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Does Microsoft offer the best Android Office suite? (Android Office app showdown)

Microsoft expanded access to its Office preview for Android and in this screenshot gallery Matthew takes a look at it and several alternatives.
By Matthew Miller, Contributing Writer
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Several Office apps for Android tablets

Microsoft recently expanded the availability of its Office preview for Android tablets so it is appropriate to take another look at how you can perform word processing, work with spreadsheets, and create slideshows on Android tablets.

It's been over three years since I posted my Android Office apps showdownand screenshot gallery. Some of the same products have been improved while others have been left to age on the vine. With Microsoft's official Office suite launching soon for Android, I wanted to see if that option was going to trump available third party options.

I took the following six suites, both Microsoft and Google suites come as three separate apps each, for a trial over the past couple of weeks.

-Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Preview

-Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides

-Kingsoft WPS Office

-DataViz Documents To Go

-MobiSystems OfficeSuite Pro

-Polaris Office

All of these suites can be downloaded and used for free. WPS Office states it has over 300 million users and 627,000 Google Play Store reviews. There are in-app purchases for Docs To Go, OfficeSuite Pro, and Polaris Office.

Docs To Go has a range of feature options priced at $5.99 to $14.99. OfficeSuite Pro is priced at $14.99 for premium features. Polaris Office charges $3.99 per month or $39.99 per year for premium features such as cloud storage, sync across multiple devices, handwriting features, and more.

Some of these applications are preinstalled on Android tablets. The free version of OfficeSuite 8 was installed on the Sony Z3 Compact Tablet I am evaluating at the moment.

All of the applications allow you to open, edit, and create Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. Some apps support other file types, such as .txt and .csv.

Most of the apps provide access to files on the device or storage card, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, and Dropbox. Microsoft doesn't support Box or Google Drive. Google's apps only support Google Drive.

The UI of the application is important for working with documents and understanding where all of the functions can be found. You can judge for yourself in the screenshot gallery, but I found WPS Office to have the best layout. Microsoft and OfficeSuite Pro were next, followed by Google's suite, Polaris Office, and Docs To Go dragging up the rear.

A few years ago Quickoffice (now owned by Google) and Docs To Go were the standard on Android and iOS. Docs To Go looks like development has stopped and I would never recommend it today.

After opening some fairly large and complex files, creating new documents, and editing existing files, I found that Kingsoft's WPS Office is the most powerful Office suite for Android. As an engineer I spend more time in Excel than Word and was pleased to see advanced functions such as pivot tables, extensive functions, detailed cell control, encryption, and more in WPS Office.

My second choice is MobiSystems OfficeSuite Pro and my third choice is Microsoft's Office Suite.

Google's suite is great if you live in the Google ecosystem, but the tools are fairly minimal and there is no support for other cloud services.

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Microsoft Word editing tools

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Google Cloud Print in Microsoft Word

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Microsoft Word: Font colors

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Microsoft Word: Table insertion options

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Microsoft Word: Shape insertion options

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Microsoft Word: Break options

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Microsoft Word: Track changes is supported

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Microsoft Excel on Android

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Microsoft Excel: Formula bar

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Microsoft Excel: Editing cells

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Microsoft Excel: Inserting a chart

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Microsoft Excel: Formula optins

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Microsoft Excel: Toggle formula bar

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Microsoft Excel: More editing tools

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Microsoft PowerPoint: Available templates

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Microsoft PowerPoint: Editing a slideshow

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Microsoft PowerPoint: Ink tools in show mode

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Microsoft PowerPoint: Transition effects

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Microsoft Word: More editing tools

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Microsoft Word: Inserting shapes

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Microsoft Word: Break layout

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Microsoft Word: Markup tools

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Microsoft Word: Save options

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Google Docs: Save as PDF

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Google Docs: Right menu options

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Google Docs: Text options

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Google Docs: Text colors

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Google Docs: Paragraph options

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Google Docs: More options

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Google Docs: Insert a table

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Docs To Go: Cloud options

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Docs To Go: Old school UI

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Docs To Go: Format options

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Docs To Go: Insert options

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Docs To Go: Preferences

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Polaris Office: Menu options

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Polaris Office: Font options

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Polaris Office: Style options

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Polaris Office: Page layout

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Polaris Office: Print options

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Google Sheets: Options

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Google Sheets: Insert functions

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Google Sheets: Cell formatting

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Google Sheets: More cell formatting

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Google Sheets: Column formatting

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Google Sheets: Share & export

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Google Sheets: Available functions

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Polaris Office: Entering formulas

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Polaris Office: Formatting formulas

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Polaris Office: Cell alignment

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Polaris Office: Number options

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Polaris Office: Cell formatting

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Polaris Office: Right menu

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Polaris Office: Save as PDF

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Google Slides: Creating a slideshow

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Google Slides: Font formatting

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Google Slides: Paragraph formattings

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Google Slides: Shape formatting

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Docs To Go: Old school right menu

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Docs To Go: Edit menu

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Polaris Office: Font formatting

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Polaris Office: Right menu options

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Polaris Office: Shape editor

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OfficeSuite Pro: Main launch interface

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OfficeSuite Pro: Formatting a document

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OfficeSuite Pro: File options

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OfficeSuite Pro: Shape options

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OfficeSuite Pro: Advanced layout

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OfficeSuite Pro: Detailed formatting

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OfficeSuite Pro: Document alignment

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OfficeSuite Pro: Editing a spreadsheet

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OfficeSuite Pro: Spreadsheet functions

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OfficeSuite Pro: Charts in a spreadsheet

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OfficeSuite Pro: Cell formatting

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OfficeSuite Pro: Spreadsheet views

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OfficeSuite Pro: Creating a slideshow

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OfficeSuite Pro: Slideshow transitions

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OfficeSuite Pro: Cloud options

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WPS Office: Main launch screen

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WPS Office: Document options

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WPS Office: Insert menu

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WPS Office: Pen tools

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WPS Office: File options

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WPS Office: Creating a spreadsheet

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WPS Office: Editing a cell

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WPS Office: Function list

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WPS Office: Creating a chart

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WPS Office: More spreadsheet options

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WPS Office: Cloud options

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WPS Office: Create a new file

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WPS Office: Slideshow shapes

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WPS Office: Creating a slideshow

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