For the past few weeks I have decided not to bring my laptop to work with me, just my iPad (WiFi + 3G) and my Camera. And today I feel as if I have passed the point of novelty to the skeptical co-worker and into the 'wow-factor.' With the task of processing a site excavated in 1972 (talk about a back-log...), I immediately rummaged through my drawer of clichés and quickly realized .... "there's an app for that." And Documents 2 Go is that app.
I've had Documents 2 Go for quite a while (pre-iPad), and until today, had largely used it to simply store and view MS Office documents (.doc, .xls, .ppt) on my Apple mobile device, which at the time was an iPod Touch. Today I used the app to create an Excel spreadsheet of a bag-by-bag inventory for 125 bags of historic and prehistoric artifacts. The interface is largely the same as the desktop version, but lacking the analytical/statistical power of functions/formulas (but hey, this was just an inventory for later analytical work). And making most archaeologists who use Excel happy, the functionality of copy, cut, & paste (and mass copy/paste) are flawless in the mobile version. One other plus is one that I noticed after about 5 bags, and was something that I have also found favorable in the field: because the iPad has no movable parts/no major exposed openings, with your cover on, one does not have to mind dirty hands when typing (the dirt wipes right off).
After finishing in an amount of time comparable to using the desktop Excel, with Documents 2 Go, I simply emailed the file directly from the app to my Gmail email address (which in itself is a cloud server, automatically saving it as a Google doc).
Breiefly put Documents 2 Go allows the user to:
• EDIT, CREATE & VIEW Word, Excel & PowerPoint files (including Office 2007/2008/2010)
• View PDF, iWork & other files
• iPad/iPhone 4/iOS 4: Send & receive attachments using the device's built-in Mail app
• iPhone/iPod touch WITHOUT iOS 4: Send & receive attachments
• Access, use & sync files stored in Google Docs, Dropbox, Box.net, iDisk & SugarSync
• Includes desktop app (Win & Mac) with 2-way file sync (WIFI required)
And while this is not a Microsoft application, it certainly is the best 3rd-party app for creating, viewing, and editing MS Office documents on a mobile device. I would highly recommend Docs 2 Go for any archaeologist or other field researcher working with quantitative data.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Hello, as an archaeologist working on historic buildings, this sort of tool is becoming more and more appealing and I must confess that paper is becoming a real hassle on site...
ReplyDeleteWhilst Excel files etc are great for inventories, what about applications which allow basic database functions and form filling - the archaeologist's great past-time, when he's not taking notes or drawing things. For recording, I have to use a certain amount of quantitative and qualitative data organised in set fields (dimensions, physical attributes...) and often quite lengthy textual descriptions, not to mention the ongoing register of contexts, plans, samples etc.
Any suggestions ?
Finally, is an iPad obligatory ? I have nothing against Apple but do these applications work on other platforms such as Android or Windows mobile ? I simply like to have a choice of hardware (and all our company machines are Windows...).
Great articles and hope to read the next tests soon
All the best
Simon