How can I edit ODF files from an iPhone?

XFox · Sentinel Joined: Oct 13, 2005 Posts: 26

Hi all,
I'm searching for a solution to edit ODF files from an iPhone (or iPod touch).
Specifically, I would need to do simple edits to ODT (NeoOffice Writer) and ODS (NeoOffice Calc) documents.
Any idea?

On a side note, I wonder if there are plans to add such a feature to the new NeoOffice Mobile, one day.

yoxi · Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:23 am Post subject:

There are currently no iPhone/iPT apps (that I've been able to find) which can open and edit ODF files - and very few that can even open them to view (I think only ODT files, not calc files at all at the moment).

The workaround would be to save them as MS Word/Excel files and edit them in one of the existing apps that can handle office files. This is a little unsatisfactory as you may lose some formatting switching between ODF and MS doc formats, but it's the only game in town at the moment, I believe.

The NeoOffice project is solely concerned with providing a better mac port of OpenOffice - NeoOffice Mobile is and probably will always remain only a document sharing/viewing interface. It's not inconceivable that some mavins at OpenOffice might develop an ODF editor for the iPhone/iPT in the future (since they have massive people resources that the NeoOffice team don't have) but don't hold your breath.

I'm sure that it won't be too long before *someone* develops an ODF editor for the phone - though it might be a while before it reaches anywhere near the sophistication of the Word/Excel editor apps. I've got my ear to the ground because I'm also interested - and I've been sending messages of 'encouragement' to devs producing the better iPhone doc viewers and editors to suggest they might want to add ODF support, so if you do that too, something may happen sooner.

- padmavyuha

OPENSTEP · Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 11:08 am Post subject:

Just to tag onto that...

The "NeoOffice Mobile" project also isn't focusing on editing and we're not planning on adding that. Editing adds a whole other layer of complexity that's too much to handle. We're trying to focus just on viewing on mobile devices, the thought being then that you can edit with any OpenDocument app once you reach a client computer.

For Word format editing, I believe the two app solutions available now are Documents to Go (like the one that used to be on the old Palm OS) and QuickOffice. There are rumors MS is working on one, but for now they're just rumors...the other two exist as is.

For viewing only, what we do in NM is detect the iPhone Mobile Safari browser and then push PDF to the device. In the end, the problem with viewing on mobile devices is that there won't be appropriate fonts to render content, etc. Since fonts are embedded in PDF, that's why we chose it as the primary view-only format. You can export PDF and then use apps like FileMagnet to view them (though there may be some other free or better viewers; that's just the one I've used for "thumb drive" style file transfer for a long time).

ed

Aotearoas09 · Blue Pill Joined: Aug 29, 2009 Posts: 4

Hi. I try the export today with "Documents to Go" on my iPod touch. Sheets (exported to Excel) are ok, but text (exported to Word 97 or 2007) don't work. Same with OpenOffice for Mac. If i try OpenOffice for Win, the exported files are accepted. So a small error in the code that used specially on the Mac?

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949