Quickoffice OR Documents To Go ?

[pedrothelion]

The best Office Suite for NX?

[williepalm]

i would say QuickOffice. Quite annoyed that for Doctogo you need 3 apps together even if you just want to view Documents. Without either one, it wont work.

[ClieMarty]

your own choice, best thing to do would be evaluating; a pretty good german it magazin ("c't") recently ranked doc-to-go best as morst others (quick office, iambic office, others) seem to lack the one or other feature. and those guys really tested the functionality (like more sheets in a spreadsheet folder, ability to make cross-references, etc.). also, the magazine warned that - in case of important data - users should always back up original files as all suites tend to alter the source document more or less. again, dtg seems to best here but it's not all shiny like described on palm.com.

as dtg came with my nr70 i upgraded to dtg premium and do not regret it. there are quite a lot of people who recommend using some additional program like wordsmith for composition and word-to-go just for viewing.

my 0,02

[jbarr]

I personally like DocumentsToGo better, and I have tried both.

I had several crashes with Quick Office. Nothing major, but annoying.

As far as the program size, I store the "WordToGo" and "SheetsToGo" apps on my Memory Stick and keep the "Documents" app in RAM. I then have two shortcuts created in LauncherX for the two apps on the MS. The result is that whenever I want to open a document, it has to load the required app into RAM, but the delay is truely minimal on an NX Clie, and it frees up a lot of RAM. All documents are stored on the Memory Stick.

As far as the interface, I just love it. It's simple, and well thought-out. I especially like the ability to set different "zoom" levels. This makes viewing large worksheets or documents much easier. I just wish that the zoom levels could be set on a document-by-document basis instead of globally.

The other thing I like is the SheetToGo simplicity. It's easy to use, but is pretty full-functioned. The only thing I really miss is the lack of Charting capabilities in the free version. I believe charting is available in an upgrade.

Which brings me to my last point: Cost. DocumentsToGo is free with the Clie, and the "standard" version is just fine for my needs. Yes, there are more powerful (ie: expensive) versions, but I don't have a need for such an upgrade. My main issue with Quick Office is that Cutting Edge Software seems to have adopted the Microsoft model of upgrades. I have been a loyal customer of the Cutting Edge Software for a long time, but I have grown tired of their charging for just about every upgrade. Yes, there have been several free interim releases, but when the major updates come out, they charge for them. I certainly don't expect all software upgrades to be free--the developers do have to make a living. But if you add up all the fees for upgrading over the years it really adds up to a sizable amount. The money I have paid really isn't justified. I guess you just have to determine the value of the product for yourself. For me, both products are great, but I use them for personal, relativly unimportant, non-critical stuff. If I relied on them for business, I might feel different.

Anyway, take a prior poster's advice and try them both out. Also try Iambic's Office suite. It's pretty good too.

[roper]

You can buy Quicksheet alone. I like Quicksheet as I can print from the clie using PrintBoy with it. I don't think you can print from the clie with DTG (not sure about that, I could be wrong).
Then you can also transfer data from Handbase to Quicksheet with Quickdata (free).
I also liked this setup because I use & like Wordsmith best.

[Tek Phreak]

Well seeing as how i don't use xcel at all and i found Inbox to go to be rather annoying. . . I use wordsmith for wordprocessing, and iambic for mail. Wordsmith has overall better functionality than Word2Go (yes, i've used both). The only draw back i have seen for Wordsmith so far is that i haven't quite figured out how to make an outline, Word2Go can do that pretty easily, can anyone tell me how to do it for wordsmith? Thanks.

Enjoy.
-Tek

[clieZilla2]

i personally like documents to go - and the basic version came free with our clies (a plus). if you get the premium version you get to add PDF viewage and powerpoint presentations - very nice. i added inbox-to-go also and now it automatically adds all my word, excel, pdf, powerpoint email attachments to my NX so i can view them... nice!

i have a question though for the docs-to-go users out there - how can we get this to run of MS? i can't no matter what i try?

[theredtomato]

It really depends what you are using them for. Documents to Go has lots of bells and whistles but it also has lots of problems. It does'nt quite do the job for me and I paid for an upgrade and then deleted it entirely. It reminds me of a chep car that throws in every accessory but none of them quite work the way they are supposed to. Docs to Go does have decent support. Iambic's program is simpler but more functional. It definitely works better but has minor glitches. Neither synchs well. I like the Iambic program better overall. Unfortunately the tech support is only through Email, and the tech person really does not know how the program works! As long as you don't have great expectations eiter program will probably do the job withe a slight edge to Iambic. Someday someone will develop a good program that is simple and functional.

[jbarr]

Originally posted by clieZilla2
i have a question though for the docs-to-go users out there - how can we get this to run of MS? i can't no matter what i try? OK, here's how I get DocumentsTOGo to work off of the MS:

Unfortunatly, this method requires the use of LauncherX, so if you have a different favorite launcher, you may want need to do something different. That said...

