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The time of business exclusively in an office is over. After all, you have a powerful productivity gadget in your pocket. With the right set of applications, you can stay synchronized with the same spreadsheets, documents, and presentations that are on your desktop and use them seamlessly. nowhere.
The best of all? Reaching this level of connectivity on Android no longer requires compromise. It's been a while since we've been here, but the bar has really been high in terms of the quality of desktop applications in the Google Play Store in recent years. The question now is not if you can find an interesting set of desktop applications for your phone, but rather which A set of commendable offers is what suits you best.
I spent time testing all the relevant candidates, ranging from small name efforts to in use dominate my recommendations on the products of great renown of the main players in productivity. Focusing on factors such as availability of features, ease of use, ecosystem integration and the overall user experience, it is important to know more about the environment. is the best desktop applications on Android today.
Note: Looking for e-mail applications? I will cover them in a future rally. Keep an eye on this page or follow me on Twitter to know when it is available.
The best full Android desktop apps
Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint
Microsoft was embarrassed late at the Android application party, but since the company is taking the world's most popular operating system seriously, its Android productivity services are among the best in the market.
This remains true today with its core Office: Word offerings for word processing; Excel, for editing spreadsheets; and PowerPoint, for the presentation work. If you are used to using Office 365 equivalent products on the desktop – or if you just need fully equipped mobile office applications with all the DIY – the trio of Android applications from Microsoft is going to be your best complete option for the suite. productivity on the fly.
Perhaps the greatest strength of Microsoft's Android applications lies in their effortless compatibility and cross-platform consistency: first, as expected, all three applications handle standard Office file formats with an irreproachable fidelity of formatting. And beyond that, if you already use Word, Excel or PowerPoint in another context, you will essentially have no learning curve with the corresponding Android versions; Interfaces and interaction styles of applications will be immediately familiar and easy to master.
For example, Word starts with a small drop down toolbar, a dimensioned version of the ribbon. This is a sensible way to keep some space and have a large work area (especially when a virtual keyboard is present and occupies a large part of your screen).
Pressing an arrow to the right of the toolbar, you expand a larger bar with menu sections corresponding to most ribbon tabs that you see in the desktop or the Word Web application. : Home, with common commands for basic text formatting; Insert, with the full range of standard options; Layout, with controls to adjust the margins of your document, its orientation, the configuration of columns, etc. Review, to check the spelling or the number of words, manage the comments and activate the Track Changes mode; and see, to switch from one layout or one zoom to another.
JR Raphael / IDGThe Microsoft Word toolbar in its drop-down form sized down (left) and when it is fully expanded (right).
The Word Toolbar also features a Draw section, present in the desktop version only if your device has a touch screen. It lets you choose from a variety of tools to directly draw or highlight your document with your finger or stylus. The toolbar of the Design, References and Mailings section is missing from the application toolbar; most of these options are only scattered in other areas of appropriate appearance.
The same approach and the same extended features apply equally to Excel and PowerPoint. There is really not much of everything you can not do with Microsoft Office applications on Android – including collaboration (as long as your colleagues are part of the Microsoft ecosystem) and cloud synchronization: applications support both local device storage and Cloud storage with Microsoft OneDrive, and they offer simple options for connecting cloud-based accounts from Box, Dropbox, Google Drive and other providers, for seamless in-app access.
JR Raphael / IDGMicrosoft Excel and PowerPoint provide familiar and feature rich interfaces on Android.
The asterisk to all this: to get all the features of the applications – or to use the applications at all on devices with 10.1-inch screens or more – you need to pay an Office 365 subscription, which costs $ 70 per year for individuals, $ 100 per year for families (with up to five users), or 99 USD per user and per person. year for business. This subscription unlocks a varied list of advanced options, including features for tracking and reviewing changes, changing page orientation, inserting page breaks, and editing. Apply custom colors to text, shapes, and cells.
Assuming you already have such a desktop access subscription, using Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on Android is no easy task. If you are not already subscribed and you do not necessarily need desktop applications with many advanced features, but the following option might suit you the best.
The best Android desktop apps for more basic needs
Google Docs, sheets and slides
"It was a time when Google's mobile desktop applications were barely exploitable. Do not be fooled: these days are gone.
Nowadays, Google Docs, Sheets and Slides are extremely sophisticated and remarkably powerful productivity tools on the fly. They benefit from close integration with the larger Google ecosystem, as well as a world-class system for synchronization, collaboration and multi-device access effortlessly.
This last element is an essential part of the application call. If you are already invested in the Google ecosystem, personally or professionally – using Google Drive for storage, Gmail for email, etc. – Docs, sheets and slides will naturally integrate with your existing configuration. You'll use your same Google Account to access it (you will not even need to log in from your phone because your account is already logged in at the operating system level). You will be able to work on the shared files of your colleagues directly from your usual interface. And everything you do will be connected to your Drive storage and easily accessible from most Google apps on all devices and platforms.
