We probably don’t have to explain why signing and faxing documents is a tedious process for people for people without a fax machine, and even for those with one, so the ability to sign digitally is really useful. EasySign Mobile is an app that takes all the work out of signing documents by letting you do it directly from any iOS device. More »
iOS: Sign-N-Send is a helpful app that lets you sign documents (whether a PDF or an image) directly on the screen of your iOS device, allowing you to send it off by email or print it when you’re finished. More »
Mac: PDFpen is a smart and simple application that helps you fill out and sign PDFs without printing anything, perfect for times you have to fill out a little paperwork. No more print, sign, scan, then email. More »
Whether you lost the manual you had or your latest eBay purchase didn’t come with one, Retrevo’s extensive manual archive can help you find a replacement in no time. More »
When the iPad was announced, Steve touted the virtues of how wonderful it would be to have iWork on your iPad. We at TheAppleBlog were unimpressed with Pages, Numbers and Keynote. You can read the full reviews for details, but our primary complaints revolved around the difficulty of getting documents on and off the iPad and syncing with the cloud.
If all you want is iWork files primarily on your iPad, no need to look beyond the iWork Suite for the iPad. However, iPhone users have been working with their spreadsheets, documents, and presentations in the cloud for a while with the iPhone versions of Documents To Go and Quickoffice and got used to not being locked into the iWork file format. Now that the iPad versions of these apps are finally out, which one is right for you? Let’s review the features first.
Documents to Go for the iPhone was recently updated to support the iPad. Previous owners merely need to update and have full functionality on both devices. Two versions exist: Documents To Go and Documents To Go Premium. The Premium version adds support for cloud computing as well as presentations.
To sync with your computer, Documents To Go provides a desktop application for Windows and Mac that allows you to transfer files to and from your iPad over your Wi-Fi network without actually having to connect your computer to iTunes. The premium cloud support includes Google, MobileMe, Dropbox, Box.net and SugarSync. While you can use multiple cloud accounts, you cannot customize the names.
Unlike Documents To Go, this is a separate iPad app. Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite for iPad is focused exclusively on the cloud, but does allow uploading files to your iPad via a web interface. Access to files on Google, MobileMe, Dropbox, and Box.net are all included. Unlike Documents To Go, SugarSync support is not included. Quickoffice has support for password protection as well as customizing the cloud account names.
Both programs access files from the cloud and are integrated with the Dropbox iPad app to allow direct transfer of files to either Documents To Go or Quickoffice. However, Quickoffice does a more fluid job of accessing the cloud by connecting automatically in the background and quickly giving you access. Documents To Go, on the other hand, requires you to manually sync, refreshing your cloud file listing in the foreground and preventing you from doing anything else while the sync is underway. Additionally, it didn’t respect Google’s hidden documents so I literally had to scroll through hundreds of hidden files. At least Documents To Go remembered recent files making subsequent visits to the app slightly less painful.
Editing and navigating files in Quickoffice seemed more like a desktop app. For example, spreadsheets retained page tabs at the bottom in Quickoffice while in Documents To Go I had to access the toolbar at the bottom and then choose which tab to activate. PDFs in Documents To Go do not allow scrolling in the document; you have to manually turn each page. Documents To Go also had a cryptic and unintuitive toolbar at the bottom (see example below).
Of the two programs, Documents To Go did do a better job of retaining the file formatting of the original document. Neither program did a 100 percent perfect job of retaining all formatting, though. Slight errors regarding font styles and sizing as well as spacing developed. I consider these problems minor since I see the primarily goal of editing on your iPad to be data entry and manipulation, not the look and feel of the document.
For value, Documents To Go is an ideal choice. You can have access to your files on the iPhone and iPad with just one app. You can upgrade within the app to the Premium version for an extra $5 to get the presentation and cloud access. Users of SugarSync will have to choose this app if they want access via their iPad.
For most iPad users, Quickoffice is the better choice. Easy-to-use cloud support and quick loading of your files allows for fast editing while Documents To Go painfully makes you wait to sync back and forth. Be prepared for some quirkiness in formatting going back and forth between other apps, but otherwise you’ll have a user experience nearly identical to your desktop or web-based applications for spreadsheets, presentations and word processing.
And, yes, this article was written in both Documents to Go and Quickoffice on my iPad. I ultimately finished it with Quickoffice.
What’s your iPad office suite of choice?
FamilySearch, the online arm of the Family History Library, has a new beta search service that lets the public dig around to find documents and facts on their relatives and ancestors. It’s a pretty huge index of data, and it’s free. More »
Online service Pdfcrowd turns any web site into PDF format easily with a variety of options, including the ability to set margins, encrypt files, or disable copying and printing. More »
Saving something as a PDF file is a great way to preserve it for future reference or for sharing with others, without risking the site changing before you look at it again. PDFMyURL makes it easy to convert sites to PDF.
Point PDFMyURL at a website URL and it will convert the site into a PDF document. Not only can you do a simple conversion just by plugging in a URL but you can also modify the PDF with a wide variety of flags—see the advanced menu for a full list—that let you set the page orientation and size, header information, print orientation, and more. PDFMyURL also has a bookmarklet you can drag to your toolbar for easy access to the PDF creation service.
PDFMyURL is a free service and doesn’t watermark or otherwise alter the site you are converting to PDF. Have a favorite tool for PDF conversion or a bookmarklet that makes life easier? Let’s hear about it in the comments.
You’ve got a PDF file on your hands that you really need to print, copy, or otherwise edit but it’s locked down like Fort Knox. You’re out of luck, unless you use a service like FreeMyPDF.
A few years ago, I would have killed for a simple service like FreeMyPDF. Countless times people within my company would send me PDF files that had all sorts of unnecessary protections which frequently made it impossible for me to work with them the way they requested: “Hey can you print that off and bring it to the meeting?” “You locked it down with a password. I can’t print it.” “Oh really? Huh. I dunno what the password is.”
FreeMyPDF helps you deal with situations like that. Upload the file to FreeMyPDF and passwords and restrictions are stripped from the file before it is returned to you. It should be noted however that the process only works for files you are able to view—files which you need a password to even view can't be unprotected by FreeMyPDF.
Have a tool for solving your PDF-related headaches? Let’s hear about it in the comments.
Windows only: The Sumatra PDF Viewer is a tiny, open-source, portable, and, most of all, lightning-quick replacement for the bloated Adobe Reader we’ve all learned to replace. It’s only a 1.2 MB download, so why not give it a try?
Sumatra opened every PDF we threw at it without any issues, along with a table of contents in the left pane if available. You can head into the Options to choose the default layout and zoom, or choose whether to have the sidebar display automatically. Want to copy text to the clipboard? Just hold down the Ctrl key and select the text with your mouse, then use Ctrl+C to copy it. There’s even a full set of hotkeys, including Gmail-style navigation. It’s not as full-featured as Reader or Foxit, but if all you are doing is reading PDFs, it’s definitely worth a look.
With giant hard drives and dirt-cheap memory these days, perhaps the biggest reason to switch to an alternative to Adobe Reader isn't even the bloat anymore—it's the non-stop security holes that seem to plague the popular reader, leaving you vulnerable to drive-by attacks. If Sumatra isn’t for you, at least check out one of the other five best PDF readers.
Sumatra is a free download for Windows only. If you plan to keep Adobe Reader installed, be sure to check out the manual for instructions on using Sumatra as your default viewer when reading PDFs from the web.
