Google Docs on the iPhone

[alexalex]

30 Days With...Google Docs - http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/226810/30_days_withgoogle_docs.html#tk.mod_rel

Each month I will embrace a new platform or technology--immersing myself in it and abandoning the tools and software I am familiar with. I will blog each day to share my experience, documenting the good and the bad (at least in my opinion). In addition, I will write up how-to's and tips to help guide those who might follow my path someday.

This article is the first document I have ever actually written using Google Docs.

To kick off the ambitious new project, I am giving up my security blanket--Microsoft Office. I have used every version of Microsoft Office since the mid-1990s, and I make my living in Microsoft Word. For the month of May, however, I will abandon Microsoft Office and spend 30 Days With...Google Docs...

Day 13: Google Docs on the iPhone--Don't Try This at Home - http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/227898/day_13_google_docs_on_the_iphonedont_try_this_at_home.html

I am really pushing the envelope on this mobile computing thing now. Here I sit, typing a 30 Days With...Google Docs post in Google Docs on my iPad over a Verizon 4G MiFi portable hotspot while sitting in the middle of a field at my daughter's soccer practice. But, we can push that envelope just a bit further, so today I am going to examine using Google Docs on a smartphone--specifically my iPhone.

If I had an Android smartphone, I could be using the Google Docs app, but I don't. There are a couple third-party apps for viewing Google Docs, but there is no app for actually working in Google Docs on iOS.

I don't recommend trying to do anything productive with Google Docs from an iPhone.

But, Google Docs is a Web-based tool, and my iPhone has a Web browser, so I can just go in to docs.google.com on the Safari browser on my iPhone. Just like on the iPad, when you go to the Google Docs site you are automatically redirected to the mobile version.

The basic layout and steps to use to start a new document (or spreadsheet) are the same on the iPhone as they were with the iPad. Once you get to the actual document, though, things start to get dicey....

Bottom line? You can review files in Google Docs on an iPhone, but I wouldn't plan on editing them, and I certainly wouldn't suggest trying to create content on the iPhone. It might provide some limited functionality in an extreme emergency, but it is not for the faint of heart.

If you absolutely must have Google Docs capabilities on your smartphone, get yourself an Android model and use the Google Docs app--although, apparently that can be a bit of an adventure as well.

[lawtai]

It would be nice to have a Google Docs app, but you get by using just the browser.