June 02, 2012, 7:35 AM — Can a tablet replace your business laptop? Probably, if you're willing to load it up with the right apps. If you're considering carrying an iPad or Android device around instead of your laptop, you're most likely concerned about sacrificing the functionality of a full PC--especially the office software that allows you to view and edit documents.
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Choosing the right tablet for your business needs can be tough; fortunately, no matter what tablet you buy, you can find excellent apps for both iPad and Android that duplicate the functionality of popular document-editing software packages such as Microsoft Office. This guide will help you select an editing app and get started in editing documents on your tablet.
Try the Rest, Then Buy the Best: Quickoffice Pro HD
Although iPad or Android tablet users can try any of the apps created for phones (check out our guide to editing documents on your smartphone for recommendations), one application is designed with tablets in mind: Quickoffice Pro HD ($20, for Android and iPad). Quickoffice provides a plethora of tools for working with documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, as well as the extraordinarily convenient option to sync documents with cloud hosting services such as Dropbox automatically.
Getting started with these syncing services in Quickoffice is as simple as tapping the '+' icon in the bottom-left corner of the iPad or the '+cloud' icon in the top-right corner of the Android interface, and entering the credentials for the service of your choice. You'll need to log in only once. After setting up Dropbox or another service, you can browse it from the left-hand menu to find a document to edit, or just create a new document using the '+document' icon in the toolbar. Though the app gives you a choice between Office 97-2003 and Office 2007-10 formats, you should stick to the newer versions (namely, the 2007-10 .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx formats) unless you have some reason not to.
