How To › Software Word Processing Apps for Your iPad Write on the road without sacrificing important tools Share Pin Email Print Justin Sullivan / Getty Images Software Documents Spreadsheets Presentations Desktop Publishing Graphic Design Databases Animation & Video by Rebecca Johnson A Microsoft Office Certified Master Instructor who writes and teaches about Microsoft Office products. Updated August 28, 2019 95 95 people found this article helpful PRODUCT DISCLOSURE $ The iPad has grown over its history — and especially with its iPad Pro line — into a serious productivity device. Although early word-processing apps for iOS weren't fully baked, Apple's mobile ecosystem now supports several powerful, desktop-class word processors that will keep you both effective and mobile. Apple iWork Pages What We Like Free app that integrates with iPad photos and other apps. Templates for digital books, reports, letters, and more. Smart annotation feature. What We Don't Like No global search and replace. Limited compatibility with Microsoft Word. Advanced features aren't obvious. Difficult to learn. Apple's Pages, along with the Numbers spreadsheet app and Keynote presentation app, comprise a suite of versatile and powerful document editing and creation tools. The Pages app was specifically designed to work with the best iPad features. You can insert images into your documents and move them around by dragging with your fingertip. Pages makes formatting simple with built-in templates and styles, as well as other common formatting tools. Another key benefit to using Pages is the ability to save your document in multiple formats, including as a Pages document, a Microsoft Word document, and as a PDF. As with both Google's and Microsoft's offerings, you have access to Apple's cloud storage service called iCloud where you can save documents and access them from other devices. Download Pages Google Docs What We Like Superior sharing and collaboration capabilities. Saves documents automatically as you work. What We Don't Like Basic word-processing features only. Missing some of the web version features. Google Docs is the iPad resident app related to the Google suite of Web-based office productivity apps. Docs allows you to create, edit, share and collaborate on documents stored in Google Drive, Google's cloud storage service; however, an internet connection is not required to use Google Docs app on your iPad. Docs offers the basic word processing features you expect in a document editor. A generous 15 GB of space is free with Google Drive, and you have the option to upgrade to larger storage plans with a paid subscription. Docs does not connect with other cloud storage services. Google Docs is easy to use and versatile, especially if you work and collaborate within the Google ecosystem of productivity apps (e.g., Sheets, Slides, etc.). Download Google Docs Microsoft Word What We Like Full integration with OneDrive. Features include track changes, commenting, and flow text around images. Easily handles Word for PC documents. What We Don't Like Most features require an Office 365 subscription. Time lag when simultaneously editing a document with others. No voice-to-text capabilities. Not to be left out of the move to mobile, Microsoft has launched the app versions of the company's popular and powerful Microsoft Office productivity software. Microsoft Word is available as an iPad app, alongside other Office apps, including Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and OneDrive, which is Microsoft's cloud storage service where you can store and access your documents online. The Word app version offers core features and compatibility for document creation and editing. You don't get all of the functionality found in the desktop software, but there are lots of tips and tricks for Office on the iPad. There is an option to subscribe to Microsoft's Office 365 service for a fee that will unlock additional features for all Office apps. Download Microsoft Word iA Writer What We Like Minimalist, distraction-free user interface. Great app for all types of writing. Saves individual files in iCloud. What We Don't Like No rich-text capability. Priced higher than competitors. Offers fewer features than competitors. The iA Writer app, from iA Labs GmbH, is a visually clean text editor that offers simple word processing with a nice keyboard that gets out of your way and lets you simply write. Its keyboard is well-reviewed and includes an extra row of special characters. iA Writer supports iCloud storage service and can sync between your Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Download iA Writer Documents To Go People Images / Getty Images What We Like View, edit, and create Word documents. View PDFs, iWork, and RTF files. Robust text formatting capabilities. What We Don't Like Free version includes ads. Paid version is pricey. Occasional syncing problems. No option to print PDFs or documents. Documents To Go is an app that gives you access to your Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files, as well as the ability to create new files from scratch. This app is one of a few that also supports iWorks files as well as GoDocs. Documents To Go offers extensive formatting options, including bulleted lists, styles, undo and redo, find and replace, and word count. This app also uses InTact Technology to retain existing formatting. Download Documents to Go Continue Reading