Running Office-type progs on an iPad

Frinkster

Frinkster

Frinkster

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8 Jul 2014
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3
Hi all,

I'm buying an iPad Air for my daughter who is about to start her year 10 GCSE coursework in Sept.

She needs to complete school assignments using Word, Excel & Powerpoint. Completed assignments will need to be taken to school on a memory stick.

2 questions if I may:

i) My understanding is that the only way to run Office software on the iPad is to install Office 365 (and pay an annual fee starting around £59). Is this correct - or are there cheaper ways of using software that is Office-compatible?

ii) Presuming I can create Office-compatible docs on the iPad, what's the best way to move them onto a stick for taking to school? I heard that iPad doesn't support external drives so easily...

Thanks for your support!

Frink.
 
Thank you for your answer, however, I'm interested to see what software/hardware is available to set up the system the way I've described it, using an iPad.
 
Frinkster said:
Hi all,

I'm buying an iPad Air for my daughter who is about to start her year 10 GCSE coursework in Sept.

She needs to complete school assignments using Word, Excel & Powerpoint. Completed assignments will need to be taken to school on a memory stick.

2 questions if I may:

i) My understanding is that the only way to run Office software on the iPad is to install Office 365 (and pay an annual fee starting around £59). Is this correct - or are there cheaper ways of using software that is Office-compatible?

ii) Presuming I can create Office-compatible docs on the iPad, what's the best way to move them onto a stick for taking to school? I heard that iPad doesn't support external drives so easily...

Thanks for your support!

Frink.
Click to expand...

You will be able to download Apple's office suite for free (Pages which is Word, Numbers which is Excel and Keynote which is Powerpoint) and you should have no compatibility issues for what your daughter would be using it for.

This is more difficult, with the Apple suit of software you would need to access the documents via iCloud on computer, or email them to a computer and transfer them to a memory stick that way. It is much the same with office, apart from the fact that Office uses Onedrive instead of iCloud.

I must however urge against buying an iPad for this purpose, the touch keyboard on the iPad really is not suited for any substantial amount of typing or work. I started using mine for lecture notes and quickly ended up buying a bluetooth keyboard for it.
 
As much as I like the iPad, you would struggle without a Bluetooth keyboard and getting the files on/off is a potch unless she can access cloud storage at the school.

My girlfriend is a teacher and she has a Google Drive account which the school permit, but I know many institutions don't like cloud storage. I work for the NHS and all forms of online storage is blocked, which infuriates me :mad:

Check with the school, because really the software isn't the hurdle.. It's keeping the files synced across her devices.
 
Thanks for your advice Chives & EVH.

I must admit that I'd been expecting to get a proper keyboard for use with a tablet so we may well go this way. I also have a spare monitor as well so have the option to expand the system to 'feel' like a PC if it's really necessary.

Regarding the cloud storage, we have 3 other PCs in the house linked across wifi so there should be no problem there.

Thanks again,

Frink.
 
There's no way an ipad is a usable platform for office tasks even with a keyboard.

Having said that if you do decide to go that route office 365 is available for £40 at the moment and you can stack years plus install on 5 pcs (ipad doesn't count as one of your 5).
 
Typing a whole assignment on an iPad...simply no. Just the thought of it sounds horrendous.

As others have mentioned, a laptop will suffice and will be of much more use also.
 
Chives said:
You will be able to download Apple's office suite for free (Pages which is Word, Numbers which is Excel and Keynote which is Powerpoint) and you should have no compatibility issues for what your daughter would be using it for.
Click to expand...

No, there's quite a few compatibility issues between Microsoft Office applications and Apple's "office" suite and going between them; i certainly wouldn't recommend Apple's suite if she's going to be working mostly in a MS Office environment.

Frinkster - The iOS MS Office apps are relatively limiting compared to the full package which could potentially be problematic for her. If you desperately want to get her a tablet, then a Surface Pro is a better bet - that way you can install the full-blown Office package.
But as others have mentioned, a laptop would be the best solution for her.
 
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