I remember when the iPhone first opened its App Store, and the clamoring for a proper document editor on the device. Now, there are many different apps, from some of the industry big boys, that allow you to create and edit documents on the go.
The problem with all the big apps that they are like monsters on your phone. They all take up far too much space, especially when you have a 16GB or even an 8GB phone and in truth, they are becoming far too similar to their desktop cousins. There are also simple text editors available, but most of us want something in between, something that can do everything you need it to do, but in a streamlined and simplified style.
Documents Free is just that app. A full mobile office suite with much of the functionality of the bigger apps, but without the size and complexity, Documents Free is a little gem of an office app. The app includes a full spreadsheet app, a fully featured text editor/creator, a file browser for iOS and deep integration with the major cloud services.
Here, straight from the developer, are the app’s best features:
• Smooth User Interface
• Portrait & Landscape mode
• Full support for .txt and .csv files
• Limited support for .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx files from Google Docs
• Google upload & download
• Files can be opened in Microsoft Excel, Word, Apple Numbers, TextEdit, Notepad, Openoffice & all leading office suites.
• Works anywhere online or offline.
• Spreadsheet supports formulas, formatting, resizing, and all basic spreadsheet features.
• Beautiful UI.
• Free updates
Documents Free is exactly what I need from a text editor. I can pull down documents from the cloud (iCloud, Dropbox, Box.net and Google), or from a custom sharing URL, Emails, USB, even over WiFi sharing, and edit them in a simple yet powerful editor.
The editor is classy, and I really, really like it. It gives you 95% of the screen to play with, with the tools tucked away neatly at the bottom of the page. The keyboard can be hidden to give you a nice overview of the page, and it is really simple to convert from plain text to a .rtf format.
The spreadsheet app is equally good, and when you consider the extremely low overhead of this app (it is a tiny 32MB), and the completely free price, it is hard for me not to recommend this app. If you want to do seriously heavy document editing, then in my opinion you really should pull out your laptop and not even use one of the overly complex apps from Microsoft and Apple, but if you are looking to create small text documents, or need to edit something quickly and easily, then this comes with my highest recommendation.
