Clouding your iPad a little bit more: Add Dropbox capabilities to Quickoffice

Full disclosure: I'm not the biggest fan of Quickoffice in the world. I think that it's absolutely fine for on-the-go changes and adjustments to documents, but really, as far as full, Step 1 to Step 5 or 6 or 10, it's not epic. Typing on a non-tactile keyboard is quite a challenge for me, and the formatting that I rely so heavily on in Powerpoint, Word, and Excel isn't easily available on this app. However, it's a heck of a lot cheaper to download one US$14.99 app that gives you access to all 3 programs than Mac's US$10/each Keynote, Pages, and Numbers, and, for what it's worth, Quickoffice proves to be a speedy little app that will allow you to make adjustments to documents instantly (provided those documents don't involve formatting).

However, I accidently stumbled onto a feature a few days ago that began to sway my feelings on this app: Dropbox integration! What? Here's how:

1. On the main screen of the app, click on the little + to the bottom left. Up will pop a list of accounts you can add to your Quickoffice.
   
   
   
   
   Obviously, click on Dropbox for this lesson. (However, if you're using Mrs. Webb's favorite little tool, SugarSync, or MobileMe, or you want to connect to your TAPA Google Docs account, basically follow the same following instructions.
2. Fill in your account information. If it's Dropbox, it's your email address you signed in with. If you're using your TAPA Google Docs, you must sign in with your TAPA email account. (Students, that will be [your 4-digit Student ID]@tapa.tp.edu.tw.)
   
   
   
   
   
3. Once you click done and Quickoffice gets a chance to communicate with your account, the account will show up on the far left of the screen. You can click on it to see its contents.
   
   
   
   
   If you've already added documents into your Dropbox (or Google Docs or SugarSync) account, you'll recognize those in Quickoffice. You may edit them on that program, and any changes you make and save will reflect across all other platforms immediately. If you've made any documents on the iPad, you can drag those easily into any of the other accounts below, and they will be copied into those cloud accounts.

Easy, huh?