Thursday, June 06, 2013

Microsoft Office on iOS - On CloudOn Nine

I've been happily using Dropbox for three and a half years but the one disconnect has always been the ability to edit my Microsoft Office files on my iPhone or iPad. I was leery of plunking down cold hard cash for QuickOffice Pro, especially since I would need a different version for the iPhone ($15) and the iPad ($20).

Earlier this year, I discovered CloudOn, a FREE app for editing Microsoft Office documents. Originally, it was only available on the iPad, but recently they've offered an iPhone version. The first thing that enamored me was the effortless, instant link to Dropbox. As you can see, you can use a variety of cloud drives, but gladly, my favorite was there.





The main reason I need access to my Dropbox is for my obsessively organized spreadsheets. Hypermiling mania continues, so when I get a chance to update my mileage spreadsheet, I am a happy MIT Mommy.





Uh-oh, looks like my trusty BMW 325xiT is finally showing signs of old age at 150k miles.  Of course, for more visual and creative minded people, you can edit Word and PowerPoint documents as well.  Or even display PowerPoint slides on your iPad.



Yup, that's me fundraising for Relay for Life last year.

After you quit editing a document, it automatically saves it to your cloud drive, which is handy only if you make no mistakes (the Undo button works just fine, so use it before you quit if you need to). And after opening the file again on my PC, all the edits are there and it is perfectly unharmed in any other way.  Yay!

The iPhone interface is not as usable due to the screen size.  I often found myself struggling to view the cell I'm editing in Excel, but it still works in a pinch.

Note: The review is in not sponsored or even requested by CloudOn!  It's just the app I've been looking for for years. Check it out, really.

3 comments :

Anonymous said...

too technical for me! enjoy your icloud.

Craig said...

Hey,
Thanks for the heads up on cloudon.

The kids are always complaining that the can't do their homework on their Ipads.

Unknown said...

Grt work :)