Reviews

Documents To Go 6

May 3, 2004

Documents To Go (DTG) requires about 200K of space for the main application, and each additional application varies in size: Word To Go is 1044K, Sheet To Go is 822K, SlideShow To Go is 351K, SmartChart is 216K, the Spell Checker is 33K, and the Word To Go font package is 266K. You can choose to install just the components you need, if you’re running out of space on your handheld, or you can load the whole package and be assured of the ability to handle any Microsoft Office document that comes your way. Once the application is installed, you’ll have the DTG desktop application, the conduit, and the handheld applications. Adding files to your handheld couldn’t be any easier— simply launch the desktop application and either click the big green plus sign at the top left corner to add documents, or drag them onto DTG from your Windows desktop or other folders. Once added, you have the choice of saving the file in Dataviz “To Go” format or in the native Microsoft Office format. The To Go format is generally smaller, but native format is best if you might be sharing the file via memory card, or email while you’re out of the office. You can also choose Palm DOC format for Microsoft Word files, which saves a great deal of space.

Please note these screenshots are from the Dataviz web site— due to an unrelated problem I was unable to capture any from my Tapwave Zodiac

I tried out both Word To Go and Sheet To Go and found them both to be very capable viewers and editors. Word To Go includes all of the formatting options that most people use, including fonts, font sizes, bold/italic/underline/strikethrough, super- and sub-scripts, colors and highlighting, alignment, indents, line spacing, and bullets & numbering. All of those options are available on the format menu, or you can use the very handy buttons at the top and bottom of the screen. All of the commonly used functions are just a tap away, making Word To Go both quick and easy to use. There are some advanced functions in the application that make it almost like a miniature Microsoft Word on your Palm OS handheld, including the ability to add bookmarks, tables, and hyperlinks.

Sheet To Go is similarly full-featured and very well designed. I’m really NOT an accountant, number cruncher, or bean counter by any means, but even I could find my way around. The layout is very similar to Microsoft Excel, of course, but with a few tweaks to accomodate the smaller handheld screen. The navigation arrows at the bottom of the screen are very useful for getting around fast, and the drop-down box at the top right hand corner of the screen lets you get from worksheet to another. Tap on a row or column to resize it, freeze it, insert, delete, or hide. To add a function, you can either use the special “fx” function key in the bottom toolbar or use the Insert menu. The function key includes some of the most commonly used ones, including simple addition and subtraction, as well as the summation operation and a shortcut to the full list of supported functions. Writing the operations is very simple— just tap on the cells you want to include, tap the green checkmark, and the operation is performed.

There are plenty of formatting options too, arranged just as you would expect to find them in Microsoft Excel. Format Cell brings up color and alignment options, and format number allows you to choose General, Fixed, Scientific, Currency, Date, etc. The standard sorting options are included as well, so that you can easily manipulate large amounts of data. I may not be a number cruncher, but even I can see that the guys in the Central division better get off their duffs and sell more sprockets pronto!

With DTG and a keyboard, you really don’t need a laptop anymore. Everything worked absolutely flawlessly during my review, and I really put the application through a wringer. None of my desktop documents was “harmed” in any way— no loss of formatting, no problems at all. The only area of concern I have regards performance on my Tapwave Zodiac— Documents To Go simply refuses to work in full 320 x 480 resolution, and I’m not exactly sure why. Most programs that offer full palmOne Tungsten T3 support also work on the Zodiac, but that wasn’t the case here. Other than that, I found Documents To Go to be absolutely indispensable for any Palm OS handheld user that needs to view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files on the go. The Standard Edition for Word and Excel is $29.99, the Premium Edition with Powerpoint, PDF, and charts is $49.99, and the Office Edition with Outlook support is $69.99. To try it out for yourself, head on over to the Dataviz web site for a free trial.

PocketGoddess Rating for Dataviz Documents To Go 6:

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