Of course, you can always create and edit some of these types of documents using Apple’s own iWork suite of apps like Numbers or Pages for example. However, the documents exported from these apps are not always fully compatible with MS Office programs and when they are, they sometimes miss some parts of the layout or other elements.
This is where DataViz’s Documents to Go Standard(costs $9.95) comes into play as one of the best and most flexible alternatives for users who want a way to work with Office documents from their iOS devices. The main strength of Documents to Go is the app’s ability to work with all the main document types of MS Office. These include Word, Excel and Powerpoint, although you will need to pay an extra $7 for the premium version of the app to be able to edit and create documents of the latter type.
Once you open an Office document to work with or once you create one, you have access to all the main options that you would find on the popular MS desktop applications. Formatting options, information panels and more, all are available in a few taps. Naturally, having all these options makes the screen feel a bit cluttered at times, but it is definitely better than not having them at all.
Once you are done creating or editing a document, you have the option to save it locally, to sync it with your desktop computer or to share it by email. Additionally, you can also export your documents to any compatible app using Documents to Go Open In.. option.
As hinted above, DataViz also provides Documents to Go users with a free desktop application that you can use to sync files with iOS devices running the app. Once set up, syncing works seamlessly and provides a fast way to share documents between platforms without requiring iTunes and without locking your iOS device to a single computer.
At $9.99, Documents to Go Standard might not seem cheap when compared to other iOS apps, but when you compare it to alternative apps (like Pages or Numbers for example), it is clear that it is one of the apps with the best value for all that it does. Needless to say, if you do at least a bit of serious work with Office documents, Documents to Go is definitely worth the investment.
