App review: Documents To Go

The much anticipated Docs to Go for iPhone has finally arrived for those looking for a way to edit MS Office documents on the fly. For a first release, this app does the job well, but it is far from perfect like many other first-release apps.

There are two versions of the app available – one is the basic document editing, and the other is document editing as well as Microsoft Exchange support (MobileMe possibly coming in the future). I had bought the one with Exchange support at first because I was not aware of the different versions. But if MobileMe is added then I will find the Email capable version to be much more useful.

Along with the iPhone app, you will need to download the free companion desktop app, which is what you need to use in order to sync documents from computer to iPhone and vice versa. This will create a folder on the computer that will contain the synced documents. Connecting the iPhone to computer is done by wifi network, and is quite easy to set up.

When you want to make a new document, just simply tap the button in the top right corner. Depending on the version that you purchase, you will see an option to create a new Word document or Email with attachment. Fast and simple, straight to the point.



When you are looking at a blank document, you will see a toolbar with 12 options to choose from. These options include saving/save as, email [if on the MS Exchange version], various font and paragraph formatting, find and replace, zoom, go to, undo/redo, word count, and file properties.

In the iPhone app, there is currently only support for Word, with Excel to be in a future update. This may put off some of you, but if you can wait for Excel and spreadsheet goodness, it may be worth the wait.

When typing, there was a slight bit of lag on the first version with a 3G – with a 3GS, there is no lag whatsoever. The recent update may have fixed this issue as well.

The app provides a feature-rich set of options to use in a Word document, but still lacks the option of various fonts – you’re stuck with Times New Roman for now. You can change text and background color, format bold/italic/underline, choose various paragraph formatting, bulleted or numbered lists, and increase/decrease paragraph.

The Find feature works like expected, and the Replace option is simple and nothing new. Making replacements or finding words is easy and painless, and you also have options of case sensitive and whole words only, which will help in some situations.

The Go To tool let’s you jump to various points in the document, which is useful if you know what point you need or want to go back to. There’s also undo/redo option, which is you’re only option since the 3.0 Shake-to-undo feature doesn’t seem to work in the app.

Word Count tells you how many words, characters, characters with spaces, and paragraphs that are in the current document. This is a great tool if you need a specific amount of words for a paper or article. The last option on the menu bar will tell you general properties of the document, such as where the file is located, size, and date of last modification. All of these features are what you would expect from Word, and a mobile word processor.

In the 1.0 version, the app did not use Apple’s native Copy and Paste system and instead used a funky, homebrewed method of c&p. However, that homebrewed copy paste is now gone in 1.1 and is replaced with the native iPhone copy and paste and works across all applications.

Another nice feature that appears in 1.1 is Fullscreen mode, where you can make the toolbar and keyboard go away to let you view the document in the screen’s entirety. There are tiny icons left on screen to bring the keyboard and toolbars back, so it’s easy to switch between editing and viewing.

Overall, Documents To Go is a good app for mobile word processing between the iPhone and desktop. It’s still missing some functionality (Excel and other email support), but if you can live with just syncing between the desktop and emailing from that and just need Word editing, this app may be worth a try.

Documents To Go in the App Store