Best mobile alternative to Office for Note 4

[nugj]

Wondering what people really like if anything for the Note 4. Polaris Office + PDF would seem the best of them. But if I am not mistaken, reviewers complain about how much space it takes and complain that saving docs to the microSD card is not necessarily an intuitive process. Not even sure it is compatible with the Note 4.

All of them even when getting decent reviews seem to find a few folks who run into a bunch of glitches and end up hating it.

I was reading a review for one of them were more than one reviewer claimed the free version was nothing more than a hook for the paid versions which ultimately turned out to be terrible. Not so much "bait and switch". Sounded more like "bait and stab in the back".

Anybody having any luck with anything yet. I don't get a positive vibe from any of them.

 

[Rukbat]

The only one I've found that's really an on-phone (as opposed to in-the-cloud) alternative to Office is Office Suite 8 Pro. Unfortunately it's $10.

 

[akutch34]

For being free, I can't complain with this one. I still miss MS Office Mobile though...

 

[nugj]

Office suite 8 might be the way to go but only appears to be the best alternative to a bad batch of offerings. Even with that I am going to wait to see if they get the bugs worked out of 8 and also see if the developers figure out what they are actually including in a paid package and what they are marketing as in the paid package.

 

[worwig]

What is wrong with the include Hancom Office?
I used to use Docs To Go, but the built in app is pretty good for me.

 

[Tkbredx]

I've tried most of them and I like Hancom the best.

 

[nugj]

I sent off an email to Polaris developers last night asking about saving docs to the microSD as some have noted that process for doing it is not intuitive. Based on the Polaris response it does not matter if anybody thinks it intuitive or not. According to them, because of "changes made by Google" it is not possible. However buying premium version will allow you to save to the device. Why am I not surprised? Polaris should just call its free version a trial version because that is really all it appears to be.

I am more interested in their comment about "Google changes". The Tech Support Rep was clearly choosing his words carefully. Does this have something to do with some sort of patent nonsense? Is this Google trying to prop up its Google Docs and its mobile spreadsheet apps which are often roundly criticized? Anybody using those apps? Do they allow you to save docs to the microSD?

 

[Bosbouer]

Since I bought my tab10.1 in 2012 I have been using Softmaker's Planmaker(excel). Small price to pay for a very good Mobile app that saves to the SD card AND in xlst format at that.
Softmaker market their apps separately so you can "pick" your heavy use component. For viewing other office documents I used polaris as installed. Amazon offered office 8 pro as a freebie a while back so that has now replaced polaris. Planmaker still rule as my excel work app

 

[cachun402]

Hancom is really good

Posted via the Android Central App with the Note 4 SM-N910P

 

[starbuckk]

Handcom can write to the SD card because it a pre-installed app. Quick Office can also as it uses the proper Kitkat Document Provider framework.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

[1812dave]

No one mentioned Polaris 4.0. Why not? something you all don't like about it? Does it not ship with the 4? I have it on my N2.

 

[worwig]

I am more interested in their comment about "Google changes". The Tech Support Rep was clearly choosing his words carefully. Does this have something to do with some sort of patent nonsense? Is this Google trying to prop up its Google Docs and its mobile spreadsheet apps which are often roundly criticized? Anybody using those apps? Do they allow you to save docs to the microSD?

For reasons that are not clear, starting with KitKat on Android, only system apps can write to the external SD card. (unless you root)
So if you buy a third part office app, it can not save documents to the external card. The internal system Hancom app can read/write to the external card.

It is not clear why Google did this nonsense. Likely something to do with security and easily swapped memory cards. But it sure does make life difficult.
But the internally installed Hancom app is good IMHO, and can read/write any storage location.

 

[raptir]

For reasons that are not clear, starting with KitKat on Android, only system apps can write to the external SD card. (unless you root)
So if you buy a third part office app, it can not save documents to the external card. The internal system Hancom app can read/write to the external card.

It is not clear why Google did this nonsense. Likely something to do with security and easily swapped memory cards. But it sure does make life difficult.
But the internally installed Hancom app is good IMHO, and can read/write any storage location.

