Daily iPad App: ReaddleDocs

ReaddleDocs, if you haven't used it, is one of the first document management apps to land in the App Store. Version 3.0 of the app recently landed and it's a significant update that helps ReaddleDocs retain its title as one of the top document managers and viewers for the iPad.

By far, ReaddleDocs biggest selling point is its ability to import files from a variety of online sources and save them for offline viewing. It can import files stored in online services like SugarSync, Box.net, DropBox, Google Docs and a handful of other smaller services. ReaddleDocs can also pull down documents from an external FTP, SFTP or WebDav server. It does support Apple's older MobileMe service, but not the newer iCloud service.

Besides online services, the app lets you import files wirelessly via an IP address provided by the application, or via a USB connection and iTunes file sharing. A built-in web browser also lets you capture full web pages or partial web pages for offline reading. If you are like me and receive a lot of documents via email, ReaddleDocs also taps into the iOS mail app and lets you import any attachments, manually or automatically.

Once you have a collection of documents, ReaddleDocs will let you sort them by name, type, date and size. It also lets you place them into folders which is great for organizing a large collection of files. As a file manager, ReaddleDocs has the ability to rename, copy, move, delete, email and zip files. It also has a toggle to select all or deselect all files which is very handy when you want to manage several files at once. There's also a new "Recents" section that provides quick acces to documents you recently opened.

Besides being a useful file manager, ReaddleDocs is also a very good document viewer. It supports PDF, Microsoft Office, Open Office Writer files and Apple iWork files. Other file formats, though, will have to be converted to PDF before being imported into ReaddleDocs. Once a document is in PDF format, though, ReaddleDocs lets you annotate it in several different ways. You can add bookmarks, create outlines, highlight text, add notes and even mark up PDF text with underlines and strikeouts. When opened, most documents were formatted properly and easy to navigate by swiping from page to page.

I did encounter a few hiccups, like the app copying some HTML code along with the text when I used the built-in web browser to capture content, but these problems were few and far between. Overall, ReaddleDocs is a very capable and very flexible document reader and file manager. With a price tag of $5, it's a no-brainer for iPad owners. You can grab ReaddleDocs from the App Store.