In Pictures: The must-have iPad office apps, round 7

The on-the-go business app toolkit for the iPad Of the tens of thousands of apps available for the iPad, only a relative few are must-have tools for business use. The tools are regularly updated and new competitors enter the fray.
InfoWorld Test Center scorecards: Native office apps In the wake of the iOS 7 redesign, Apple has significantly updated iWork for iOS, providing more capabilities and greater compatibility with the OS X and (new) Web versions of its office suite. After years of neglect, a new version of Documents to Go became available earlier this fall, and Google made its mark on Quickoffice, which it acquired more than a year ago, by dropping cloud storage support. All of this has changed the office productivity landscape.
Best word processor (tie): Pages Apple's $9.99 iWork Pages is good at layout-oriented documents, and it offers revisions tracking, tables, spell checking, search and replace, text formatting, graphics insertion, and both AirPrint printing and PDF export. The newest version adds ePub export and comment support, as well as multiuser editing via the Web (but with no revisions tracking or file security). It does have some limits: You can't work directly with documents in cloud storage services, just those in Apple's iCloud. You must copy a file before editing; there's no Save As feature once you begin editing. You can't create or apply character styles, and you can't create paragraph styles. App: Pages  Price: $9.99  (free on new devices)  Developer: Apple  Compatibility: iPad and iPhone
Best word processor (tie): Office2HD If you want the ability to edit files directly from the popular cloud storage services, your only strong choice is Office2HD, which supports Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and SkyDrive (but not iCloud). The word processor is capable, supporting most features users need: revisions tracking, tables, spell checking, text formatting, graphics insertion, and (a recent addition) both AirPrint and printing and PDF export. The one surprising limitation is that you can find text but not replace it. As with most iPad word processors, you can't create or apply real style sheets. A cool feature is the ability to go back to previous versions of your documents. App: Office2HD  Price: $7.99   Developer: ByteSquared  Compatibility: iPad (iPhone version: $5.99)
The rest of the iPad word processors Google's Quickoffice (free with a Google account) remains a midlevel word processor if you edit local files, but it has lost its support for cloud storage services. DataViz's $16.99 Documents to Go Premium offers the basics, but no more. A recent update made it run slower and added none of the key missing features: graphics insertion, paragraph styles, and revisions tracking. Its only advanced feature is its extensive support for cloud storage, including iCloud. Picsel's $9.99 Smart Office 2 is, in a word, unusable due to a very poor user interface and limited capabilities. In addition, accessing cloud storage requires signing up for spam.
Best spreadsheet editor (tie): Numbers Apple's iWork Numbers spreadsheet editor is great at data entry, especially numeric, date, and formula info. The keyboard even adjusts based on the type of data you're working with. Cell formatting is less flexible than in Excel, and Excel users may dislike Numbers' approach to creating worksheets: Numbers allows several on a page. But the newest version better supports multisheet workbooks and adds CSV export, animated charts, and (unsecured) group editing via the Web. Also, like all iWork apps, the only cloud storage service you can directly edit files in is Apple's own iCloud. But it does support AirPrint and PDF export. App: Numbers   Price: $9.99  (free on new devices)   Developer: Apple   Compatibility: iPad and iPhone
Best spreadsheet editor (tie): Office2HD Office2HD's spreadsheet module is very similar to Quickoffice's, lacking only pane freezing but boasting extensive support of cloud storage services. For many users, it's a better option than Quickoffice due to the cloud support. App: Office2HD  Price: $7.99   Developer: ByteSquared  Compatibility: iPad (iPhone version: $5.99)
Best spreadsheet editor (tie): Quickoffice Quickoffice's spreadsheet-editing module works very much like Excel, so it's instantly accessible to Excel users. That also means it offers less visual feedback than Apple's Numbers. Although it supports AirPrint and PDF export, it no longer supports editing from cloud storage services. However, it's the only app to support pane freezing. App: Quickoffice   Price: free with Google account  Developer: Google's Quickoffice division  Compatibility: iPad and iPhone
The rest of the iPad spreadsheet editors DataViz's $16.99 Documents to Go Premium offers the basics, but no more. It's languished for several years, so it's not a good investment choice (the recent update was trivial). It does not support printing or PDF export. Picsel's $9.99 Smart Office 2 is simply unusable due to a very poor user interface and limited capabilities.
