Macworld Expo 2011: Quickoffice for iPad offers cloud storage, publishing

Last year at Macworld Expo we saw Quickoffice for the iPhone. This year we got a look at Quickoffice for the iPad, including some features that aren't yet available from the App Store. With this release, the Quickoffice team has emphasized cloud-based storage and publishing. Plus, the iPad version now includes PowerPoint editing. Here's our quick look at Quickoffice for iPad. You'll find a video after the break.

The app's full title is Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite for iPad, and it's quite nice. Upon launch, you'll see a list of supported cloud services. On the far left of the display you'll see all of the available services, or "connected partners," including iDisk, Google Docs, Dropbox (naturally), Box.net and new with the iPad app, Huddle and SugarSync (I wonder if iDisk feels self-conscious while hanging out with the cool kids like Dropbox).

From there you can select any Microsoft Office file as well as PPT, PPTX, PDF, iWork, HTML, PNG, JPG or GIF files, among others. Of course, the Office files are fully editable and, since they're stored remotely, can be accessed from nearly any computer with an internet connection.

Some cool features include pinch-and-zoom within Excel documents (it's very smooth). Word docs viewed with Quickoffice for iPad are displayed as pages, as opposed to the iPhone which doesn't break them up. I think it's much nicer, visually, to see your file with the page breaks. There's also a very nice "Toolbox" available when editing Word docs that's similar to the Inspector in Pages and some other apps from Apple. In fact, you can apply style changes to text right within the Toolbox window. It saves jumping around and is well done.

The new PowerPoint editing is also interesting. I especially like the option to batch-select slides for repositioning, a "film strip" that works as a type of presenter mode that only displays on the iPad as well as a "laser pointer" that lets you highlight the important bits or distract the easily distracted.

One feature that's not yet on the current release lets you drag-and-publish files to Slideshare, Scribd and docstock. It's super simple and should be included in a future release.

Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite for iPad is available now from the App Store for $US14.99. Watch our video below for Mike's demonstration.