About.com Rating

If you create or author documents on a mobile device, you will want to know what Kingsoft WPS Office for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch can and cannot do. Here's the run-down on editing tools.

The following are rated on a scale of Excellent, Good, or Poor.

User Interface, Task Panes, & Views: Excellent

Some users like having separate apps for each program, but I like that WPS Office for iOS is one single app.

It features a clean interface that is user-friendly and simple to learn. Users can file and organize documents. Presenters can see notes while in Presenter Mode.

Text / Numerical Effects: Good

The font formatting tools you use most are likely available in WPS Office for iOS, plus a few extras. For example, in Presentations, users can take advantage of a touch-controlled laser pointer and inking for handwriting on slides. If you need more advanced text effects you may want to look at another suite.

Image Effects: Good

Kingsoft Office for Android allows you to insert images, shapes, and other visual elements. Presentations has been polished to be more compatible with slide animations and image effects. Across the three programs, I found only more advanced image effects lacking.

Paragraph Layout: Good

Kingsoft Office for iOS offers tools for adjusting overall alignment, spacing, indent, page breaks, and more for adding structure to your document. The more specialized paragraph layout tools are hit or miss.

Some mobile suites do not allow editing of anything but text in the presentation program, but Presentations allows you to edit layout.

Charts and Tables: Good

WPD Office for iOS includes tables and charts, though not the variety of presets you may be used to in a desktop suite. Users can create radar, pie, ring, bubble, and other chart formats in Spreadsheets, for example.

Data Analysis: Good

In Spreadsheets, you can take advantage of Quick Calculations for basics such as sum, average, count, max and min. Data analysis tools are always limited in a mobile office suite, but Kingsoft Spreadsheets allows more features than most, including more than 100 functions. You can also open more than one worksheet simultaneously and filter or sort rows and columns.

References: Poor

Are you a student or researcher? Consider a desktop suite, as mobile suites such as this do not offer wizards for APA, MLA, or other popular types of citations. 

Mailings: Poor

No mail merge support is available. I am not aware of a mobile suite that does offer this.

Comments: Excellent

Kingsoft Office for iOS lets you Track Changes and Comment. 

Spelling and Grammar Check: Good

Users can take advantage of a simple Spell Check feature. No Grammar Check is available, so this is better for quick, last-minute edits not in-depth review.

Complex Documents: Poor

Mobile office software suites such as this should not be depended on for complex documents.

Printing, Exporting, and Layout Options: Good

Kingsoft's WPS Office for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch offers wireless printing. Note that this feature requires an internet connection.