Best presentation editor: Keynote Simply put, iWork Keynote is an amazing slideshow editor. I prefer it over PowerPoint even on the Mac, and on the iPad it works beautifully when creating complex slide transitions and element effects, which competing apps can't do. The newest version adds more animation capabilities and (unsecured) Web-based collaborative editing. A bonus is Apple's free Keynote Remote app that lets you remotely control a Keynote presentation on your Mac, iPad, or iPhone. Keynote's big negative is its awkward requirement of copying documents to and from cloud storage services, rather than allowing direct access. But it supports AirPrint and PDF export. App: Keynote   Price: $9.99  (free on new devices)  Developer: Apple   Compatibility: iPad and iPhone
The rest of the iPad presentation editors The free-with-Google-account Quickoffice's presentation editor is basic, really aimed at touching up existing presentations' text and object placement, not creating new slideshows. And forget about anything like Keynote's animation capabilities. However, it's the only app besides Keynote that supports AirPrint and PDF export. ByteSquared's $7.99 Office2HD presentation editor is likewise basic, aimed at touchup work. But it works with cloud storage services. DataViz's $16.99 Documents to Go Premium is less than basic when it comes to presentation editing, allowing just text touchup. Picsel's $9.99 Smart Office 2 is unusable due to a very poor user interface and limited capabilities.
InfoWorld Test Center scorecards: Cloud office apps As Apple, Google, and Microsoft battle over in-the-cloud office editing on the desktop, the action on the iPad centers around native apps. Several cloud-based tools use iPad apps as the front end, doing the heavy lifting in the cloud.
Best Microsoft Office in-the-cloud service: CloudOn Pro With a Pro subscription, the CloudOn app nicely accesses the 2010 versions of Excel, PowerPoint, and Word, as well as Adobe Reader, hosted on Windows Server. Plus, it supports the iPad's native keyboard and Share facility. It uses your Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and SkyDrive cloud storage, so you don't have to worry about version control across devices. It has a few flaws, but when you need the full version of Microsoft Office, CloudOn is a handy option -- as long as you have a live Internet connection. The free CloudOn service remains available but lacks essential business features, such as revisions tracking. App: CloudOn   Price: $80 per year (Pro subscription)   Developer: CloudOn   Compatibility: iPad and iPhone
The rest of the Microsoft Office in-the-cloud services for the iPad Two services let you run Office 2010 as a hosted app over the Internet from a Windows Server, with the claimed benefit of giving you the actual Microsoft experience on your iPad. The subscription-based Microsoft Office 365's hosted Office Web Apps works surprisingly well in the iPad's Safari browser but has little integration with the iPad, so accessing local files or printing requires labor-intensive workarounds. (Log in from office.microsoft.com.) The free OnLive Desktop is a horrible Office hosting service: It scrunches Office 2010 into the iPad's smaller screen. The app forces you to manually activates its own onscreen keyboard and can't print, and loading files requires separate login to its website. Plus, leaving the app disconnects you.
The rest of the alternative cloud-based office editors An alternative to hosted Office services are Web-based document editors. Google's Drive (free with a Google account) can only edit text and do rudimentary formatting -- and only for files saved in Google's own format in your desktop browser. The same is true for spreadsheets; there's no formula editor, for example. And it can only view presentations. It's not the editor as promoted by Google. The free AstralPad provides moderate editing capabilities -- more than Google Drive, less than hosted Office -- but is very slow, allows only two open documents, can't print, requires manual keyboard activation, and has a confusing interface. It does allow access to Dropbox and Google Drive files.
Editor's Choice: Must-have productivity iPad apps Beyond the holy trinity of office productivity apps -- those for textual documents, spreadsheets, and presentations -- are lots of iPad specialty apps. Some are so broadly useful that they should be on nearly everyone's iPad. Our picks for those follow.
