Comparison of EIGHT major Office Apps [Updated 02/17/2013]

[funnycreature]

Attention attention! Whenever you thought they were dead they're coming to eat your brains! (or whatever).
Please visit the Transformer forum for the comparison that I will update more regularly!

PLEASE NOTE:

I do not have an updated version of Polaris if available since I am running my TF101 on an excellent custom ROM. I also have not found it necessary to update the Documents to Go comparison since the version number increased marginally (and it was never good to begin with).
I also noticed that some apps might benefit from installing the right fonts into the internal memory into root/fonts. My comparison is based on a stock scenario where no additional fonts have been installed.

Updates
Here is the UPDATED overview table including the SoftMaker apps (although there is no "umbrella suite" like in the others). Please take some time to go through the features as some have actually improved!

I have also added the PowerPoint comparison here (did I really never have a separate post for it?) with the most recent office suites and updated the Word comparison.

I also took a screenshot of the "welcome" screen of each suite:

Documents To Go Market link

Picsel Smart Office2 Market link

QuickOffice Pro HD Market link

Polaris Office

ThinkFree Mobile for Tablet Market link

OfficeSuite Pro + Market link

Kingsoft Office Market link

SoftMaker Office Market link

This post is to illustrate the differences in rendering/interpretation of the different Office Suites. The PowerPoint file contains three slides; the first showing the different graphics, the second showing some text formatting, and the third one a table and a graphic with some MS Office 2007+ effects.

Updates
Here is the UPDATED comparison table including SoftMaker Presentations. Please take some time to go through the updated features as some have actually improved!

IMPORTED GRAPHICS

Original Screenshots from Microsoft PowerPoint 2010

Screenshot Documents To Go

Screenshot Picsel Smart Office

Screenshot QuickOffice HD Pro

Screenshot Polaris Office

Screenshot ThinkFree

Screenshot OfficeSuite Pro

Screenshot Kingsoft Office

Screenshot SoftMaker Presentations

TEXT FORMATTING

Original Screenshot from Microsoft PowerPoint 2010:

Screenshot Documents To Go

Screenshot Picsel Smart Office

Screenshot QuickOffice HD Pro

Screenshot Polaris Office

Screenshot ThinkFree

Screenshot OfficeSuite Pro

Screenshot Kingsoft Office

Screenshot SoftMaker Presentations

TABLES AND EFFECTS

Original Screenshot from Microsoft PowerPoint 2010:

Screenshot Documents To Go

Screenshot Picsel Smart Office

Screenshot QuickOffice HD Pro

Screenshot Polaris Office

Screenshot ThinkFree

Screenshot OfficeSuite Pro

Screenshot Kingsoft Office

Screenshot SoftMaker Presentations

 

[funnycreature]

Word processor comparison [UPDATED 02/17/13]

Updates
Here is the UPDATED comparison table including SoftMaker Presentations. Please take some time to go through the updated features as some have actually improved!

PS: If you like this comparison, hop over to http://www.academia-nutcrackers.com and check out my book on Word 2007!

Here is the overview table for a quick evaluation of some common/important features:

PARAGRAPH AND FONT FORMATTING

Original Screenshots from Microsoft Word 2010

Screenshot Documents To Go

Screenshot Picsel Smart Office

Screenshot QuickOffice HD Pro

Screenshot Polaris Office

Screenshot ThinkFree Office

Screenshot OfficeSuite Pro+

Screenshot Kingsoft Office

Screenshot SoftMaker TextMaker

TABLES AND GRAPHICS

Original Screenshots from Microsoft Word 2010

Screenshot Documents To Go

Screenshot Picsel Smart Office

Screenshot QuickOffice HD Pro

Screenshot Polaris Office

Screenshot ThinkFree Office

Screenshot OfficeSuite Pro+

Screenshot Kingsoft Office

Screenshot SoftMaker TextMaker

LISTS AND TEXT BOX

Original Screenshots from Microsoft Word 2010

Screenshot Documents To Go

Screenshot Picsel Smart Office

Screenshot QuickOffice HD Pro

Screenshot Polaris Office

Screenshot ThinkFree Office

Screenshot OfficeSuite Pro+

Screenshot Kingsoft Office

Screenshot SoftMaker TextMaker

 

[funnycreature]

Spredsheet comparison [Updated 02/18/2013]

A good spreadsheet can be used for hundreds of purposes: Inventory, checklists, schedules, shopping lists, etc. I think that this is one of the most important reasons to have a powerful mobile computing device! Unfortunately, there are still severe shortcomings with the currently available spreadsheet apps.

Updates
Here is the UPDATED overview table including the SoftMaker apps (although there is no "umbrella suite" like in the others). Please take some time to go through the features as some have actually improved!

Here is the overview table for a quick evaluation of some common/important features:

TEXT AND CELL FORMATS

Original Screenshots from Microsoft Excel 2010

Screenshot Documents To Go

Screenshot Picsel Smart Office

Screenshot QuickOffice HD Pro
(It took forever to open the file and to switch tabs)

Screenshot Polaris Office

Screenshot ThinkFree

Screenshot PlanMaker

Screenshot OfficeSuite Pro+

Screenshot Kingsoft Office (taken form 2003 .xls file)

TEXT AND CELL FORMATS

Original Screenshots from Microsoft Excel 2010

Screenshot Documents To Go
(note: this is obviously a montage; the charts are NOT shown and need to be viewed one by one)

Screenshot Picsel Smart Office

Screenshot QuickOffice HD Pro

Screenshot Polaris Office

Screenshot ThinkFree

Screenshot OfficeSuite Pro+

Screenshot Kingsoft Office (had to use 2003 [.xls] format since .xlsx kept crashing)

Screenshot PlanMaker

 

[thunderstruck!]

