There are no shortage of document editing apps available on the iPhone and iPad. In this review, we take a look at OfficeSuite Free, which proved to be an excellent app to create and edit Word, PowerPoint, and Excel compatible documents.
Overview
OfficeSuite Free is an app that runs on both the iPhone and iPad, and offers creation and editing of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint compatible documents. The app also allows you to view and print PDF documents.
This review covers the iPhone version of the app, although the same features are available on the iPad.
OfficeSuite allows saving of documents on your local device, or to a number of cloud-based storage services, and supports direct saving and loading of documents with Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, OneDrive and iCloud.
OfficeSuite’s text editor supports .doc, .docx, .rtf, .txt., .log documents, the spreadsheet module supports .xlx, .xlsx, .csv file formats, and the presentation module supports .ppt, .pptx, .pps, .ppsx file formats.
While we’re covering the app’s features, it should be mentioned that there is a one time $19.99 in-app purchase available that unlocks a set of “Premium” features, which include a font pack of 7 extra fonts, the ability to save, annotate, edit, and password protect PDF documents, the ability to directly add photos from your iOS device’s camera. The Premium up sell also removes the ads from the app.
While the Premium features will be a valuable purchase for many users, I found the free app to be suitable for my day-to-day needs.
Editing is intuitive, and the features are easy to use. Most any editing feature you’re used to using in the Microsoft Office mobile apps are available in the OfficeSuite Free app, and when I saved a document from the app, I was able to load it into the Microsoft Office counterpart, and view it and edit it with no loss of formatting, both on the iOS and Mac versions of Microsoft Office.
Inserting of photos and charts is easy, and the app allows you to layout your graphics, resizing and rotating them as needed.
Editing features include spellcheck, the ability to jump to the top and bottom of the document, jump to a specific page, bookmarking ability, word count, and more. As I said before, all of the editing tools I need in my day-to-day usage are there.
OfficeSuite Free’s spreadsheet and presentation modules are just as capable as the text editor.
The spreadsheet module offers advanced formatting options, such as cell styles, borders, numbering, and fonts, and also offers multiple sheet support, formulas, inserting and editing of charts and graphics,
The presentation module offers advanced formatting and editing of slides, graphics, charts, manual and automatic slideshow ability.
I will mention that ads display continually along the bottom of the app’s screen, even when running a presentation slideshow. If you’re going to use the app to present slides to clients, you’ll want to upgrade to the Premium features that remove the ads.
Verdict
OfficeSuite Free is an excellent option for anyone wanting to create and edit Microsoft Office compatible documents on their iPhone or iPad. While a number of worthy features can be unlocked via an in-app purchase, OfficeSuite Free is a more than capable document editor in its free version.
Some users may be bothered by the constant ads that run at the bottom of the screen, although those go away with the in-app purchase.
I highly recommend giving OfficeSuite Free a try if you’re looking for a capable editor for Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files.
Rating:[rating:4.0/5.0]
Price: Free (With an $19.99 “Premium” features update available) – For the iPhone and iPad, in the App Store.
Pros:
- Competently edits Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.
- Editor works well, even on the iPhone. (We tested it on an iPhone 6 Plus.)
- File compatibility was excellent.
- Loved the ability to store documents on a number of cloud storage services.
Cons:
- Can’t Save files as PDF, that’s a Premium feature.
- The constant ads along the bottom of the screen. (Especially noticeable when running a presentation. They disappear if you upgrade to Premium.)
*Note: The above review was commissioned by the developer in accordance with our app review policy, and has been written in an objective, unbiased fashion.
