Application Review of DocumentsToGo + Full Version Key

[Varking]

Application Review of DocumentsToGo + Full Version Key

Developed by DataViz, Inc

What is DocumentsToGo and what does the Full Version Key unlock?

DocumentsToGo is a free application on the Android Market that allows you to view Microsoft Word & Excel files & attachments such as doc, docx, xls, and xlsx. The full version is completely free and it is a nice start if all you want to do is view files sent to you that are the types mentioned above, but to get all the features you do indeed have to buy the key to unlock them.


The Full Version Key unlocks these features as per their “More Info” tab at the bottom of their application;

• Adobe PDF Support ( high fidelity viewing )
• Microsoft PowerPoint support ( view and edit )
• Create new files on the device
• Edit, recalculate and save changes
• View and update charts
• Zoom, format and send attachments
• Open password-protected files
• ‘Live Folder’ for recently used documents
• And much more…

There are no strings attached or any lies or deceit in these words. Everything is as it says.

How much does it cost and is the price justified?


When this application is not on some sort of sale, the original price sits at $29.99. This is indeed a steep price for an application and for many people, it would not be justified. For somebody who needs to be able to view, edit, send and receive these as an email often, then yes I would say it is well worth the price. Myself, I am a part time student and this application allows me to not always have to lug around my laptop to take notes. I can simply choose to take notes in a word or spreadsheet file, save them, and email them to myself for later.


The good news though is that DataViz, Inc is a very smart company who likes money. Because of this love for money they often put their Full Version Key on sale in the Android Market for a few days at a time. Around Christmas time I believe it was down to around $14.99. I purchased the application when it was on their Cinco De Mayo Sale Special, at which point it only ran me a mere $5.55, and at that price it was just too good to pass up. During certain seasons when this application goes on sale, it is just too hard to pass up and for that I must say that yes, the price is justified.

What does the Android Market tell me about this application?


The Android Market tells me that over 250,000 users have downloaded this application. Of which, 9670 of them have decided to rate this application and it has been awarded four out of five stars. Right in the details portion of this application on the market where the company can write about its product, they state that over 750,000 users have downloaded the free version and that over 50,000 people have become paying customers. Of those 50,000 paying customers, 4524 of them have rated the payed for version. Most people who rated it have given rave reviews of it and it has earned itself four and a half out of five stars.

What can you tell me about your personal experience using this application?


From my experience, this application has earned every cent of that $5.55 I gave to them for this. The Word Documents are just like you would expect them to be on a computer. You can edit fonts, bold, italic, underline, increase indent, decrease indent, make a table of contents, comment, footnote, endnote, create new, open, close, save, save as, send as email, undo, redo, paste, cut, copy, edit paragraph style, set preferences and even check your word count in all Word Documents.
Sheet To Go is your basic stuff as well. You can insert sheets, cell comments, and autosum it. You can format things like the number, cell and sheet.


PDF To Go allows you to view PDF Files.


Slideshow To Go allows you to do most things that PowerPoint allows you to do.

Are there any other drawbacks or reasons to make me think twice about purchasing?


Despite many positive things to say about this application there are indeed some drawbacks, as with all applications. Besides viewing a PDF file, there really isn’t much else you can do with it. And while I know that may be reaching for something negative to say, I am spoiled on the computer with the ability to truly edit PDF files. On Slideshow To Go my only issue with the application is that I can do all the editing I want and add tons of content to my slides, but I can not, for the life of me, add a picture from my SD Card to one of my slides. Unless there has been an update recently that I haven’t seen, this is not an option.


Lastly, my biggest pet peeve with this application, and apparently on the market it is the one big knock for most customers, is that when you purchase the key to unlock the rest of the applications features, it leaves two icons in your App Drawer. This is the only application I have seen that offers up a key to unlock things or go premium but for some reason can’t just merge the two icons together. It isn’t as if this should be a deal breaker but it does look a bit silly when you scroll through your drawer and see them together. It doesn’t make sense because it is possible to hide one if the developer chooses to, and once you use the pay version there is no need to click the free version.

Verdict!


All in all I do believe this application is worth the money and the developers have done a great job getting everything pretty bug free. Out of a possible 10 points, I would award DocumentsToGo Full Version 8.5 out of 10 stars. It is a nearly perfect application but there are more features that could, and should be added, as well as the ability to hide the DocumentsToGo free version icon once you have paid for it. It could be worth it to purchase at its original price, but if you are patient enough to wait for a holiday, just wait and catch this bad boy on sale.
Thank you for your time and I hope you find this review useful in deciding to purchase or stay away from this application.

