Review: Google Docs for Android
1st May 2011 · 0 Comments
Google is popular for several of its goods being in a almost perpetual beta state. Occur to think about it, Gmail was in beta for what appeared an eternity prior to Google decided to finally push it into a final version along with Google Calendar, Speak and… Google Docs. But while we now have native Android apps for Gmail, Calendar and Discuss, Google Docs was the one one particular left accessible exclusively by means of your browser. Yesterday it all modified. Kind of.
Google Docs went native for Android for that sweet price of zilch bucks and we took it for the spin to view if it can deal with to tackle the a lot more perpetual difficulty of the totally free office suite for smartphones and tablets. To place it in a nutshell right through the commence: it isn’t going to, but it’s a big action in the direction of it.
First of all, Google Docs isn’t going to:
1. let you to download paperwork locally. Meaning that you simply definitely have to have an Internet connection to accessibility your files.
2. let deleting files.
3. update spreadsheets with formulas if you enter new info.
4. provide any kind of password protection.
And it does:
1. give a native shell to a cloud primarily based service.
2. assistance text document and spreadsheet viewing and editing. Powerpoint presentations can only be viewed.
3. include text-recognition from images. It’s not probably the most precise you will get, but it’s a commence.
4. help multiple accounts.
5. enable quick and simple sharing.
Google Docs for Android grants you viewing and editing texts and spreadsheets, but that redirects you to your mobile website, so offline editing is a no-go – you have to have an Internet connection to accessibility your docs. Hopefully, this will alter in potential versions because the application states that it retains cache of as much as 150MB, but it’s the biggest downside from the app at present – basically turning it into a little a lot more than a wrapper for that mobile website. And dealing with the Google Docs website when viewing or editing sadly translates into sluggishness in the complete approach.
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What acquired our attention probably the most nonetheless was the optical character recognition (OCR) application that arrives bundled in the app. A relatively intelligent algorithm extracts printed text from an image in order to easily handle and edit it around the go. It’s not best in any way (printed text from your world wide web was usually interpreted incorrectly replacing various characters like “l” or “:” with “i” for when), but it might be considered a worthy alternative to scanning for printed text if you invest some time in editing afterwards.
Finally, while it’s much from a full-fledged office suite alternative mainly simply because in the sluggishness in the internet interface, it’s a commence plus a promise. If Google manages to update the app with a quick and intuitive native office client, Android can claim one particular serious development more than every one of the relaxation operating techniques on the market.
By David Heider