The Android apps Docs, Sheets and Slides are easy to navigate and have all the basic features you expect for their respective categories. In Docs, for example, you can stylize text, insert tables, adjust alignment, and insert different types of bulleted lists. In Sheets, you can style and merge cells, create charts, and find and use all kinds of common worksheet functions. And in slides, you can use sophisticated formatting tools, add notes to the presenter, and insert your own custom backgrounds.
JR Raphael / IDGGoogle documents and sheets have easy-to-use interfaces with all the basic features you expect.
Google also adds a few distinctive touches, such as the Docs Explorer feature, which allows you to search both your past work and the entire web content in the word processor, then view the results with your document, even by directly inserting text or images from other sources. in your current job, if the need actually feels. In the meantime, you can use the Google Distribution feature to display a wireless presentation on any Cast-compatible TV or monitor without any special configuration.
JR Raphael / IDGThe Explore feature of Google Docs allows you to perform advanced searches in a split screen, and then insert images or text directly into your document.
This is in the more traditional advanced word processing, computation, and presentation commands that Google's applications are slightly behind Microsoft's: Can not stylize the tables in the documents of the Microsoft Office. Docs application, for example, or sort rows in a spreadsheet in Sheets. If you need this kind of features, Google's apps do not suit you.
Documents, sheets, and slides also use proprietary Google file formats instead of the usual Microsoft formats, but in practice this is no longer a problem. Thanks to Google, it is extremely easy to import and open any current file format. It is also quite easy to export and share your files in any format.
Google apps are completely free for individual use without any restrictions. For businesses requiring a fully managed configuration, the company's G Suite program starts at $ 5 per user per month.
The best Android app for scanning documents and images
Microsoft Office Lens
The free Microsoft Office Lens app is the easiest, most efficient, and most versatile tool for scanning and processing physical documents from your Android phone. Office Lens turns on your phone's camera and starts scanning for objects ready to scan as soon as you open it. It quickly and consistently identifies the relevant content areas to capture, whether they are part of a business card, a paper document or a document. photo, a whiteboard or even a computer screen.
In any case, Office Lens does the hard work for you – just confirm the type of content you are collecting, and then click on a trigger to make the capture happen. Office Lens will then show you the end result and will allow you to edit or crop it if necessary – but from my experience, the application is on the spot most often, and adjustments are rarely necessary.
From there, it's up to you to decide what will happen next: Office Lens can simply save the JPG format image in the local gallery of your phone, or you can ask for it. application to upload captured content to OneDrive for further processing, especially in the form of a sharing. PDF ready or as a plain text Word document in which all the visible text of your capture is extracted and ready to be copied and pasted where you want it.
Office Lens can also save the resulting file to your Microsoft OneNote account or place it directly in a PowerPoint presentation. Unfortunately, the app does not offer an option to connect directly to non-Microsoft services, but a few extra clicks allow you to share everything you've scanned – normal image, text document, or PDF file – with any other service on your phone.
JR Raphael / IDGOffice Lens combines power and simplicity when scanning documents on smartphones.
If you use Microsoft services, Office Lens will allow you to search for text for all your scans saved in OneDrive. It can also extract contact details from scanned business cards and save this information directly to your OneNote storage.
And if you prefer Google services, Google Drive also has its own Android widget for scanning. It saves your PDF image in your Drive storage and lets you search its text here – but that's about it all. Overall, the Drive analysis feature is significantly less versatile and powerful than the standalone Microsoft equivalent.
The best Android app for creating, editing and annotating PDFs
Xodo PDF Reader and Editor
If you need to create, edit or annotate PDFs from your phone, Xodo PDF Reader & Editor is the application of your choice. The free utility contains everything you could need for mobile PDF management – and it's incredibly easy to use.
Xodo allows you to create new PDF files from images, documents and web pages. It'll even let you create a White PDF, which you can then fill in with your own text or handwritten elements. The application has a simple feature to merge multiple PDF files into one file and even edit existing PDF files to add, delete or change the order of their pages.
For annotations, Xodo provides a robust set of tools for highlighting text, underlining text, adding new textual or handwritten elements, and adding Post-It comments to a text. PDF file. It also has a signature feature that allows you to sign any PDF file on the spot or store your signature so you can affix a few taps later.
JR Raphael / IDGFrom highlighted text to simple placement of the signature, Xodo provides you with a complete toolbox for PDF editing on the fly.
That sounds too good for a free app, right? It was certainly my first thought: what is the trap? But Xodo swears never to collect or store personally identifiable information or attempts to sell your data as part of this program. Instead, the company relies on business licenses and licensing the underlying technology to generate profits. Win-win, no?
And with that, the power block of your Android desktop app is complete. Do not forget: we will then discuss messaging applications, including email. For now, take the time to take a break (I recommend a grape soda), then think about other great software categories that could help boost your mobile productivity setup. Note taking applications? Travel applications? Maybe some smart apps to make your phone more efficient?
Whatever you need, I have you covered.
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