Smartphone Word Processing Has Arrived

Two new apps, Quickoffice and Documents To Go, let you create and edit Microsoft Office documents on your iPhone or BlackBerry

By Arik Hesseldahl

Years ago I had utopian dreams of working wherever I wanted, armed only with a personal digital assistant. I longed to turn my Palm organizer into a word processor that would fit in my pocket, and ultimately I succeeded—sort of. I was able to install a word processing program and attach a fold-up keyboard, though there was no wireless link.

Now that PDAs have morphed into smartphones, I expect not only to be connected to the Web and my office via BlackBerry or iPhone but also to be able to create and edit a variety of Microsoft Office documents. Users of smartphones running Microsoft's Windows Mobile software have had this capability for a long time, and finally it's coming to other popular handhelds.

I've been testing two applications: Quickoffice for the iPhone (about $20), and Documents To Go Premium from DataViz for the BlackBerry (about $70). Both products liberate you from having to open up your laptop just to make minor changes on a document somebody sends you from work. The DataViz offering is a bit more advanced, but whichever camp you're in, this is a welcome development.

E-mailed Docs on iPhone Are No Snap

Quickoffice is the first application that lets iPhone users create and edit Word documents and Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint will be available on an upgrade later this year.

The files look much like what you see on a Mac or PC screen, though compressed to fit the smaller display. Turn the screen horizontally and a larger keyboard appears, allowing relatively easy typing. In both Word and Excel you can cut and paste—something that wasn't possible before.

Strangely, however, you can't do any of this easily with documents that arrive as e-mail messages. The problem is on Apple's side. The iPhone's operating system doesn't allow files used by one program—in this case, the e-mail application—to be used by any other program, such as Word. Apple (AAPL) says solving this would require having multiple software processes running constantly in the background, which would take a toll on battery life.

There is a clever, if imperfect, workaround. If a colleague wants you to mark up a document, he or she can upload it to a folder on Apple's Web-based service, called MobileMe, and you can then retrieve it on the iPhone. Quickoffice could smooth this process further by supporting other Web-based services, such as Google Docs, Google's free Web-based word processor and spreadsheet.

Spreadsheets Stand Out on BlackBerry

Compared with Quickoffice, Documents To Go on the BlackBerry (RIMM) feels more like a traditional office suite. If you have a new BlackBerry Curve or Bold, you already have a basic version of the program. But Documents To Go Premium adds several important features.

With both versions, you can open and edit documents in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that arrive by e-mail, although the PowerPoint editing options are sparse. The premium version also lets you create files in all three programs and even spell-check them.

I especially appreciated the spreadsheet feature in Documents To Go. I often look at a spreadsheet that tracks Apple's quarterly and annual sales data over 10 years. It's great to be able to edit individual cells by navigating to them with BlackBerry's trackball. You can't do the equivalent of this in Quickoffice yet, but such a feature will be added in the forthcoming upgrade.

So have I reached my work-anywhere handheld utopia? It's getting closer. Generally, I found Documents To Go to be more fully formed than Quickoffice, but both products are evolving. DataViz, for example, plans to bring Documents To Go to the �iPhone this summer. As the competition heats up, these applications will only get better.

Steve Wildstrom is on vacation

Hesseldahl is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com.

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