Thank you for the review. Sounds like all of them need some work. Wish someone would port OpenOffice to Xoom.

 

[viper8u2]

thanks, looking forward to the rest

 

[cvela]

anyone use wordperfect anymore? Hold in out for a review for that.

 

[Kcarpenter]

I prefer QuickOffice to Documents to Go if not just because I think it looks better on the large screen, but also the cloud sync for Google Docs, dropBox and other cloud services is phenomenal. I keep 90% of all the docs I use in the cloud so I can use them literally any where.

QuickOffice to me (in daily use) just seemed to keep up with typing and react to the keyboard a bit better.

I never tried PicSel, but some of the reviews I had read said it still needed alot of work on a tab.

 

[Sparticuz]

Can you add Google Docs into your review as well?

 

[funnycreature]

Can you add Google Docs into your review as well?

I might in the future but for now I wanted to focus on the comparison of commercial applications.

 

[3devious]

GoogleDocs from the Xoom browser has been an exercise in frustration me today.

Sent from my Xoom using XDA App

 

[rlrbjr]

Thanks for doing this. I was going to do the same thing. I bought Doc2Go about 18 months ago for my Droid. I could never really get into using an Office Suite on my phone -- it's just too small. But with the Xoom using an Office Suite is very practical (especially with a bluetooth keyboard -- at least it would be if they would fix the repeating character problem).

So I was waiting for OpenOffice HD to be released and I bought it right away. There were some obvious disappointments, but I've got hope that it will improve.

I stumbed across Picsel Smart Office and noticed that it's only $5.99 at the Amazon App store so I went ahead and bought it. At this point I think it holds the most promise.

I did notice one glaring problem in your word processor and presentation comparison. You state that there are no text formatting option in Picsel Smart Office. That's not true. If you double click on a word it selects and you get a popup (on a tablet or ribbon bar on the bottom of a phone) with the ability to bold, underline, italic, set font (type and size), set foreground and background color and set list (bullet or number). The highlighted word (selection) can be extended with tablet typical markers at each end of the selection and there's even a handle that you can use to grab the selected text and move it (basically it combines cut and paste into a drag operation).

You haven't really talked about cloud integration, but here's my take on that.

QuickOffice HD integrates with:

• Google Docs
• Dropbox
• box
• huddle
• SugarSync
• mobleme

DocumentsToGo integrates with:

• Google Docs
• desktop

Smart Office integrates with:

• Dropbox
• Google Docs (claims to be coming in the future)

I also want to add some comments on find/replace. Both DocumentsToGo and QuickOffice support find and replace. Smart Office only seems to support find.

It's frustrating that none of these packages has everything needed. I can see that for now I may need to pick the package to use based on what I'm trying to accomplish.

I'll follow this thread along and throw in my two cents now and then.

 

[funnycreature]

I did notice one glaring problem in your word processor and presentation comparison. You state that there are no text formatting option in Picsel Smart Office. That's not true. If you double click on a word it selects and you get a popup (on a tablet or ribbon bar on the bottom of a phone) with the ability to bold, underline, italic, set font (type and size), set foreground and background color and set list (bullet or number). The highlighted word (selection) can be extended with tablet typical markers at each end of the selection and there's even a handle that you can use to grab the selected text and move it (basically it combines cut and paste into a drag operation).

You haven't really talked about cloud integration, but here's my take on that.

Thanks a lot for your input! I was actually expecting that I missed some features and hoped that others will point that out! I will add your cloud information to the table if you don't mind, and correct the font formatting options. I guess I was too frustrated to check everything in detail.

 

[rlrbjr]

No problem ;-)

I'm still exploring too.

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

 

[shockaholic]

Thanks for all the info! This really will help deciding which one to purchase!

 

[Shadomastr]

I own quickoffice for the xoom and have been generally satisfied with it. It seems as though adding headers and footers does not work, but they are recognized when loading a doc made on the computer. Also, double spacing in docs does not seem to work, which is a huge bummer. Another problem I've had is pressing the tab button creates a box on my doc rather than an indent, which bugs the crap out of me. It formats fine for a printer though.

If anyone's found solutions to these few things please share.

And to the OP, thanks for posting this! Wish I had seen this before I made my purchase.

 

[Even4steven]

Thanks for the great info. I have hesitated buying these programs due to lack of information on them, but I will need to pull the trigger on one. Dropbox is my lifeline so that might force my decision.

 

[funnycreature]

Just updated!

Check the first post to see screenshots of some PowerPoint features. Hopefully the Word comparison will follow this weekend (4/16-17).

 

[Vegas_Sirk]

What I would do for an official MS Office App ..... but I know Im just dreaming

 

[Wobblin30]

What I would do for an official MS Office App ..... but I know Im just dreaming

I wonder what they would charge, $50 bucks?

 

[funnycreature]

What I would do for an official MS Office App ..... but I know Im just dreaming

Yeah, I heard the wake-up call as well... Although, if they are smart they'll realize that Windows7 phones are doomed and invest int he Android platform, just like they released office for Mac OS X. I am curious to see what the Asus Transformer Office suite can do! I'll head over to their subforum and check!