Quickoffice and SnapperMail Bring Native Office File Support to the Palm OS

Cutting Edge Software has released a public beta of Quickoffice Premier Version 7.0, the first Palm OS Office suite to include support for native PC-created Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint file formats. At the same time, SnapperFish has released the first full-version of SnapperMail, which works with Quickoffice to allow users to view Office files they receive as emails.

Other apps that allow Palm powered handhelds to access Office documents make use of conduits that convert the documents into a different format, one used just by the handheld app. This prevents these apps from reading Microsoft Office documents that come to the handheld as email attachments or are wirelessly transferred from another handheld or laptop.

Of course, previous versions of Quickoffice depended on conduits too, which are still a part of the suite. This allows users the choice of working with their documents in their native formats or converting them into Quickoffice-specific ones.

SnapperMail

However, probably the main reason users will want to read these files in their native formats is because they have received them as an email attachment. SnapperMail is a separate email application that allows users to receive email attachments of any size and open them with Quickoffice Premier.

Plus, this isn't all SnapperMail can do. It comes with some helper apps that can handle ZIP files and images of various types. Of course, it's also a full POP3/SMTP email application that allows multiple accounts and can be set to automatically check for new mail on a schedule.

Quickoffice vs. Pocket Office

While Quickoffice Premier's support for native Office files is a first for the Palm platform, it certainly isn't a new thing for handhelds in general. Pocket PC user have been able to do this to a limited extent for years with Pocket Word and Pocket Excel.

In fact, both the Pocket Office apps and Quickoffice support most of the same basic formatting of documents. However, neither fully supports all the features of the desktop versions. For example, Quickoffice doesn't support images and, if a Word File with an image is opened, edited, and re-saved, the image will be removed. To help keep people from accidentally writing over important documents with simplified versions, by default Quickoffice saves each document that is edited as a new file with a different name.

The Quickoffice app that this is most significant in is Quickpoint, which that allows users to view PowerPoint files. At this point, none of the images appear at all. Users can still view the notes and other text. This happens only when opening a native PowerPoint file on the handheld. One converted on the desktop with the Quickoffice conduit does show all the graphics.

Quickoffice does have one significant advantage over Pocket Office: Microsoft has kept mum about its plans for future improvements, while Mike Compeau, head of Cutting Edge Software, said his company definitely intends to keep improving native Office file support in future versions of Quickoffice.

The Details

Quickoffice Premier doesn't require the latest version of the Palm OS. It will run on any device using Palm OS 3.5 and above, including Palm OS 5. It can view, edit, save, and create files compatible with Microsoft Office 97, 2000, or XP.

Quickoffice Premier 7 will sell for $50. Cutting Edge also plans to offer Quickoffice 7 and Quickoffice Pro 7, which won't include native Office file support but will sell for less.

SnapperMail also works on any handheld with Palm OS 3.5 or higher. Additionally, it requires a TCP/IP connection to the Internet, which means it can't be used with a Palm i705 or VII series model. It sells for $35.

Related Links

• DataViz Bringing Native Office File Support to Palm OS
• The Future of Pocket Office