Joined: Jun 20, 2006 Posts: 2051 Location: Midwest, USA
Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 2:48 pm Post subject:
There are at least a few apps that can edit xls (Excel) files, Documents to Go and QuickOffice among them. So one possibility to to export your spreadsheets as xls files for use on the iPad.
Note that I've not used either of the apps I mentioned above, so I can't speak to how well they work.
You might also try searching for iPhone apps that can edit OpenOffice.org files. Since NeoOffice is based on OpenOffice.org, .odt, .ods, and .odp files created in either NeoOffice or OpenOffice.org use the same file format and so any apps that can open OpenOffice.org files should be able to open NeoOffice files.
You might also try searching for iPhone apps that can edit OpenOffice.org files. Since NeoOffice is based on OpenOffice.org, .odt, .ods, and .odp files created in either NeoOffice or OpenOffice.org use the same file format and so any apps that can open OpenOffice.org files should be able to open NeoOffice files.
Please ignore my above comment. I have been Googling this afternoon trying to find any iPhone apps that can edit OpenOffice.org .odt, .ods, or .odp files I have yet to find any.
Although it probably does not help much, there is some good explanations in this forum topic of why creating a full featured office suite on the iPhone is an incredibly difficult task.
If you take Lorinda's suggestion and convert your .ods files to Excel .xls files, I recommend that you test open and saving those .xls files in a variety of iPhone apps. The reason is that from the reviews that I have seen is that many of the apps out there can only handle the most common types of data in Word and Excel files and there is a very good chance that you will seem some formatting and maybe data loss when saving your Excel files on the iPhone.
This same formatting and data loss problem also occurs in Apple's TextEdit on Mac OS X. While it can open Word and Writer files, objects like headers and footers and formatting like page margins are ignored when the file is opened and so when you save the file, those formatting and data are lost.
You can also upload your spreadsheets to Google Docs (NeoOffice Mobile makes this really easy, like part of your normal NeoOffice workflow!) and then visit Google Docs in MobileSafari on the iPad* and edit your spreadsheets there (and then use NeoMobile to download the edited versions back to your Mac).
In general the same caveats as Patrick mentioned for actual iOS apps apply; fancy and specialized features won't work, and there are some size limitations, but by and large it works OK (and I think the Google Docs word processor has much better fidelity than TextEdit for Word documents). Like most apps, Google Docs handles Microsoft formats a bit better than the NeoOffice/OpenDocument formats.
The other positive about Google Docs is that you can try it and see if it works well enough for your use without having to spend money or guess based on reviews you read.
Smokey
* I presume Google doesn't do some sort of dumb sniffing to ban MobileSafari, but I don't have an iPad to check. _________________ "[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki
At this point the Word 97 formats are the way to communicate between OOo and iPad or i Touch. On my iPod Touch, I use Docs2Go (transferring files using PhoneDisk which has a free license for a few more days). The iPad has a version of Pages which should also edit Word97 fomats.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You cannot download files in this forum
