iPad Spreadsheet ??

iPad Spreadsheet ??

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I've searched for an ipad spreadsheet on this site, nothing much came up.  Apple's App store has quite a few, but none with good reviews. 

Apple's own ipad spreadsheet offering, called Numbers, has very mixed reviews.   Anyone here used that?

Others:Office2 HD and Quickoffice Pro HD cover Word and Powerpoint as well, so maybe not the best for a spreadsheet. 

Does anyone on Aweb have any advice on what spreadsheet worked well for them?

BTW the best app for my ipad has been LogMeIn Ignition.  That lets me run my office computer from anywhere that has an internet connection.  Takes a bit of getting used to though.  I spent 6 months on a boat this year going up to Scotland and back, and met all my fortnightly deadlines.  But it would be handy to have a decent spreadsheet ....

Replies (10)

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By clegganator
25th Nov 2011 08:34

I've used numbers and think it tries to make spreadsheets look pretty, not practical.

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By BigBadWolf
25th Nov 2011 09:20

Google Docs

Have you tried the Google docs spreadsheet?

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By Captainblack
29th Nov 2011 16:47

Numbers

I use Excel a lot (power-user perhaps) but I find Numbers un-fathomable.

Have given up on it and not found a decent replacement for iPAD.

 

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Image is of a pin up style woman in a red dress with some of her skirt caught in the filing cabinet. She looks surprised.
By Monsoon
29th Nov 2011 17:30

Office2 HD

I've got this on my iPad. Ok, I've not used the spreadsheet function much but I've no complaints wtih it. for a fiver it's worth a try.

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John Stokdyk, AccountingWEB head of insight
By John Stokdyk
30th Nov 2011 13:25

Beaten me to it...

I would have suggested Google Docs and Numbers if BigBadWolf and others hadn't beaten me to it.

From what other accountants have said Documents to Go is the most common Microsoft Office-compatible mobile editing and viewing tool. It's available for £5.99 (or £8.99 Premium version)  from Dataviz in the iTunes store.

A look at our AccountingWEB Apps directory suggests that QuickOffice Pro might also be worth investigating.

Let's see what other members have to say and I'll put together a more detailed summary for ExcelZone.

 

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By Nigel Hughes
01st Dec 2011 12:23

Excel with documents to go

Numbers is OK if all you want are lists of numbers which add up. It's a bit fiddly, but stabbing at the screen with your fingers is not really the best recipe for spreadsheet work. But it's quite a good notepad with numeric capability.

I started to search for other things when I loaded up my dive log and found Numbers couldn't cope with more than one time function in any formula in a cell.

The version of excel which gets ported into Documents to Go has better functionality - it handles my dive log OK - but it still seems to have limitations, or perhaps I just don't use spreadsheets enough on the iPad to find out how to do certain things with it. Accessing multiple worksheets seems harder than it should be. But as John says, it's not expensive and is worth a look.

In the end the iPad is a fantastic tool - I've had mine for more than a year now and am still very impressed. I think Apple were taken by surprise by how adaptable it is for business use - it's great for taking notes, displaying all kinds of documents and media and accessing the internet - but it's not a fully functioning laptop. If only they'd added a keyboard and a mouse! but then again....

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By rmiddleton
01st Dec 2011 14:29

Thanks ...

Thanks for all your input.  You've really confirmed for me that it isn't worth spending time on Numbers.  It seems there might be a market opportunity for a decent spreadsheet for the ipad.  Seems a shame but I'm sure someone will fill the gap soon .  Meanwhile I'll give those others a try. 

 

Thanks again, Richard

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Nigel Harris
By Nigel Harris
01st Dec 2011 14:44

Good for viewing, not so good for editing

My namesake above hits the nail on the head - without a keyboard and mouse a lot of spreadsheet operations are pretty tricky on the iPad. I use Numbers for the occasions I need to tweak a basic spreadsheet, but for 99% of the time I just use the iPad as a viewer and find it works OK. I'm pretty sure the iPad comes with a rnage of file viewers built in so you can open email attachments, so you can probably open and view Excel files without installing anything new.

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David Ross
By davidross
06th Dec 2011 12:23

Sadly I have to agree about Numbers

I speak as both an Apple and Excel user since 1 November 1984. Numbers is clearly aimed at consumer users who value presentation over content.

The real pity is that there is no alternative to Excel, a true monopoly. Nothing else does the job adequately (and I include Open Office and various others) which leaves us stuck with whatever Microsoft foists on us.

What do I mean? Well every 4 or so years they want to collect more money from us so they "upgrade" but this messing about actually downgrades functionality. An example being Paste Special - in Excel 2004 (for the Mac) you could his v (for values) and then Enter - but now you have to mouse click on the radio button. Find and Replace is even worse.

I think there is a place for a simple spreadsheet that reads .xls format with a clear interface and multiple worksheets. Various people have attempted this but there is always something rather vital missing, which outweighs the time-wasting niggles in Excel.

 

Does anyone know the email address of the head honcho in the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit Eric Wilfred ? It is very hard to find on the web - perhaps they have a naming protocol?

 

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By jonbryce
06th Dec 2011 13:43

iPad keyboard

You can get a keyboard for the iPad.  Both Apple and Logitech make bluetooth keyboards specifically for the iPad, and other bluutooth keyboards will probably work, but you will have function keys designed for a PC or Mac rather than ones designed for iPad tasks.

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