Best file manager: GoodReader Many people really wish the iPad had a shared file system like a PC or Mac, but it doesn't. GoodReader can give you much of the file manager you want. It provides a central file repository for files you transfer via Wi-Fi, various storage services, iTunes, and the Open In facility used by many iOS apps (such as Mail). GoodReader -- as its name implies -- also lets you read many file formats, including several not supported by iOS's naive QuickLook facility. Plus, it unzips file archives, so you don't need a separate utility for the task. App: GoodReader   Price: $4.99   Developer: Good.iWare   Compatibility: iPad (iPhone version: $4.99)
Best PDF markup: GoodReader Although GoodReader didn't start as a PDF annotation tool, it's evolved into a darned good one. You get the key markup and editing tools you expect from Acrobat Professional. The app does a good job of using touch gestures for highlighting portions of your PDF for markup. My only quibbles are that getting the markup menu back can be tricky, and you can't rotate individual pages, so sometimes you're marking up a page rotated 90 degrees from the orientation of the sticky notes' text you're adding. Note: The free Adobe Reader is good for simpler uses, and the $9.99 PDF Expert has a slightly cleaner interface. App: GoodReader   Price: $4.99   Developer: Good.iWare   Compatibility: iPad (iPhone version: $4.99)
Best note-taking (tie): Notability Taking notes is a very personal activity, and dozens of apps for the iPad reflect all those preferences. But three such apps work well for most people. One is the iPad's built-in Notes app, which is great for typing in text-only notes and syncing them to your computer and other devices. If you want notes that include audio recordings and drawings, you should also get Notability. It's straightforward to use and associates your recordings to what you type as you type; to hear the portion of a recording made when you typed in specific text, just tap that text. The newest version works with iCloud and on iPhones. App: Notability   Price: $4.99   Developer: Ginger Labs   Compatibility: iPad and iPhone
Best note-taking (tie): Evernote The third note taker you should consider is Evernote, a Web-based service that collects snippets of information -- more Post-it-style notes than detailed meeting notes, though it can do those to -- and synchronizes all that info across your devices and computers. You can create buckets and move items around them, and you won't be as likely to lose them as you do all those scraps on your desk. For collaborative note-taking, Evernote offers several paid subscription options. App: Evernote  Price: Free (app); $50 for pro subscription  Developer: Evernote  Compatibility: iPad and iPhone
Best calculator: Calculator Original Who doesn't need a calculator now and then? But unlike the iPhone, the iPad doesn't come with one built in. Fortunately, you can get an iPad version of that familiar iPhone calculator for free. App: Calculator Original   Price: Free   Developer: Spencer Brown   Compatibility: iPad
Best cloud storage (tie): Box Like Dropbox, Box enjoys wide support from iPad apps, and it works in Windows, OS X, and Android. It now offers the simple integration with OS X and Windows that Dropbox long has boasted, making it easy to work with files. Box can be used with Apple's iWork suite on the iPad for no additional charge, and it offers an enterprise version that lets IT manage access and content rights for corporate data. App: Box   Price: Free, but charges for storage vary   Developer: Box   Compatibility: iPad and iPhone
Best cloud storage (tie): Dropbox Apple's iCloud is a great service for keeping files and other data synced across iOS and OS X devices, but it's not (yet) a storage service where you can keep files in a central location accessible to all devices and other users. Dropbox is such a service, and it's integrated with many iPad apps, so it can fill in as a common file system in some cases. Dropbox also integrates nicely with OS X and Windows, appearing as another storage volume. It's available for Android as well. Note that using Dropbox with Apple's iWork apps requires a $5 monthly fee. App: Dropbox   Price: Free, but charges for storage vary   Developer: Dropbox   Compatibility: iPad and iPhone
Other cloud storage tools for the iPad Three other cloud storage tools may warrant your attention. One is Microsoft's SkyDrive app, mainly because it comes with Office 2013, Windows 8, and Office Web Apps as a default storage location, so it's essential for Windows users. (There's a separate Pro version for Office 365 business users.) Note that few apps support SkyDrive natively, so you'll need to transfer files. Likewise, although this popular service is supported by many apps natively, it's a good idea to have the Google Drive client app. If you use multiple cloud storage services, AppSense's free DataNow app can manage them, letting you move files among them easily from one console. It supports Dropbox, SkyDrive, Google Drive, FTP servers, and WebDAV servers.
Best task manager: OmniFocus If you're a project manager who needs serious task management capabilities, such as timelines, multimedia annotations, multiple assignees, calendar integration, and hierarchical steps, OmniFocus is the gold standard for iOS and OS X. If all you need is a to-do list, the iPad's built-in Reminders app is primitive but serviceable. App: OmniFocus   Price: $39.99   Developer: Omni Group   Compatibility: iPad (iPhone version: $19.99)
Best FTP client: FTP on the Go Pro Cloud storage services have made FTP utilities archaic for many users, but if you work on a website or in many file-management systems, you still need a client. For the iPad, that client should be FTP on the Go, which not only does the FTP uploading and downloading you'd expect, but also provides a basic HTML editor so that you can touch up your Web pages. App: FTP on the Go Pro   Price: $9.99   Developer: Headlight Software   Compatibility: iPad (iPhone version: $6.99)

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