Training plans, presentations, manuals, quick reference guides, statistics…these are all things that a typical trainer has to produce. Chances are you use Microsoft Office to do so.
Trainers, more than most, also need to be able to work effectively on the move. If you’ve got an iPad, there’s a few apps around (DocumentsToGo, OfficeHD and QuickOffice spring to mind) that allow you to view, edit and create Office compatible documents on your iPad but the functionality of these apps is quite limited.
CloudOn, a free app, released in January 2012, allows you to create, edit and view Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents on an iPad. What makes it different to the other apps I mentioned is that it actually has the look and feel of Microsoft Office 2010. CloudOn is integrated with Dropbox so any new documents you create or any existing documents you open must be stored in your Dropbox account.
Although there are some limitations (for example there is no VBA support, no easy way to print a document and no offline mode so you can’t even use the app unless you are connected to the Internet), 90% of the functionality of the desktop versions of the apps is available so for the average Microsoft Office user CloudOn is a great way to edit and view documents on the road. In Excel for example, all the functions that you’ll find in the desktop version are available, you can create pivot tables, insert SmartArt and shapes, configure the page layout, apply conditional formatting and much much more.
CloudOn can be downloaded from the App Store.
Below is a short video that I created that provides an overview of CloudOn