Which Office App to use?

[zsalab2]

Which office app do you use?

MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint?

OfficeSuite + PDF?

WPS Office?

Adobe for PDF?

[KF6GPE]

I have years of crap in Office crap, so for that I use Microsoft Office for Android and OneDrive, and it works really well. For my newer stuff, I switched to the Google suite about three years ago (disclaimer, I work there now, but don't get anything for saying this!) and am quite happy with that for the newer stuff. Really, I don't think you can go wrong with either of them --- if you've got legacy docs in one format or the other, just go with that. Otherwise, if you've got a preference, go with that, and if you don't, I'd urge the Google stuff; it's a little lighter weight, I think.

I use the built-in PDF reader, but I just installed Adobe, because I want to be able to mark up PDFs and I don't really like Squid's UI.

[gidds]

You missed the most important option: None.!

I use my Gemini for many things, but so far none of them involve access to any office-type documents.

I have a loads of plain-text files; an editor like Jota+ is much faster and more streamlined than any office package, and the files are much more compatible with other platforms and programs.

On my 5mx I had a couple of spreadsheets (for tracking e.g. payslip details).  I haven't converted them yet, or decided how; installing something like Libre Office for them would seem like overkill.

(I certainly wouldn't consider MS Office.  I've been almost entirely Microsoft-free all my life, and I see no need to start locking myself in now!)

So perhaps your first question should be: Are people considering an office package, and if so, why?

[Primitive Person]

Which office app do you use?

MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint?

OfficeSuite + PDF?

WPS Office?

Adobe for PDF?

I've found the MS Word app works very well, and displays very nicely, on the Gemini. Combined with Dropbox support for seamless integration with other devices, it's really, really effective and a worthy successor to the Psion's apps.

[graynada]

I've installed AndrOpen Office but not really used it yet so can't comment on how good it is.

My ambition is though to have Linux accessible from inside Android and then doing any office type stuff inside the Linux environment.  I have AbiWord working nicely inside a GNURoot Debian setup and reportedly LibreOffice works too.

[Eldkatten]

Hello,

(...)(I certainly wouldn't consider MS Office.  I've been almost entirely Microsoft-free all my life, and I see no need to start locking myself in now!)(...)

I absolutely sympathize with that attitude ;-) It amazed me that MS Word and MS Excel were preinstalled on the Gemini, but I threw them off once I learned that it is typical MS crap which needs me to "register" (sure, my data is absolutely safe with them) and I can only rent them, meaning that I have to pay a annual (not really low) fee, and that MS is able to cut me off any time they want. Sorry, I don't deal with extortionists.

Having text-only is fine for me most of the time, but I do like the formatting feature of a full wordprocessor. So I bought and installed "SoftMaker Office HD für Android" (about 20 Euros, forever), which comes with a worprocessor and a spreadsheet, both able to read and write MS (thus Word and Excel) formats.

The downside is that I have not been able to save files to the SD card. Each time I try I'm asked to give write permission "in the next dialog", but there is no way to do that. I have not figured it out yet.

Kind regards

[Nils]

Hi, SoftMaker`s Office programs are definitely worth a try. They have desktop features, work nicely in landscape mode, maintain a high MS Office compatibility
and are availabe in free versions.
Regards Nils

[gymbo]

Hi, SoftMaker`s Office programs are definitely worth a try. They have desktop features, work nicely in landscape mode, maintain a high MS Office compatibility
and are availabe in free versions.
Regards Nils

Yeah, but they apparently have a bug that gives two letters/rows jump when using the arrow keys (see another thread on this board, don't know where at the moment, but a search for "textmaker" should find it). And it even seems they don't have the ability (or are not willing) to correct it either, according to communication with one of the members on this forum...

I have installed AndrOpen Office, which says it is a Apache OpenOffice "clone", but the GUI is a bit "cumbersome" with a physical keyboard in Android. I do believe it supports most keyboard shortcuts, but navigating in the menus kind of require the use of the "virtual" mouse (or a real one i suppose). (You can use the touchscreen, but the elements are quite small, which is a problem more or less throughout the application... You CAN make things bigger, but then you end up with less real estate for the document itself too.)

So have installed OfficeSuite, as that, as far as I can see, is the only solution (at least of the bigger ones), alongside Docs To Go, that lets you BUY the application, and not just rent it... (There is a buy option for AndrOpen too, but like I said, it has other problems.)

