Since the day that the iPhone was first introduced, people have asked for the ability to edit and transfer Microsoft Office documents. DataViz, whose Documents to Go software offered this feature on other smartphones such as the Palm Treo for many years, started working on such a program a year ago. A beta of a Dataviz iPhone app has been previewed, but is still not available.
Meanwhile, TechCrunch reported (as did PC World) that Stephen Elop, President of Microsoft's Business Division, stated yesterday at the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco that we may be seeing Microsoft Office on the iPhone soon. His interviewer asked for more information on this, and Elop reportedly said "not yet, keep watching." Note that this is really nothing new -- a year ago, Microsoft was talking about possibly developing iPhone apps.
In the meantime, one company is actually delivering -- or, in part, about to deliver -- the ability to edit Word and Excel files on the iPhone. Quickoffice previously sold a series of apps with the MobileFiles name, and they are now rebranding and expanding those products (albeit with some price increases).
Quickoffice used to offer a free app called MobileFiles which could be used to download (but not upload) files from iDisk and view certain files such as images and Microsoft Office files. QuickOffice has stopped offering that product.
The product that used to be called MobileFiles 2.0 is now called Quckoffice Files. It remains at $3.99, and allows you to upload and download files from iDisk, transfer files to and from your iPhone using Wi-Fi, e-mail files from your iPhone, and view a large variety of file formats including Microsoft Office, PDF, iWork, web archives, HTML, and MP3. (The ability to view iWork files is a new edition to this app.) Many attorneys will find that this app is the best solution to transfer files to and from the iPhone and view them.
If you want to edit spreadsheets, the app that used to be called MobileFiles Pro is now called Quicksheet, and the price has increased from $9.99 to $12.99. Quicksheet offers all of the functions of Quickofice Files and adds the ability to edit and create Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. (Excell 2007 spreadsheets can be viewed but not edited.) Everything that I said about this app in my review of MobileFiles Pro remains true, the only change being some interface improvements. This app works well. (Note that Mariner Software similarly offers a $9.99 product called Mariner Calc that allows you to edit Excel files on the iPhone. I have't tried it yet.)
If you want to edit Word documents, Quickoffice has announced that they will release Quickword in just a few weeks. Quickoffice says that this app will include the ability to select, cut, copy and paste text. Apple will of course bring those functions to the iPhone in the 3.0 update coming out this summer. It seems curious that Quickoffice would want to introduce a proprietary version of this feature just months before Apple brings the feature to all iPhone apps. Perhaps Quickoffice just wanted to beat DataViz and Microsoft to the punch. Unsurprisingly, Quickoffice says that it will support the iPhone 3.0 version of cut and paste when it is available.
If you want to get all of the Quickoffice apps, Harry McCracken reports that you will be able to buy a Quickoffice suite for $20. (This might be a reason for you to wait to buy Quicksheet by itself right now.)
The curious thing about editing Office files on a smartphone is that while it seems like a great idea, it may not be something that you use very much in practice. I had DataViz's Documents to Go on my Palm Treo for many years, and while I frequently used the program to view files, I virtually never edited Word documents. Editing spreadsheets is a little more useful because it is nice to be able to see how changing just one or two numbers can change a total. But regardless of how often you actualy edit Office files on a device such as the iPhone, it is empowering to know that you can do it. I'm glad that Quickoffice has already figured out how to do this, and I look forward to seeing competing apps from DataViz and, perhaps, Microsoft itself.
Click here to get Quickoffice Files ($3.99): 
Click here to get Quicksheet ($12.99):
