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MS Word and the iPad

Robin4

Robin4

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 6, 2010
355
26
RTD-NC
Do you think we'll ever see Word on the iPad?

Many will argue that the iPad's main purpose is entertainment. I find it very convenient when I am traveling and working. MobileMe, the iPhone and the iPad together are remarkable tools.

I like pages but not everyone I contact has it. This makes for a lot of whining. I suppose I am hoping that some day we'll all work with the same program.
 
Robin4 said:
Do you think we'll ever see Word on the iPad?

Many will argue that the iPad's main purpose is entertainment. I find it very convenient when I am traveling and working. MobileMe, the iPhone and the iPad together are remarkable tools.

I like pages but not everyone I contact has it. This makes for a lot of whining. I suppose I am hoping that some day we'll all work with the same program.
Click to expand...

Probably, but not as an app. Office360 on-line would be the MS solution, I would expect.

I am more curious about LiveMeeting... Uses Java so it is not useable on the ipad, and as the device becomes more accepted in the enterprise environment, this is a gaping hole that needs to be filled.
 
Consultant said:
Do you know iPad Pages app can export to word or pdf?

Obviously not.
Click to expand...

Actually I don't think Pages does a 100% correct job when it comes to PDF files.

If you Google you will find many people complaining about something they made in Pages not coming through correctly.

Apple have decided not to embed fonts or something more as well. I'm not sure 100%

The crazy thing is, a PDF 's main purpose in life was that you can create a PDF file in a program and then email this pdf file to everyone.

Knowing everyone will see exactly the same thing.

That's the one key main purpose in life of a pdf file

And Pages does not do that.

:(
 
Piggie said:
Actually I don't think Pages does a 100% correct job when it comes to PDF files.

If you Google you will find many people complaining about something they made in Pages not coming through correctly.

Apple have decided not to embed fonts or something more as well. I'm not sure 100%

The crazy thing is, a PDF 's main purpose in life was that you can create a PDF file in a program and then email this pdf file to everyone.

Knowing everyone will see exactly the same thing.

That's the one key main purpose in life of a pdf file

And Pages does not do that.

:(
Click to expand...

As this happens to be true, I believe this issue was fixed on the last Pages for iOS update.
I have QuickOffice and Pages, and I had better results with Pages. And QuickOffice is supposed to be one of the better office suites for iPad.

Pages does have some limitations, such as you can't create new styles, and line spacing cannot be micro-adjusted (it adjusts in .25 increments only).
These are really minor inconveniences in my opinion.

Are you planing to import Word documents to edit on the iPad, or mainly creating new documents and exporting them to Word or PDF?

In theory, OFFICE2HD is supposed to be good and do more (compatibility-wise) than QuickOffice and Docs2Go. Any feedback on that?
 
Robin4 said:
Do you think we'll ever see Word on the iPad?

Many will argue that the iPad's main purpose is entertainment. I find it very convenient when I am traveling and working. MobileMe, the iPhone and the iPad together are remarkable tools.

I like pages but not everyone I contact has it. This makes for a lot of whining. I suppose I am hoping that some day we'll all work with the same program.
Click to expand...

Around the time that Office for Mac 2011 was wrapping up, I remember seeing a quote from someone on the MacBU team at MS saying that they were "thinking about" an iPad version of Office.

I think I just created a rumor of a rumor, but that's OK here, right?

So, it's a possibility that MS might create an iPad version of Office eventually, but as everyone has pointed out, there are other alternatives out there.
 
Consultant said:
Do you know iPad Pages app can export to word or pdf?

Obviously not.
Click to expand...

I have been working with Pages as stated before. No need for rudeness.

Since I write research which needs to be reviewed by several people, the documents come back and forth after changes. As long as I record the info, I am fine. Once it is reviewed several times, the fonts change, sometimes the formatting changes in their end.
 
Amazing Iceman said:
As this happens to be true, I believe this issue was fixed on the last Pages for iOS update.
Click to expand...

I shall try a test document again.

Note Adobe Acrobat is THE program for it to display correctly in. After all, that the program that defined the format.

I shall make a new document and email it to my PC and open it with Adobe Acrobat and see what is looks like.

It should of course look virtually identical to the file on the iPad.
 
You know, I wondered about this myself last night. Having owned an iPad for nearly 2 weeks now. All I could find was Pages but I'm not ready to spend any money on apps yet.