There was one (office suite) option that allowed you to open several documents at once, but don't remember which at the moment, and I do believe you couldn't buy it "properly" either. (Again, it seems AndrOpen supports that as well, but changing them is through the menus, at least I can't figure out how to do it with shortcuts...)

Will have to see how OfficeSuite will work out (using the trial for now), but have used it before on a tablet, and will probably end up with that. The only problem I had sometimes earlier was trouble with some docx- and xlsx-files, but believe they have sorted that now...

[Dixit]

I use MS Word, because it came preloaded and so I thought that Planet had already figured out that that is the best option for a Gemini.

But then again... Planet's own Agenda is not the best for an agenda, so Planet seemed not to have pre-selected the software.

Question about the 'rental' thing: isn't the Word app for Android totally free ? Money is only needed if you want to have a Windows version.

[gymbo]

I use MS Word, because it came preloaded and so I thought that Planet had already figured out that that is the best option for a Gemini.

But then again... Planet's own Agenda is not the best for an agenda, so Planet seemed not to have pre-selected the software.

Question about the 'rental' thing: isn't the Word app for Android totally free ? Money is only needed if you want to have a Windows version.

I do believe you need to pay for some of the more "advanced" features (what those are I don't know, I try to steer clear of Microsoft when I can...)?

And I don't mind BUYING software, but I don't really get the "apps as service"-attitude/mentality...

(Why should I pay continuously for software instead of buying them?? If they UPDATE significantly, I would be happy to pay again, or just keep my current version. But for bugs and security vulnerability they should offer those fixes for free... If you need cloud support, and space, THAT is a service, and as such it is OK to have it as a service. But it should be possible to get it WITHOUT "bundling" with some software too...)

[Joern]

I mainly use MS Word and MS Excel but sometimes also WPS. In particular, WPS is better to open Office files created with older desktop versions of MS Word.

[pdtpoet]

Which office app do you use?

MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint?

OfficeSuite + PDF?

WPS Office?

Adobe for PDF?

I am a 72-year-old coding illiterate whose first laptop was the HP Portable Plus in 1987.  My Psion 3 and then 5Mx were indispensable to me.  For my consulting work now I use a Lenovo Windows 7 Carbon X PC, an Apple iPad Air, and sometimes a Macbook pro (though the Pro i use mainly for photo postprocessing).  In my work I am sent and use primarily Microsoft Office files.  Since I received my Gemini x27 4G + WiFi in May, I have happily been able to use Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files on the Gemini and all the other computers through my OneNote drive, and to update all those files on the go with Gemini (Android only version).  Google Drive is great, but it gets too complicated for me to use all these Microsoft Office files.  As a bonus I've even been able to participate in webinars using Zoom with the Gemini as the presentation contact device (calling in from my iPhone X).  

So if your work depends on Microsoft Office files, I recommend OneNote.  I feel like I have my old Psion back (in a lighter, thinner, sexier and color version!!)

Pdtpoet

[inmontanis]

I'm still undecided, but as I had some old licenses flying around and wanted to use a MS Access Database, I installed Windows 98 with Office 97 on my Gemini (App: iBochs), it's running quite well - the emulator sleeps in the background and doesn't need power, Win98 boots up in less than a half minute.

So if I find nothing I like on Android (maybe AndrOpen Office) I would still have a good running and still quite feature rich Excel 97 within the Win98-Emulator ;-) (however limited to a 640x480 resolution at the moment)

[desolate]

As a company we a pretty much "all in" with office 365 now.

As a result I have set up my device with outlook, word/excel etc, one drive, one note and Teams.

The only negative is the lack of a rear camera to act as a scanner, so I use my phone for that.

All works seamlessly and great in landscape.

[Ifanafi]

As a company we a pretty much "all in" with office 365 now.

As a result I have set up my device with outlook, word/excel etc, one drive, one note and Teams.

The only negative is the lack of a rear camera to act as a scanner, so I use my phone for that.

All works seamlessly and great in landscape.

---------------------
Similar situation. Own an MSO 365 subscription used primarily on my laptop.

But in my Gem, I removed Word, etc. And, so, I agree with others herein who use a quality text app editor that integrates well with their preferred desktop word processing suite.

Such a suite (free like Libre / Open, etc., and paid for apps) can readily and fast format my text into presentable form for whatever which I find is sufficient and efficient for my purposes.

Ifanafi