Microsoft Office for iPhone and Android: Three free alternatives!

The Gadget Show  Wednesday 07 November 2012

A few leaked snaps of Microsoft Office running on iPad, iPhone, iPad and Android have been spotted by The Verge in the wild, but according to these same reports, you’ll have to pay a subscription fee for full access to the office suite and cloud service.

But if you need to open and even knock up documents on the go, Microsoft Office isn’t your only option. Whether you’re on Android or iPhone here are three excellent alternatives you can use on both platforms already – and they’re absolutely free.

1. CloudOn (Available for Android and iPad)

CloudOn brings full fat Microsoft Office to either of the tablet operating system flavours of your choice, letting you feel right at home with the look and feel of the full application. The app syncs your documents through either Dropbox, Google Drive or Box, and lets you move things between each service for both easy access and easy sharing. If you’re itching for Microsoft Office on the go right now, this is essential.

How to make any phone into a smartphone

2. Google Drive (Available for Android and iOS)

While not quite as fully featured as Microsoft’s full office suite, Google Drive is still simple and effective and lets you create easily sharable documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms and even drawings that you can access from any web connected device. Fantastic for collaborations and for working remotely, Google Drive is well worth a look, even if you don’t try to cobble together spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations on the go: you get 5GB of free storage for all your files, from documents to video and music.

3. Evernote (Available for Android and iOS)

While not strictly an office suite, Evernote nicely fills in the gap between idea and execution, allowing you to jot down notes on any of your smartphone devices or tablets, which then sync over to your Mac or PC, letting you get on with the things that matter. Evernote can also copy in all sorts of images, graphs, or tables, making it a great companion to traditional office applications – it even works with the world’s smartest pen.