First, it was done for security.

Second, user apps still can write to the external SD card. Any that cannot have simply not been updated to handle the new way that KitKat manages access.

 

[plumcrazy]

with cloud services like dropbox, why care if you can write to the sd card ?

 

[Tdc02]

No one mentioned Polaris 4.0. Why not? something you all don't like about it? Does it not ship with the 4? I have it on my N2.

The Notes 4 was ship with Hancom Office 2014 and it work good.

 

[jeffrey10000]

For reasons that are not clear, starting with KitKat on Android, only system apps can write to the external SD card. (unless you root)
So if you buy a third part office app, it can not save documents to the external card. The internal system Hancom app can read/write to the external card.

It is not clear why Google did this nonsense. Likely something to do with security and easily swapped memory cards. But it sure does make life difficult.
But the internally installed Hancom app is good IMHO, and can read/write any storage location.

They can save to the SD Card. However the app must be coded to only save files in its own application folder on the external SD card. The app does not have access to write to any other folder that does not belong to the app itself.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Connert]

I've tried most of them and I like Hancom the best.

I'm with you, I've tried most and Hancom is now my default on both the Note 4 and 10.1

Posted via the Android Central App from the beast A.K.A. Note 4.

 

[PaulaO]

I use OfficeSuite Pro. Mostly because it handles OpenOffice files. It can view them, even edit, just not save in that format. Which is fine.

I have the Documents folder on my SD card. OfficeSuite saves the file (now in .doc) to that folder with no problems.

I used to use WPS and it is a great software. But I got tired of having to make sure I had saved and uploaded my files in .doc. OfficeSuite solved that.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...systems.editor.office_with_reg&token=eBk9qY-z

 

[nugj]

Thanks for all the good responses.

Maybe I will just stick with Hancom. It is preinstalled. People seem to like it.

I will probably have a look at OfficeSuite Pro and Planmaker as they sound interesting. Polaris is not preinstalled or at least not on a VzW N4.

I am not all that thrilled with saving to the Cloud. Someday we are all going to find out that there is much more access to the "Cloud" than we know about and many will be uncomfortable with that I think. Not trying to be an alarmist but it is not at all unusual for us to find out far too late that big brother has been looking over our shoulders at much more than our tax returns. Suffice to say that my SOP is to consider that anything I let out of any of the various boxes I have, computer, smartphone whatever.....can be accessed pretty easily. It is not a matter of whether I have something to hide or not...it is just none of their damned business. Is it any wonder that people have started to back away from things like facebook for the most part leaving it to the kiddies?

 

[worwig]

Thanks for all the good responses.
Maybe I will just stick with Hancom. It is preinstalled. People seem to like it.
I will probably have a look at OfficeSuite Pro and Planmaker as they sound interesting. Polaris is not preinstalled or at least not on a VzW N4.
I am not all that thrilled with saving to the Cloud. Someday we are all going to find out that there is much more access to the "Cloud" than we know about and many will be uncomfortable with that I think. Not trying to be an alarmist but it is not at all unusual for us to find out far too late that big brother has been looking over our shoulders at much more than our tax returns. Suffice to say that my SOP is to consider that anything I let out of any of the various boxes I have, computer, smartphone whatever.....can be accessed pretty easily. It is not a matter of whether I have something to hide or not...it is just none of their damned business. Is it any wonder that people have started to back away from things like facebook for the most part leaving it to the kiddies?

I found that Hancom Office is as good or better than the Documents to Go that I had been using. Long ago I compared a number of them, and only Docs To Go would work with one of my more complex spreadsheets. Hancom Office works that, and has a better 'feel' to it.

I know what you mean about using Cloud storage, but it is so dang convenient for sharing files from device to device. And I only really have one password file out there that I an concerned with, and it is encrypted. The rest of it is pretty meaningless stuff. I do have an FTP server working at home now. Once I'm sure it is reliable and secure, I plan to move to that for my personal sharing.