Spreadsheet issues

[capers1962]

Ok folks, here is the challenge .
I'm still having issues with the spreadsheet. It is stored as an xlsx file, it has 'lookup' and 'ref' links to other pages in the same workbook.

I have loaded the following on my iPad -
Numbers
Excel Dos to Go (paid version)

Numbers can't even open the file.
Excel opens it but it takes ages and then shows as 'read only' ; but does say that I can edit if I subscribe to Office 365 for £80 a year
Doc to Go does the same as excel.

Surely, there must be a way that I can download, open, edit and save a simple spreadsheet to and from Dropbox!

The file is OK. I can do this from my laptop and PC.

I'm turning to you in my hour of need!

Thanks.

 

[Gtatler]

Try Citrix Sharefile QuickEdit. Recently re-named. It wii do all you need. It will open and edit from/to local machine and Dropbox. It has a fair number of functions, equations, colours, printing etc. It really is good. And it has the added advantage that there is a word-like part, so you can open doc files and a powerpoint-like part for presentations. Developer website http://www.bytesquared.com/products Sent from my iPad 2 using iPF

 

[twerppoet]

If I had a professional need for MS Office compatibility on the iPad I would spring for the Office 365 subscription. While you might find other things that work, nothing else is going to have the same level of compatibility. That is not a guarantee that everything will work, it won't, but they are the apps that will work if it can be done.

Microsoft just announce a personal subscription model that is $70 (US). It only allows installation on one computer and one tablet; as opposed to the $100 business subscription that allows for five installations tablets and five on computers. Take a look around and see if they are offering the personal license in the UK yet.

If you are running a business, or working for one, you may be able to categorize your Office 365 subscription as an expense. If your employer won't pay for it, hopefully it can at least be considered for tax purposes.


Only you can decide if an Office 365 subscription is worth your money or if you would rather spend time and effort on workarounds instead. I guess it all depends on what you have more of to spare.


I've seen a lot of complaints about the new subscription models for both Office and Adobe. For the casual user it's a legitimate complaint. For the most part casual users bought a version and used it for several years without upgrading; because being 100% compatible was not the main issue. For professionals who needed to buy the new versions every year or two, the subscription model's costs are comparable to the physical retail packages; only you never need to worry about upgrading, because you'll always be on the newest version (provided you don't prevent upgrades from downloading).

MS Office has never been cheap, unless you bought older versions or pirated it, of course.


I'll add one last bit about casual users of MS Office. Make sure you actually need MS Office. There are many cheaper, and even free, soluitons out there if you don't need MS Office for the compatibility or the super-sized feature set.