Touchscreen office p1 - Military Career Development Strategies & Tips - Military Times EDGE

The time has come where you may no longer need to lug a laptop around to get work done. With about $50 worth of apps, you can turn your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad into a true mobile powerhouse.

• Documents to Go lets you view, create and edit Word and Excel documents; for five more bucks, the professional version will also get you PowerPoint support. Synchronize files with your Windows PC or Mac over Wi-Fi, or send and receive files via e-mail. You get a healthy set of features, but not all that are available in Office. Files sent from your desktop retain their formatting. You’ll see graphics and tables, along with comments and footnotes/endnotes. The app can also be used to view PDFs and iWork ’08 and ’09 files.

Price: $10, standard; $15, professional

• The iPhone’s keyboard can be difficult — compose documents or long e-mail messages faster with TapIt4Me. The app lets you create “snippets,” or abbreviations for common phrases. When you type the abbreviation, TapIt4Me replaces it with the phrase.

Price: $5

• At some point, you’ll want to print content stored on your iPhone. Print n Share for advanced printing lets you print files, Web pages, contacts, e-mail messages and photos. Print n Share works with any printer available to your computer. You can print from your Wi-Fi network or use your cellular connection to print from afar.

Price: $7

• ScanR Business Center Pro turns your iPhone into a scanner and fax machine. (Since it requires a camera, iPod Touch and iPad users won’t reap its full benefits.) Use your iPhone’s camera to scan documentsbusiness cards and more, then convert them into PDF files. The PDFs are searchable, so you can search for specific text within finished files. Once you scan a document, fax it for free to anyone around the world or use a nearby fax machine as a printer.

Price: $25

• Dropbox makes it easy to transfer files to your iPhone. It works with Dropbox’s online service, which synchronizes files between computers. A 2-gigabyte account is free. Access your Dropbox account on the go. View files and download them to your iPhone for offline viewing. Changes made on a computer are synchronized to your iPhone.

Price: Free