Which Office?

[Grizzly]

Hi!

As you have read Iambic Office is dead!
Now it is replaced by QuickOffice!

But is QuickOffice that good or is Documents To Go better?

I only need Excel, Word and PowerPoint on Palm!
And I already have SnapperMail which perfectly runs with QuickOffice!

But maybe Documents To Go is better!

Thanks Felix

[Cwiiis]

What about Mobile Office? (www.mobi-systems.com)

Very buggy (at least on pre-OS5 devices) at the moment, but they give great support and frequent updates... It's quick becoming quite an admirable app and it has some great features that none of the other Office applications have (unfortunately no native document reading and no spreadsheet application at the moment though)

[Vidge]

I have both QO and DTG, only because DTG came with my T3. I still prefer QO, but that's just because I've used it longer and am more familiar with it.

[Grizzly]

I only try Mobile Access 2004 at the moment the other apps are not that good!

[ddsmith]

DTG6 works great for me. It never has given me a problem of any kind. I had Quick Sheet for a while but it seemed slow.

[siebe]

I have used both Quick Office and DTG. Actually, I am still using DTG 6. Reasons: DTG works well with SnapperMail which in my opinion is the best e-mail program for palm. And, I have found Quick Office to be a little unstable and it has less options for zooming in & out (in other words, less columns and rows on one screen). Also, the DTG conduit is simpler (for me!).

[Cwiiis]

I'm inclined to disagree, Mobile Word is pretty damn good, as is Mobile Paint (Mobile Agenda on the other hand is completely useless, I'll give you that :p) - Both have flaws, but both have features that you'll not find in any other palm word-processor - Wait for the next version in a couple of weeks and give it a trial run, you might be surprised

[madmaxmedia]

DTG has the best synchronization capabilities, which is why I am using it. Complex stuff like Table of Content's are not lost when you sync a document, whereas with the other office programs (and Wordsmith), I would lose stuff.

DTG now of course opens native files too, that's another plus.

[Grizzly]

@Cwiiis
Ok! I will give it a try in the next version! ;)

But so far DTG 6 seems to be the better program!

[Unregistered]

Sorry for anonymous post.
I have both DTG and QO. I'm not editing complex documents but the whole point of "native" format support is to avoid conduits altogether.
DTG is about twice as big as QO on PDA. DTG's spell-checker is smarter. So far I could not find a way to open native *.htm files from memory card with DTG, no problem with QO. I need to edit HTML documents. If anyone knows how to do it with DTG, I would appreciate some help.
I have heard (but have not verified myself) that DTG supports various external keyboards better, especially when it comes to localization (i.e. languages other than English).

Alexei

[Tej]

Not to go too far off-topic, is there a word-processor that will open RTF files off a MS? I really could use that.

Back on topic, I tried QO when it first came out w/ native file support, but it was too buggy for me to keep. Are the current versions any more stable?

I'm using DTG 6 now with native Word files mostly and its pretty good, but often loses the page margins I set. I also can't stand that it forces me to scan the whole MS for newly added files, thus making it pick up all my iSilo files and completely cluttering up the file list. Very frustrating. If QO doesn't force you to do that, maybe I'll switch.

To me the most interesting thing about Mobile Word, is the ability to create and insert drawings into documents on the Palm. That should make it just about perfect for note-taking in school, i.e. type in your notes, and then insert a drawing for any details that can't be easily captured in words (formulas, geography, spatial relationships, etc...)

[tej]

Any answers?

[Cwiiis]

That's exactly what I use Mobile Word for (good table support and page formatting as well) - As for the others, I have no idea I'm afraid :)

[Tixx]

.

[siebe]

Good point, Tixx!!!

:D :D :D

[RyanBruner]

I've not used QO, nor have I used DTG6. I own DTG5, though, and am very happy with it. WHen I do a side-by-side comparison of features of both products from both websites, they are pretty equivilent...major differences noted:

1. QO has support for translating any TrueType fonts you have. DTG only supports its fonts...but, it does have the most-used fonts.

2. DTG has repeatedly been shown to convert without losing information when you sync back and forth. QO still has a problem with losing information with Word 97 files, for example. I happen to be a Word 97 user! :-)

There are a few other minor differences, which to me, give DTG the edge...but not really worth noting.

However, I'm still waiting for DTG to support Styles, which neither application currently supports. Without styles, editing on the PDA is of limited use. I sent DataViz a feature request on this, but never heard back from them.

[Tixx]

Originally posted by siebe
Good point, Tixx!!!

:D :D :D

[elvis voice]Thank you, thank you very much[/elvis voice] <takes a bow> I was just getting it back to the first page as someone was looking for this info:p

[Mayday45]

I'm evaluating QuickOffice right now. I have a TG50 and was suprised to be able to get all of the applications (Word, Spread, Powerpoint, Chart) to run from the memory card (with PowerRun) and the Spellchecker & Spellchecker DataBases to run from Flash (with JackFlash). As long as it works well with my KB100 (which I haven't had time to try), I'll buy QuickOffice.

[Grizzly]

Originally posted by Tixx


[elvis voice]Thank you, thank you very much[/elvis voice] <takes a bow> I was just getting it back to the first page as someone was looking for this info:p

Thanks for that! :cool:

[Helge B.]