1. Load all three DocumentToGo "main" apps into RAM: Documents, WordToGo, and SheetToGo. SheetToGo is the Spreadsheet app, WordToGo is the Word Processor app, and Documents is the "hub" app that manages the documents. Note: I keep all the other "components" such as fonts, etc. in RAM.

2. Drag the SheetToGo icon to the Card Tools gadget and select "Move to card" from the menu that pops up. Select a directory that is in a path that is defined in LauncherX's Preferences "/PALM/Launcher" is fine for this.

3. Do the same for the WordToGo app.

You will end up with a normal Documents icon and SheetsToGo an WordToGo icons with small card images in the lower left corner of the icon. Do a re-scan in LauncherX if necessary.

4. Move these newly created icons into an "unfiled" or hidden tab. You really don't need to access these. Just keep the Documents icon in your prefered category and use the Documents app to launch.

OK, here's the big caveat: If you exit a SheetToGo or WordToGo document without first clicking on "Done", you will exit, but the corresponding app (SheetToGo or WordToGo) will remain in RAM. You will notice that a corresponding icon appears in LauncherX's screen. Simply tapping on either icon will take you back to the document you had opened. If you click on "Done", you will be taken back to the Documents app. Exiting from here removes the corresponding WordToGo or SheetToGo app from RAM.

So, the net affect is that you can keep some of the DocumentsToGo components on your Memory Stick.

I hope this makes sense, because it seems kinda convoluted, but it does work, it's stable, and it's quick.

[ruubster]

I tried Iambic and Docs to go, I've been using docs2go for several years now and like it quite a bit (although I don't like the limitation they have on their new wireless mail app...).

I do wish all of the application can run on expansion memory, but for now, you can move most of it there and free up quite a bit of space. (Although, I've found, if you move the apps, such as Word to Go to memory stick, then run it from the memory stick, it'll stick a copy onto your RAM again everytime it's run - has anyone else had this problem? You just have to remember to delete it again - kind of a pain)

Docs to go has a good write up on how to handle the expansion memory (for example, you can't just copy docs to the expansion memory directly - gotta do it through the docs to go app) in their support page: Expansion Memory support (http://support.dataviz.com/doc****list.html?family_id=3&platform_id=1&pid=93&catid=267&subcatid=1002) (if the link doesn't work just go to their Support page and follow the options to expansion memory FAQs)

ruby

[srodsimpson]

The one thing that I think differentiates Word to Go from all the others is its ability to handle tables. I needed this function and DTG was the only package that could handle it at the time. I'm not sure if wordsmith has caught up with that yet. However, if you don't need the table capability, Wordsmith has the edge on text formatting.


...Just my 2 cents,

...Rod

[theredtomato]

Wordsmith does not even pretend to synch documents. In other words, if you make changes on the handheld and the desktop they will not synch. Docs to go does it clumsily and it makes mistakes and creates extra directories.

[roper]

Hi,
the way I get Wordsmith (WS) to do an initial document synch is:

1. must move (or keep WS in clie main memory (can't be on card to synch))
2. on desktop, load your MS Word (or whatever) document
3. on desktop in MS Word you should have a Wordsmith addin on your upper toolbar (from your orig install). Click on it, it says "add". So click "add". This puts the document in WS's synch conduit (& it will stay there permanently until you remove it another day).
4. close MS word. (Supposedly not necc, but I do to prevent occ. MS word crashes).
5. Do a hotsync on the clie. The file will now be in clie RAM. You can move it to the card via "category". You can now also move WS back to the card, but then remember, you won't be able to sync cuz WS .prc (& the file) are not in RAM.


The other way to initially synch a WS document is:
1. must move (or keep WS in clie main memory (can't be on card to synch)).
2. On desktop, goto your StartMenu -> Programs -> wordsmith. Click wordsmith. This brings up the same WS conduit window as above. Add your file. Click Done when done.
3. Hotsync the clie.
4. you will now be at step #5 above.

To do subsequent synchs... on the clie, must move WS .prc &&& the document to synch, BOTH back into clie main memory, then do a hotsynch.

Hope this helps. If you already knew this, well, maybe it will help someone else. :)

[dimensiondvdrob]

does anyone know how to move the sheet to go and word to go apps to memory stick after i have installed to internal RAM?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[ruubster]

rob,

go to the Dataviz support site for docs to go (follow this link)
Dataviz support (http://support.dataviz.com/TS_dxtg_win_start.html?family_id=3&platform_id=1) and select "Expansion Card" as the category, then submit the request and it'll pull up all info you need on how to use expansion memory with docs to go. (It's not one simple answer...)

ruby

[ruubster]

Actually, if you JUST want to move the apps to expansion memory - that's easy; do the standard copy app to memory via the Palm copy application then delete the original in RAM. But you'll need to keep the "Documents" and the "WordToGoFonts" files in RAM.

Getting actual documents sync'ed to memory stick is a little trickier - though the instructions online are pretty thorough and work well once you figure it out!

ruby