~Varking~

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Screenshots of the App
Application and Game Reviews for Android

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My Android App Reviews can be found here at wordpress, but I will also make my reviews available to the android community on places like DroidForums and AllDroid so long as they let me.


You can PM me here, mail me at my email address, or post in these threads suggestions for new application or game reviews. Also, if you have any feedback, feel free to post such here.


I will likely be posting one review of an app or game per week unless this starts to pick up a bit more, but I do this in my spare time, but I also work full time and am expecting to become a father in the next 3-5 weeks. Thank you for your time.

[proof]

Thanks for the review. It was instrumental in swaying me to purchase the app.

My question about the two icons is, can you uninstall the free version and just have one icon then?

[Varking]

Unfortunately, you can not uninstall the free application and just keep the payed one. You need to have the free version because the payed version is just a key that unlocks all the features on the free one. So for now, you just have to accept having two icons on your app drawer until they get a fix working for it. Other developers have apps on the market that hide the free version icons after you upgrade to full versions so I do not see why they can't do this.

Actually, I think I will shoot them an email on this and try to find out if they are working on it.

[jsh1120]

Just a quick note of caution about DocsToGo. I've been using the app for a number of years on several phones and wouldn't be without it. However, I have found that it sometimes fails to open what appear to be legitimate Microsoft files.

I've encountered the problem with spreadsheets on several occasions. The reason, I suspect, is that some non-Msoft spreadsheet applications appear to create standard ".xls" or ".xlsx" files that can be read by Excel but not by DocsToGo.

Solution (or at least a workaround) is to forward an email to containing a file that cannot be opened to a computer where the spreadsheet can be edited by a genuine version of Excel. Save it as an Excel file and re-mail it to your phone. In my experience DocsToGo works fine after that.

I have no idea it the same problem exists with other file formats. But the same workaround should work if it does.

[Joker]

Thanks for the great review. I will definitely look into getting this app.

[Spartan]

Great program. Now if someone would come up with a .tif reader.

[Varking]

As an update, I will have a list of apps I already have on my phone posted for people to know what I am readily able to review, and a list of apps I am looking at buying which I will be able to review in a few weeks.

[paramax55]

There are two flaws that I have found with the Droid version of Documents To Go. The first is the way that .pdf files are rendered. You can only see one page at a time. As you finish the first page, you can't seamlessly read to the second page. Page one has to go blank and page two has to be rendered before you can continue. I was using an iCrap while I was waiting for he opportunity to get the droid and I must say that DTG was better on that thing. It rendered .pdf files more like a computer.

The second problem that I have is that I cannot force the program to background itself. I read a lot of pdf files and some of them are large - over 100 pages. Needless to say, that takes several days. With the iCrap, I could force the program to background itself, and it would keep my place in the file until I came back to it another day. I have not found a way to force DTG to run in the background. I have to remember where I was and open the file fresh each time.

[Varking]

There are two flaws that I have found with the Droid version of Documents To Go. The first is the way that .pdf files are rendered. You can only see one page at a time. As you finish the first page, you can't seamlessly read to the second page. Page one has to go blank and page two has to be rendered before you can continue. I was using an iCrap while I was waiting for he opportunity to get the droid and I must say that DTG was better on that thing. It rendered .pdf files more like a computer.

The second problem that I have is that I cannot force the program to background itself. I read a lot of pdf files and some of them are large - over 100 pages. Needless to say, that takes several days. With the iCrap, I could force the program to background itself, and it would keep my place in the file until I came back to it another day. I have not found a way to force DTG to run in the background. I have to remember where I was and open the file fresh each time.

While I have no cure for the second problem yet, the first problem will be fixed with their latest upgrade, once the Android Version goes to 3.0 which should be soon. From their page it says it will now have multi-page rendering:

DataViz Selected to Showcase Documents To Go 3.0 for Android at

Google I/O 2010

Upcoming features include support for Microsoft Office 2010, new desktop application with two-way file sync, enhanced file browser, pinch-to-zoom for Adobe PDF files and updated FREE version

Milford, CT, May 18, 2010 – DataViz®, Inc., a leading provider of mobile Microsoft® Office® compatibility solutions, was included in a select group of Android™ developers to participate at Google I/O™ Developer Conference in San Francisco this week. At Google™’s largest developer event of the year, DataViz will be showcasing the upcoming Documents To Go® version 3.0. Documents To Go is currently the #1 selling mobile Office suite in Android Market and a Top 10 paid app overall. New features being demonstrated in the Developer Sandbox on May 19-20 include:

• Support for Microsoft Office 2010 Files
  With the recent launch of Microsoft Office 2010, mobile professionals can rest assured that they will not be stuck with a file or attachment they cannot open. Documents To Go 3.0 supports Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2003, 2007 and now 2010 files including most password-protected formats.
• Desktop Application with Two-way File Sync
  Version 3.0 will offer a desktop application that provides Windows customers with the ability to easily transfer files from their computer to their Android-based device over a USB cable. With this application, users can select individual files or entire folders to synchronize and all updates made on either the location will be automatically synchronized and 100% of the original file formatting will be maintained via DataViz’s acclaimed InTact Technology™.
• Enhanced Document File Browser & Manager
  As more solutions become available to access files on the go, Documents To Go 3.0 has been enhanced with the necessary tools to efficiently browse and manage these files on a mobile device. Mobile workers can now view, edit, create, delete, sort, filter, star, sync, backup and send files from one centralized application.
• Improved Adobe® PDF Support with New Multi-Touch Pinch-to-Zoom
  PDF To Go, which is included in the full version of Documents To Go, has been improved with multi-touch pinch-to-zoom, animated double-tap zoom, multi-page rendering, rotate page options, hyperlink support, and keypad shortcuts to make it a best-of-breed mobile PDF viewer.
• Updated FREE Version Now with Microsoft PowerPoint® File Viewing and New Live Folders
  Any Android device owner can now download a beefed-up and FREE version of Documents To Go, which allows viewing of native Microsoft Word, Excel and now PowerPoint files and attachments. In addition, the free version will also include new Live Folders to help keep recently used and favorite files at their finger tips.

“It has been a very exciting year since we first launched our Android applications at Google I/O last year.” said Ilya Eliashevsky, Android Product Manager, DataViz, Inc. “We now have over 750,000 customers who have downloaded Documents To Go through Android Market and 7 new OEM partners pre-installing our solutions on their Android-based handsets. Moving forward, we feel confident that version 3.0 will take mobile Office productivity to the next level for businesses, professionals, students and casual users alike.”

Pricing & Availability



Documents To Go 3.0 will be showcased at Google I/O, May 19-20, in the Android Developer Sandbox Booth #12. The updated FREE viewer edition will be available in Android Market and direct from DataViz within the next few weeks. The full version will sell for a limited-time price of $14.99 (regularly $29.99). Registered customers who have previously purchased the full version of the software will be entitled to latest application enhancements for FREE upon its release. The new desktop application may be sold separately.


Documents To Go is localized in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Arabic, Japanese, traditional and simplified Chinese with support for any device running Android OS 1.5 or higher. For more information, visit: www.dataviz.com/Android

About DataViz



Founded in 1984, DataViz is an industry leader in developing and marketing Office compatibility and productivity solutions across a variety of platforms including Android™, BlackBerry, iPhone®, Java®, Linux, Maemo 5, Palm OS®, Symbian OS™, webOS®, Windows Mobile®, Windows® and Macintosh®. DataViz partners include Acer, Foxconn, Huawei, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft®, Motorola®, Nokia, Palm®, RIM, Samsung, Sony Ericsson®, ZTE and other industry leaders. For more information: About DataViz, Inc.


About Google I/O
Google I/O is a developer gathering focused on pushing the boundaries of web applications using Google and open web technologies. I/O 2010 will provide attendees with two days full of in-depth breakout sessions on the latest technologies, and informal Q&A at fireside chats. To learn more please visit: code.google.com/events/io/

All product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.



©2010 DataViz, Inc.

Google I/O, Google, Android, and Android Market are trademarks of Google Inc. Use of this trademark is subject to Google Permissions.

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[jsh1120]

There are two flaws that I have found with the Droid version of Documents To Go. The first is the way that .pdf files are rendered. You can only see one page at a time. As you finish the first page, you can't seamlessly read to the second page. Page one has to go blank and page two has to be rendered before you can continue. I was using an iCrap while I was waiting for he opportunity to get the droid and I must say that DTG was better on that thing. It rendered .pdf files more like a computer.

The second problem that I have is that I cannot force the program to background itself. I read a lot of pdf files and some of them are large - over 100 pages. Needless to say, that takes several days. With the iCrap, I could force the program to background itself, and it would keep my place in the file until I came back to it another day. I have not found a way to force DTG to run in the background. I have to remember where I was and open the file fresh each time.

Have you tried the pdf reader from Adobe that recently showed up in the Market?