'Documents To Go' for iPhone Shown at Mobile World Congress

[MacRumors]

At this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, The iPhone Blog was able to get a hands-on demonstration of the upcoming iPhone version of Documents To Go from DataViz. Documents To Go, which currently provides editing capabilities for Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files to a variety of mobile platforms, is planned for release on the iPhone sometime in the second quarter of this year. Spreadsheet functionality, however, may not be ready for the initial release, and The iPhone Blog makes no mention of PowerPoint functionality in the preview version.

On a positive note, The iPhone Blog was particularly impressed with Documents To Go's implementation of cut-and-paste:

Also here, Cut and Paste done in a very clever way. You can:

- Double tap a word to select it.
- Triple tap a paragraph to select it.
- In magnify view, you can hold down your finger with the cursor in the same spot until the magnifying glass “pulses,” which will then let you select character by character.

DataViz is apparently also planning a strategy for working around Apple's limitations on third-party iPhone applications interfacing with Apple's built-in applications such as Mail, although DataViz declined to provide details on exactly how this work around will work.

However, and here’s where things get mysterious, DataViz does plan on having a desktop client that will allow you to sync your documents over to the iPhone and back again and the DocsToGo app on the iPhone will be able to “get around the sandbox” of not being able to store files locally.

DataViz will also be including the ability to view PDF attachments with the iPhone version of Documents To Go.

Article Link: 'Documents To Go' for iPhone Shown at Mobile World Congress

 

[bytethese]

Yes please.

I'd like to be able to view and edit docs on my iPhone for school and stuff. Would make me that much more productive. VERY clever on the Copy and Paste btw, I hope Apple takes a queues from this given that they are hiring "Gesture Algorithm Engineers".

 

[plumbingandtech]

This will be a big seller.

I wonder if I can use the excel feature to get my numbers spreadsheet in at least for one way editing... (play with numbers etc.)

 

[MarkMS]

Awesome! Indeed, those cut and paste methods are pretty clever. Can't wait to see how they will work around the limitation of interfacing with Mail.

 

[leandromp]

Isn't this front page news?
nice cut and paste

 

[vandlism]

This program had a pretty awful interface on the iPhone. They also pushed the new version of the software every year. Anyway, I don't find much use in it, but that cut and paste implementation does sound slick.

 

[chr1s60]

I think it's bad that so many developers are implementing copy/paste, but Apple continues to not care about it.

 

[Yvan256]

All I want is the ability to put PDF documents on my iPod touch, sending files to myself and having to find them in Mail isn't the way to go.

 

[Dimwhit]

All I want is the ability to put PDF documents on my iPod touch, sending files to myself and having to find them in Mail isn't the way to go.

Air Sharing, Datacase, FileMagnet and others do that and more.

 

[5855997]

This is good news. I used the DataViz Docs to go for years on my Palm Treo (it came free with it). But I am planning to get an iPhone when the new ones are released and this really adds a functionallity which the iPhone is lacking.

 

[Rat-Boy]

Any mention of how the docs will be stored and if you can sync to get them off the phone?

I hope they aren't just relying on email?

 

[11800506]

Any mention of how the docs will be stored and if you can sync to get them off the phone?

I hope they aren't just relying on email?

Did you even read the article?

 

[PlaceofDis]

will certainly get this. sounds promising.

 

[Rat-Boy]

Did you even read the article?

Guilty as charged.

I was at work and was hoping someone would just answer the question.

I will read it now.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

Nice, I just reinstalled the BlackBerry OS on my Pearl. Documents to Go was on there, which includes Word To Go (Word) and Slideshow To Go (PowerPoint). I would be glad to see this on the iPhone or iPod touch. I would buy it, had I not sold my iPod touch. If you want Excel editing, try the MobileFiles Pro app.

 

[kas23]

Good. I'm glad they are done with it. Now, quickly submit it and we can all cross our fingers that it is not held up in the approval process. It seems like the most useful, functional apps usually have the worst time going through the approval process.

 

[Digital Skunk]

Sweet! One simple feature that should have been in the Rev A iPhone that all other smartphones have down......

About four or five more to go!

Once they get those five or so in, and AT&T starts offering up some insurance and competitive plans for the iPhone, I will be first in line to get one. So given Apple's and AT&T's track record, I can expect to get an iPhone by 2012.

 

[zap2]

I'm all over this!

Wonder how much? I hope not tons..isn't the product on Palm OS like 35 bucks?

 

[5855997]

I'm all over this!

Wonder how much? I hope not tons..isn't the product on Palm OS like 35 bucks?

Came bundled free with my Treo 650 years ago. Fully functional. Maybe it was only in Europe.

 

[question fear]

I'm all over this!

Wonder how much? I hope not tons..isn't the product on Palm OS like 35 bucks?

Something like that...their "upgrades" got very pricey after they started being bundled in with the phones.

Came bundled free with my Treo 650 years ago. Fully functional. Maybe it was only in Europe.

The upgrades after the bundled versions cost money. Any added features after the bundled version that comes with the phone require paid upgrades. It has rankled some Palm OS users through the years, especially if they are being asked to pay full price for the newer version (ie, their phone/device came with DTG 8, and they need DTG 10).

 

[5855997]

Ah ok. I doesn't really bother me. I just use the version and features I have. It's just nice to be able to create/alter a txt or doc file on the go.
I use it rarely, but it's a good thing when I do need it.

 

[pimentoLoaf]

FINALLY!

Had this on my old Palm PDA and it was indispensable when on trips.

 

[Silencio]

As a longtime Palm user, I used to think Documents To Go was an absolute critical third party app for the iPhone platform to have. Now, not so much.

Before iPhone 2.0, I simply emailed my Word and Excel files to myself and left them in a folder on my IMAP server and used iPhone's Mail app to read those files. Now I'm using AirSharing for the same purpose.

The ability to edit my Excel spreadsheets and sync them back to my desktop would be nice, but I honestly haven't missed it much. If Documents To Go is going to be lacking the Spreadsheet module for a while, then there's really no point to it for me.

I've seen some pretty awful iPhone app UIs from former Palm developers, but DTG doesn't look that bad. I'm glad it will be available but I probably won't be in a huge hurry to buy it now.

 

[happydude]

Good. I'm glad they are done with it. Now, quickly submit it and we can all cross our fingers that it is not held up in the approval process. It seems like the most useful, functional apps usually have the worst time going through the approval process.

agreed 100% i'm just worried apple will reject it because maybe sometime in the future they might think about allowing you to store and edit documents and until they say so, no one gets it. seems kinda apple to do that lately . . .

 

[twoodcc]

sounds pretty sweet. looking forward to this! i bet a lot of people would be interested in this also