With the VFS app 'TealAlias' you are even able to get QuickOffice's FontBucket with its 970kb running from MS.

TealAlias allows you to manually choose which other apps and databases should be loaded together with your shortcut.

By this you can use QuickOffice almost without needing any RAM space. So QuickOffice is the office suite of choice for everyone low on RAM.

I am using DTG and QuickOffice simultaniously. I think they are compareable in their capabilities and features.

The only 'real' drawback with QuickOffice: You can't save your Excel or Word files as native .xls or .doc files. So if you want to work on a document and directly send it via email, DTG is the better choice.

On the other hand: QuickOffice is cheaper and comes along with a very good printing software (PrintBoy) which even supports bluetooth. This is really handy since I use BT-adapters on all my printers.

[Grizzly]

Low RAM is a good point!
I have nearly nothing left! No RAM no MS!
With my next device I hope I get at least 64MB!

I can't believe that QuickOffice didn't support native Excel and Word files!


4 easy ways to load your native Microsoft Office files straight onto your device:
- via infrared beaming from laptops or PocketPCs
- via bluetooth transfer from laptops or PocketPCs
- open email attachments
- open native Office files direct from expansion cards eg. secure digital or memory sticks.

[Helge B.]

QuickOffice does allow you to open native .xls and .doc files.

They get converted into the QuickOffice format though and it is not possible to save them back into the native Excel or Word format again.

[Simon Peter]

I use DTG and make constant use of the native file format feature. I was previously saving in proprietory format, but a couple of longer docs got corrupted. No problems since making the switch. Also, since using native word/excel I've stopped bothering with the conduit and now just have a windows shortcut to the relevant folder on my memory stick, so I can easily open docs straight off the clie using Word / Excel on my PC, and drag and drop them to a back up folder. I do this using MSImport. A downside is that I haven't worked out how to make sensible use of subdirectories on the MS, as DTG always seems to bung everything in a long list wherever I put them.

[Wytnucls]

Originally posted by Simon Peter
DTG always seems to bung everything in a long list wherever I put them.

Have you tried attaching categories to your documents with DTG? It should make your long list a lot shorter, depending on which category tab is selected.

[Simon Peter]

Yeah, I've played around with the categories, but I've had them reset themselves a few times (if I have to do a "find all suitable files" search) and as I keep a lot of documents on the MS for reference (conference notes etc) I've got a bit fed up of re-doing them. I was hoping for some kind of directory based filing system.

[Mayday45]

It looks like we can get almost all of QuickOffice to run from MS/Flash Memory. Does anyone know the best setup for Docs-To-Go that takes up the least amount of RAM?

[vinodis]

DTG is the way-to-go!

[Tej]

A usability problem I've found with DTG6 is that I can't find a solution for printing native Word files via IR or Bluetooth.

That's not really DTG's fault, as I'm trying Printboy as the printing application, but I think DTG's website is misleading as they advertise Printboy as a "printing solution" to use with DTG, without mentioning the limited support.

I can open the native Word file, then save it as a "Word to go" file, and then print it, but then I'm left with two files of the same name on the Palm, and I have to remember to go back and delete the one I don't want.

Also, the print quality from Printboy is pretty poor.

[Helge B.]

With PowerRun you can move about 250kb of files on MS.

With TealAlias you could theoretically also move all apps and read-only DBs on MS, just the upload time would be unbearable long.

I moved the DocToGo.Prc together with SheetToGo.prc and WordView+.prc on MS, getting about 1,4 MB RAM. The delay is about 6 seconds longer than with all the apps in RAM. This is still okay for me, as I can have 5,3 MB of free RAM on my NZ90 by this.

Still I envy the 64MB RAM of my colleague's TT3.

The policy of Sony is really annoying. You gotta spend 30$ of extra software to get your device running properly. Still you have to accept a slowdown of your pda. Furthermore it is not possible to swap the RAM updates inside your ROM, since they are not willing to give access to the necassary APIs to get JackSprat running.

It's really time another producer of Palm handhelds appears on the market.

[siebe]

Helge,

Having DTG moved to card, don't you have problems syncing files? I seem to remember that files are not synced properly when the application is on a card.

[Helge B.]

With TealAlias you imitate the Creator ID and the version no. This should be sufficient for most HotSyncs.

[siebe]

OK!

BTW, you mentioned that with PowerRun you can move about 250kb of files on MS. What do you mean by this?
I have over ten applications stored on MS, in total over 4MB. Some individual apps are 0,5MB each.
I am not sure I understand what you're saying here.

[Helge B.]

I was speaking of the DTG files. PowerRun was able to move 250kb of the DTG files on MS.

I wonder though what happens if you copy the files manually into the according PowerRun folder on the MS. Maybe one could trick PowerRun, so it can outsource even more files of the according app.

[Helge B.]

I just figured out, that you can copy the apps of DTG (WordView, SheetToGo, SlideshowToGo) into the Launcher directory of your MS.

These are found by the DocToGo main application. It works faster than working with TealAlias or PowerRun, even though it does not seem possible to outsource the DB by this.