This question has (to my best knowledge) never been addressed in its own thread. I want to use the Xoom (or any other laptop-substitute for that matter) to edit Word and Excel documents, look at presentations on a screen instead of print outs, make last minute changes etc. Maybe take notes during meetings/presentations... you get the idea. It might also be used as multimedia device.
Now, with the currently available accessories (I really like the idea of a case with integrated bluetooth keyboard) is this a reasonable expectation of the Xoom?
Thanks for all your opinions!
I'm not using a bluetooth keyboard but using docs to go with pretty good success. I get an error loading to gdocs but it still does the upload. Some advanced excel functions and word formatting are not the but its decent. The powerpoint part of docs to go is garbage. I have also been using repligo for annotating pdf files and it is very slick well worth the 4.99.
I am trying to use my xoom in place of all the paper docs i used to print and take to meetings. Also signed up to beta test the swiftkey tablet keyboard to see if that works better than this stock honeycomb one.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App
Thanks! I'll keep on looking; if not for the Xoom then at least for my Nook
So there are a couple Powerpoint Apps for the Xoom. Unfortunately, like allot of Office Suites there is some rendering and formatting issues when it comes to Powerpoint Documents. So if you are looking for an app to deliver your Powerpoints on, you might have to look elsewhere because they most likely won’t look the same. Unfortunately there isn’t allot of options out there, in fact I couldn’t find any. Please someone prove me wrong . However I have been going through a couple solutions. One solution is one I use at work because formatting problems even occur going across different Microsoft Powerpoint versions. So we convert to PDF and then present with a PDF viewer in fullscreen. An app like this doesn’t seem to exist yet. Again please someone prove me wrong . I dug a little deeper and came up with this Workaround. You can save your Powerpoint as Pictures on your computer. Its very easy in Microsoft Powerpoint and then you can load them in a folder on the Xoom and use the stock Gallery App to view them. And you know what… It Works!!! It has a very nice full-screen effect works great on the projector, and really isn’t too many additional steps. Its not the best thing in the world. But if you want to deliver powerpoint on your Xoom without worry about format getting messed up, this is a workable solution for now. I apologize if this was already suggested on the Xoom forum, I didn't come across it. I have a video also showing this in action.
I mentioned that in a very early thread but not as detailed. I also posted a comprehensive comparison between three different office suites (will post links later). Downside with PDF conversion is that animations are lost and I am not sure that the PDF rendering on the Xoom is 100% accurate.
[sent with Xooming Android technology]
Actually docs to go is much better at displaying power point then quick office pro. Ironically I had docs to go first. Then I bought the xoom and found that the native quickoffice app was better and accurately displaying excel compared to Docs to Go so when I got an email about quickoffice hd pro for tablets I was all over it. Excel was wonderful. Then today I had a presentation in a meeting and I thought great I'll play the slides on my xoom. It was a video conference. Anyway the slides were aweful. Formatting was a mess even on simple slides. I thought maybe it was a bug in quickoffice hd pro and tried the regular quckoffice. Same results. Finally I tried Docs to Go and low and behold the pages were perfect.
BTW word also displays more correctly in quickoffice then in Docs to go. Looks like the quickoffice guys just dropped the ball big time on power point. I'd say that Doc's to Go is better all around office program.
ethion said:
Actually docs to go is much better at displaying power point then quick office pro. Ironically I had docs to go first. Then I bought the xoom and found that the native quickoffice app was better and accurately displaying excel compared to Docs to Go so when I got an email about quickoffice hd pro for tablets I was all over it. Excel was wonderful. Then today I had a presentation in a meeting and I thought great I'll play the slides on my xoom. It was a video conference. Anyway the slides were aweful. Formatting was a mess even on simple slides. I thought maybe it was a bug in quickoffice hd pro and tried the regular quckoffice. Same results. Finally I tried Docs to Go and low and behold the pages were perfect.
BTW word also displays more correctly in quickoffice then in Docs to go. Looks like the quickoffice guys just dropped the ball big time on power point. I'd say that Doc's to Go is better all around office program.
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Sounds like an embarrasing situation with ppt and quickoffice. You should report that to them!
Tried creating and editing some Word docs on my gtab cuz my laptop died. Boy, was I disappointed. QuickOffice on the gtab just doesn't cut it; it lacks too many standard features (e.g., number bullets, etc). I've used Polaris Office on the Transformer, and that was much better. The Google Docs App is even worse; no formatting options whatsoever. I had high hopes for the web (desktop) version of Google Docs, but I don't think it was meant for honey comb. It was way too buggy; most of the time the soft keyboard won't even come up. What are your experiences in this area? Have you tried other alternatives? Please share. Thanks.
