeing this kind of competitive atmosphere on the iPad.
iWork suite
Apple released their iWork suite for the iPad as three separate applications, each available for $9.99. I have to honestly say that Apple has made working with Office documents more fun than I ever thought work could be and I do enjoy using the applications. There are a couple of fairly major limits with the apps, but being that they are made and promoted by Apple they are some of the top selling applications for the iPad.
Pages (iTunes link) is the word processing application and Apple has a slick video showing off the main features. You can view and edit Pages and Word documents and export documents in Pages, Word, and PDF formats to share your document with others. Joel mentioned that there are issues with round tripping documents so if you need to keep document formats intact then you may want to try out another application. When you launch Pages you will see any existing documents you have on your iPad in large preview mode or you can tap the + icon to create a new document or duplicate an existing document. One very cool feature when you select to add a new document is the 16 templates that Apple provides. You can select one of the templates and then simply tap on the elements in the document to edit and customize the document for your needs.
You will find document editing and formatting controls on the top of the display with main editing features having buttons (bold, italic, underline, justification, tab, etc.). Tapping the “i” icon in the very top bar gives you quick access to text style (including font type and size), list, and layout options. Tapping the picture icon lets you insert media, tables, charts, and shapes. Tapping the wrench icon gives you access to document setup, find, help, and edge guide/spelling toggles. It is easy to access all of these formatting tools and the part of the application that makes editing and creation fun is that you can tap and drag tables, photos, etc. around the document for placement and design of your document.
Numbers (iTunes link) is the spreadsheet application associated with the iWork suite and as an engineer I find this application to be even more user friendly than Pages. Apple has a video of Numbers in action as well. Similar to Pages you start in a preview browser view of loaded spreadsheets with options to share or export spreadsheets, create a new spreadsheet, or delete a spreadsheet. Unfortunately, one of the major limitations for me is that you can only export Numbers spreadsheets as Numbers or PDF files with no support for Exporting as an Excel spreadsheet. This fact alone makes Numbers pretty worthless to me as I need to edit Excel files and then send them along as Excel workbooks. I have never seen spreadsheets this intuitive to work with though as you can move elements around as flawlessly as a drag and drop on the display.
Apple does a good job of keeping the user interface similar across their three iWork applications with the main formatting and editing controls positioned in the upper right of the display. The “i” icon gives you access to formatting cells (color, positioning, borders, number, currency, etc.), tables, header editing, and more. Media, tables, charts, and shapes can be inserted into your spreadsheet. The real meat of working with spreadsheets is creating and editing cells. You simply double tap a cell to have a new keyboard appear with quick options to cell functions, simple math functions, date/time, and text keyboard input options. Multiple sheets are supported and Apple makes it easy to navigate around your workbook.
Keynote (iTunes link) is Apple’s presentation software and again they have a slick video showing you the software. Keynote works only in landscape mode and again has the same controls in the upper right corner. Also similar to Numbers you can export only in Keynote or PDF formats so there is now PowerPoint export or sharing in Keynote. It is just as intuitive to move elements around your presentations too with drag and drop support. You can move, scale, and rotate objects in your presentation and it really is a slick user interface to work with on the iPad.
If you use iWork on your Mac then it is probably a natural fit for you to purchase the iWork apps, but if Excel and PowerPoint export are important then you will want to look at one of the other applications available for the iPad.