I'd love to know if Microsoft is planning an Office Suite app or are they going to limit it maybe for just android? Would be a silly decision if they decide not to release an app for iOS.
 
Ok, back from my quick test.

Making a simple test document in iPad Pages (font sizes) and images/shapes on screen.

I sent as a PDF file and viewed the result in Adobe Acrobat.

Results = ok, but not great. Hard to describe. It's as if someone has turned the quality setting down. Typeface is not quite right and it's all a bit blocky rather than a nice smooth outline.

I also sent it as a Word file.

OMG Disaster. the text was perfect (I assume using Word's default fonts) but all the effects were stripped out (borders) and the locations of the image on the screen was random. The text was in one clump and the images, were clumped in another position.

Totally unusable with word anyway, waste of time having the option.

Shame about the low quality font when sent as a PDF file.

Pages was a waste of money for me, I bought it on day 1 of owning my iPad and never used it as it's just unusable when sent to anyone else.

I'm sure it's fine when sending between iPads (I guess) and it printing out direct from it.
 
Piggie said:
Ok, back from my quick test.

Making a simple test document in iPad Pages (font sizes) and images/shapes on screen.

I sent as a PDF file and viewed the result in Adobe Acrobat.

Results = ok, but not great. Hard to describe. It's as if someone has turned the quality setting down. Typeface is not quite right and it's all a bit blocky rather than a nice smooth outline.

I also sent it as a Word file.

OMG Disaster. the text was perfect (I assume using Word's default fonts) but all the effects were stripped out (borders) and the locations of the image on the screen was random. The text was in one clump and the images, were clumped in another position.

Totally unusable with word anyway, waste of time having the option.

Shame about the low quality font when sent as a PDF file.

Pages was a waste of money for me, I bought it on day 1 of owning my iPad and never used it as it's just unusable when sent to anyone else.

I'm sure it's fine when sending between iPads (I guess) and it printing out direct from it.
Click to expand...

How unfortunate. I have a Mac, and usually send documents back and forth between it and my iPad, some with graphics, and I haven't had any problems with the quality.
Just make sure you use a font that you have on both devices, so Adobe or Word doesn't need to substitute with a similar font, which usually is not a good match.

One thing for sure, I bought QuickOffice and never got to do anything useful on it. I'm using Pages most of the time.

As I mentioned before, Office2HD seems like the next one to try. Please make sure to check the most recent reviews.
Regarding Documents2Go, I haven't read any good comments lately; most were negative, specially after their most recent update.
 
Pages for editing only

I only use Pages on the ipad for editing only. I wouldn't send my final copy to anyone from it.

Generally, I create in word, edit on ipad, export to word and make final on PC, for PDF creation or native word use.

Fonts are not fantastic between word and pages, and I lose some formatting with columns and breaks.

I think Pages is fantastic for what I use it for.... it can go any where.
 
Traveling and working with the iPad is the most convenient method but I may have to consider changes.

I suppose i can originate the content with Pages using a basic font and basic formatting. I'll have to keep all docs that go back and forth at it's most simple level. All drafts can be formatted at the end of the process.

I am also considering traveling with a Mac Air, iPad, and iPhone, jeez. It could be so simple.
 
Wow, I'm surprised you're having issues with Pages and Word...I've been e:mailing documents back and forth and they've been amazing...I was really impressed.
 
Only used it for very basic tasks, like made a party invitation posted and emailed it as a .PDF to a friend.

The thing is that Microsoft is a software company, many people do not get this. Microsoft is not in competition with Apple over the computer Market. As OS X is not licensed and Windows is, Macs are just another brand of computer for Microsoft to get Windows on.

Microsoft would be stupid not to at least try to corner a small section of the app market. If they did bring Word onto iPad I can see it being a typical Microsoft job though, packed with more features but slightly harder to use and maybe not as sleek.
 
Microsoft iPad Office I could see selling like crazy and making a lot more people consider using an iPad at work.

Like it or not, Office is the thing most people use.

Whilst it's going to be cut down a bit, it should still be very good as the iPad's specs are not a million miles off a PC from say 10 years ago. And Office 2000 was pretty good.

The biggest problem, apart I guess from the stupid, or rather non existent file system on the iPad is the UI.

Getting something with many features and functions that are fine on a large screen, PC or Mac with a mouse, down to Chunk-O-Vision which will work with a finger tip is going to be a major challenge without having menus with submenu's with sub sub menu's.
 
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