I am considering buying one of these but would like to try it out in a store before I buy it. Does anyone know of a US retailer that stocks them?
I am mostly curious about the following things:
1) How good is it for taking notes in college/university classes? Can you rest your palm on the screen while using the stylus?
2) Is there a way to view the notes taken on pdf on a computer?
3) Is it pretty solid feel wise? Or does it feel like it will fall apart after a couple years?
4) How much bloatware comes on it and is it hard to remove via rooting?
5) Does the screen go dark enough for comfortable reading in dimly lit rooms?
Thanks for the info.
the notes are great, I use Quill, as it works nearly perfect, in the app i have turned on pen input only and jot tons and tons of notes all day long.
You can export the notes to various files, while im not sure about PDF there is certainly a format that can be read on your desktop
Like all lenovo products i've had its built to last like an enterprise system should be. as long as you take care of it it will last a long time past EOL
Bloatware isnt too bad, theres still some stuff lenovo managed to get into the system pretty deep (like the status bar wheel widget thing.) but its never bothered me that much as it only comes up at the home screen.
screen brightness works great in dim rooms, i tend to read books by a small lamp in bed most of the time with minimal strain.
I purchased mine from lenovo direct so I dont know about any local retailers.
Thanks for the info. However when I asked about notes on PDFs I should have clarified a bit. I was asking about their PDF viewer that lets you take notes on the PDF document and weather that can be exported to something useful.
Also I thought of one more thing: If I have my notes backed up with something like spideroak, can the notes be converted on a computer? I ask because I am worried about taking a semesters worth of notes on it then having it die and there being no way to read them without getting a new tablet.
FearTheCron said:
Thanks for the info. However when I asked about notes on PDFs I should have clarified a bit. I was asking about their PDF viewer that lets you take notes on the PDF document and weather that can be exported to something useful.
Also I thought of one more thing: If I have my notes backed up with something like spideroak, can the notes be converted on a computer? I ask because I am worried about taking a semesters worth of notes on it then having it die and there being no way to read them without getting a new tablet.
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ezPDF allows you to fill out pdf forms, underline, strikeout, and add freehand drawings as well as circles/squares/etc. It should do what you're looking for.
https://market.android.com/details?id=udk.android.reader&feature=search_result
and if you have the file saved as a pdf on your sd card you should be able to open it with any pdf reader (pc or otherwise).
The quill note taking app he mentioned allows you to export your notes to sdcard pdfs
Thanks for the info.
One last thing: has anyone used connect bot or another ssh client on this? I am curious if the keys on the keyboard folio such as escape quotes tild and whatnot all send the proper characters. I had a bluetooth keyboard for my N1 a while back that sent some weird unicode characters for the quotes making terminal usage very difficult.
https://market.android.com/details?id=berserker.android.apps.sshdroid&hl=en
I have used SSH droid with WINSCP worked like a charm, I'm by no means an experienced user with SSH, i just used it to dig around the file system.
SSH droid is a server for the android device, I am asking about using a client on the android device.
My bad, I left my brain at home today... I will test it for you this evening and let you know if the client works with the keymapping
Cool thanks, I look forward to hearing your results.
Update: I just ordered one, so if its too much of a bother don't worry about testing the connect bot thing. My shiny object syndrome overwhelmed my frugal side. Can't wait to get my hands on it.
It works like a charm tested with Moba SSH home 1.22 and connect bot, all the keys from the folio map properly and I haven't seen anything odd at this point, also SSH'd into a couple of Access points over my VPN at work with the TPT to test as well.
Congrats on the TPT! you're gonna love it!
Unfortunately the keys do not map properly, escape is still connected to "back" in the android os and ctrl is connected to "menu". Does anyone know if there is some way to map these to their proper functions?
Thanks
S
I'm in high school, and I use my Nexus 7 to take notes for 6 out of my 7 classes, Is there a notepad app where I can type my notes with a bluetooth keyboard, as well switch to a hand writing mode so I can use my stylus to write down equations. I am using color note at the moment, and I can type most of my notes, but for Graphs or Equations it's extremely difficult because I have to grab another piece of paper and write the equation and keep track exact where each equation fits in my notes. If anyone has a good note taking app that I can use my stylus with that would be great.
tl;dr I need a notepad app that works with my stylus and BT keyboard.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2034960
If you haven't tried Evernote already, you should try it.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evernote&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5ldmVybm90ZSJd
If you have and don't like it, then try GNotes. It syncs with your google mail, so your notes are stored there as well. I currently use it to just type notes to myself... like tasks and the such.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dayup.gnotes&hl=en
I hope you find the application that suits you best.