Quickoffice Free App for iOS and Android Devices

Quickoffice is now a free office suite app for iOS and Android devices.  According to the app store description, you can create and edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files and save them to your Google Drive.  You can also use it to access your Google Drive, open and view PDF files, attach files to emails, and share files.  On iOS devices you can also zip files.


In order to use Quickoffice, you have to have Internet access.  All files are stored in your Google Drive account.  Quickoffice offers up to  15 GB free storage. 

For more information go to https://support.google.com/quickoffice/answer/3381968?hl=en
http://lifehacker.com/quickoffice-now-free-on-android-and-ios-with-free-googl-1350259070
http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57603769-285/get-10gb-extra-space-on-google-drive-for-linking-with-quickoffice/

When you first open the app, you are prompted to login to your Google account. You have to accept the app managing your Google Drive files, viewing your email address, and basic information about your Google account.

The next window provides you with four tutorials:

• Explore a budget spreadsheet (two sample spreadsheets - no tutorial)
• Get started with Documents.docx
• Get stared with Presentations
• Get started with Quickoffice.pdf

If you use Google Drive, QuickOffice may be a perfect mobile solution.

PS - Quickoffice is also an extension for the Chrome web browser, although it is still a beta product. The extension differs from the app.  Chrome extension allows you to view any Microsoft Office files, not edit the files. 

Google Drive Spreadsheet - Part 1

Google Drive spreadsheet (http://drive.google.com) is a popular choice for a cloud solution because of the many features common to desktop solutions and the ability to share collaborative editing.  Google Drive is available for the Window OS X, Mac OS X, iPad, and Android mobile devices.  An alternative cloud spreadsheet solution, SkyDrive, is available for users who have Microsoft Office desktop or Microsoft Office 365, a cloud solution.  SkyDrive is available for Mac and Windows mobile devices.  However, for the purpose of this blog, discussion of cloud-based spreadsheet software is limited to Google Drive because of its non-commercial nature, popularity and robust features.

Google Drive users get 5 GB of free storage for all Google Doc files, including spreadsheets). Google Drive is also a downloadable app for Windows and Mac computers, as well as Apple and Android mobile devices.  The app allows users to sync Google Doc files with either a Mac or Windows PC, providing a backup solution.  Google Drive files can be organized using folders and users have the ability to search for files and preview them.

The menu for a Google Drive spreadsheet is similar to other spreadsheet software (figure1).  

Figure1 Google Drive Spreadsheet

The Google Spreadsheet app includes text and number editing features.  The Functions menu is used to create formulas  and use common formula functions, such as sum, average, count, max, and min. The functions menu is available from the the Insert menu and also the sum symbol on the toolbar (figure 2).

Figure 2 Formula Menu with Common Formula Functions

Information on additional functions is available online at https://support.google.com/drive/bin/static.py?hl=en&topic=25273&page=table.cs

Free (no fee) Spreadsheet Solutions

The following is a section from the eBook that I am writing on data analysis with spreadsheets and database software.

Free Desktop and Cloud-Based Spreadsheet Software Solutions

You can anticipate that the basic spreadsheet features available in Microsoft Excel and Apple iWork Numbers are also available in the free (no fee) spreadsheet solutions.  If you are not ready to purchase commercial software, but need to work with spreadsheets without being connected to the Internet, consider trying one or more of the free desktop office software packages.

Free Desktop Software Solutions

There is a growing choice of free desktop office software, which includes spreadsheet capabilities.  Table 1 below provides examples.  

Desktop Software Name	Web Address
Apache OpenOffice.org	http://www.openoffice.org
IBM Lotus Symphony	http://www-03.ibm.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home
Kingsoft Office	http://www.kingsoftstore.com/kingsoft-office-freeware.html
LibreOffice	http://www.libreoffice.org/
OxygenOffice	http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/ooop/wiki
SoftMaker FreeOffice	http://freeoffice.com/

Table 1 Free Desktop Spreadsheet Software Solutions

Cloud Based Spreadsheet Software Solutions

Spreadsheet software is also available using the cloud (table 2).  In other words, the software resides on the Internet, rather than a personal computer.  The table below shows four examples of cloud-based spreadsheets.  All require a login and password to use. 

Desktop Software Name	Web Address
Google Drive Spreadsheet	http://drive.google.com/
Sheetster	http://sheetster.com/index.jsp
SkyDrive	http://skydrive.live.com
Zoho	http://www.zoho.com/

Table 2 Cloud-Based Spreadsheet Software Solutions