The Quickoffice Pro HD app provides core MS Office tools for your smartphone or tablet device – perfect for business on-the-go, says Mark Houlding, managing director at Rostrum Communications
Developed by Quickoffice
Supporting devices:Android, iPhone, iPad, Symbian, HP webOS
The Quickoffice Pro HD app has been the difference for me in terms of turning my iPad 2 into a genuine alternative to the laptop. I’m mostly based at home and used to using the core Microsoft tools – Word, Excel, etc so this handy little app gives the iPad all of the document, presentation and slideshow functions that you’re used to in MS Office. The app enables you to create and edit documents, slideshows and presentations. It integrates with the cloud-based services such as Google docs and you can also share files on Twitter or via a ‘drop and drag’ method, using your email client (Outlook in my case).
Functionality
For real techies, the functionality is probably quite limited (file creation, editing and sharing), but I’d guess that’s all most execs will need from a mobile device in terms of standard MS Office tools. The ‘killer’ bit of this app is the automatic wireless transfer to email. Once your file’s been created and saved, you just hover it over the email client to create a draft email that you can send to clients or colleagues with your files attached.
When you first open the app, you see three columns. In the middle, there are the files you’ve worked on recently. To the left is a hard disk icon that opens up the middle column, and to the right you’ve got all the same data but displayed in folders. This navigation system is something that becomes automatic very quickly.
The ‘+’ symbol on the bottom left lets you integrate straight into any cloud-based document storage facility you want – huddle, Google docs, etc, from which you can remotely access, transfer, save, and manage files saved in any of those places.
On the right-hand lower side, you’ve got the ability to create a new doc – with choices of Presentation 2003, Spreadsheet 2003, Spreadsheet 2007, Document 2003, Document 2007 and Text File. We use Windows 2007 across Rostrum, so those are the formats I’ve selected. Users on older systems should choose those formats for compatibility.
Top right are straightforward options to print, format text and search. Things get a little clunkier when you save – there’s no autosave option so you have to choose ‘save or ‘save as’ – but you can save as pdf by choosing ‘print’ and then ‘save to pdf’, which is useful. The basics for formatting are all there – bold text, basic photos and images in PowerPoint, underlining and using formulas in Excel. It’s not as functional as a laptop but for meeting notes, basic presentation creation and simple spreadsheets, it’ll do what most users want from this type of app.
Design
Unlike similar apps, Quickoffice Pro HD doesn’t clutter the screen with unnecessary features. Instead it offers over 90 per cent of the screen for you to work on; the app knows that it is meant to be portable and this works in its favour. All of the document types are visually accessible to a user thanks to the app’s minimalistic design, allowing for anyone to instantly jump in and get started with the app without confusion. The app’s toolbar is sleek and simple with only the essential buttons present, which allows for flawless integration with the iPad’s stylish navigation system.
Overall opinion
Overall, Quickoffice Pro HD is never going to win any awards for creativity or innovation – apart from perhaps the slick integration with the cloud offerings. But it does what it does very effectively and neatly, and for the business user comfortable with Microsoft formats, it’s a great way of getting a good chunk of that functionality into your iPad 2. My main use for it is meeting notes – the ability to tap up notes into Word 2007 while meeting with a client and then email those back to colleagues to be stored on the server – is invaluable and has increased my productivity.
4/5 stars
