Information is the most valuable possession you’ll ever have. The same goes for organizations. Businesses, in fact, are built on information processing and distribution. This is why they make tremendous investments in IT systems, including document management software.
Documentation sometimes may seem like a boring and tedious task, but it’s a necessary step for the success of any product. Few qualities are valued as highly among developers as the ability to write good documentation. The process of creating documentation can be fun and interesting in itself, especially when you need to create some specific kind of documentation. But, when you have limited experience or just want something to start with, this can be very discouraging. So today we will talk specifically about the best app to edit documents.
You know that one friend who needs their document edited and they send it to you in a million different files and formats? There’s that one other person who always wants you to edit and highlight their documents but doesn’t bother providing any sort of format. And then there’s the client who perpetually sends you .docx files via email (we’re all still waiting for that MS Office fix). Regardless, these situations call for an app that can tackle them all. This list of the best apps for editing documents can help take care of this issue once and forever (well…until you figure out what’s wrong with Word, anyway).
Document creation software allows users to customize, edit, and share text-based documents. These software applications can function as word processors, PDF creators and editors. Document creation products also have the ability to store, share documents and allow for collaborative editing. Document creation solutions are often part of a larger suite of products or set up as integrations for more expansive business software, but can also be independent, highly focused platforms.
What is a PDF?
PDF stands for Portable Document Format. PDF is a cross-platform file format developed by Adobe. Unlike Word documents, you can view PDF documents across any device and operating system without losing its original style. Whether you view a PDF on your desktop, mobile phone, tablet, Windows PC, or Macbook, it will always look exactly the same. There are no misplaced images, misaligned text, or formatting errors. In short, you’re able to view it just the way that the author intended. A PDF file does not only contain text and images. It can also contain hyperlinks, videos, music, spreadsheets, forms, interactive buttons, and other advanced elements. To cut a long story short, a PDF allows for a more interactive experience. There’s one caveat, though: Editing a PDF document can be a bit of a pain…
So how does a PDF editor help?
With a PDF editor, customizing your document becomes a straightforward process. Here are a few things that you can do with a PDF editor:
• Create, edit, annotate, convert, and e-sign PDF files
• Collaborate with clients and team members
• Easily search for information within a PDF document
• Copy data from a PDF file
• Create new content by merging, adding blank pages, or rearranging layouts
• Collect payment and data via interactive forms
• Sign or create legally binding e-signature fields
• Blackout sensitive information on documents
• Edit scanned documents
What advanced features are there?
Besides merely letting you edit a PDF document, the best PDF software can also make your work life easier and more productive. How? Consider the following functions:
1. You can go paperless at work by scanning your documents and turning them into PDFs that you can store or share around the office. No more paper jams! Plus, it’s much better for the environment…
2. It makes signing contracts and documents a breeze!
3. Team members can collaborate more efficiently. A PDF editor allows team members to simultaneously access, share, annotate, and edit a PDF document.
4. Engage with and collect data from your customers via forms, buttons, and checkboxes using interactive PDF forms.
5. It allows you to add passwords and permissions to your PDF files to ensure that it is safe and secure even when shared outside the company firewall.
What do I need to look for in a PDF editor?
It really depends on what you will be using it for, who will be using it, and how many staff will use it. If your company is trying to go paperless, you need a PDF editor with a scan and OCR functionality. Suppose your office produces a lot of professional documents, contracts, invoices, and the like. In that case, you can look for a PDF editor that will allow you to insert stamps, watermarks, headers, and footers. You’ll also have to consider ease of use because some PDF editors require a bit of a learning curve. Choosing the best PDF software can be overwhelming, but that’s why we’re here. Our ranking considers several factors like price, features, editing capabilities, and more so you can choose the right one for your business!
Are there any free PDF editors available online?
Of course. However, the most important features are often locked away behind a paywall. Also, most PDF applications will only let you view the file. Say, for example, that your coworker sent a scanned copy of a contract for the new employee to sign digitally. Before forwarding it to the employee, you noticed a typo. While a free PDF application allows you to view the file, you can’t fix the typo. You also won’t be able to copy its content to create a new contract. At the end of the day, if you want to enjoy all the benefits mentioned above, you will need a decent PDF editor like the ones we have on our list.
Bear in mind that most of the PDF software we recommend on this page also have free trials, so you can test them before you commit!
WPS Office
WPS office is hassle-free, easy-to-use app that you can utilize to open documents directly from your mail, edit them and even send them to your cloud storage such as Dropbox. You can make and share spreadsheets, PDF documents and word files with your contacts. <br><br>The app comes for both iOS and Android and offers a good, intuitive user interface that runs smoothly on almost all devices.
Google Docs
If you are familiar with Google Drive, Google Docs on mobile is a good editing tool for word documents.<br><br> Though it can take time getting used to the interface, once you get a hang of it, it comes in handy.<br><br> It lets you do all the regular stuff like editing, sharing and creating documents- and opening them from your email account. Needless to mention, its integration with Gmail is pretty smooth. <br><br>Google Docs also lets you edit and save offline, which works well in areas with no connectivity. For spreadsheets get Google Sheets and for presentations get Google Slides.
Office Suite 8
This document-editing app for Android has been downloaded over 200 million times. <br><br>It lets you do all the regular stuff and can convert PDFs into word documents. The app also lets you add custom headers and footers to the documents. <br><br>Thanks to OEM agreements, the app comes preloaded in several handsets. They have also recently optimized their app for Android Lollipop.
Polaris Office
Polaris Office is a good app if you are mostly offline. <br><br>It lets you edit Office documents, presentations and excel sheets effortlessly. It optimizes content as per your mobile screen, and that helps working with large documents. <br><br>The interface too is pretty clean to use. The app also offers multiple choices for slideshow and word document fonts. <br><br>Basic version Polaris office is free for Android and iOS but advanced ones come at a price.
Smart Office 2
Smart Office 2 for Android is a free app and comes for Rs.620 for the iOS version. <br><br>Like others, this one can help you view, edit, create, print, and share documents on all your mobile devices. <br><br>You can access and open various Office documents formats and the app includes various tools to create form templates, make changes to existing documents, and share directly via email in original or PDF format as per requirement. <br><br>It also provides the option to sync documents to your cloud storage.
Access Control & Office 365 / DocuSign integrations
Share documents, folders, sections or even the whole account with different permissions (Previewer, Viewer, Editor, Upload-only) to anyone you like. Create groups of collaborators to share to many people at once! Work collaboratively in Office 365 apps and send documents to e-signing workflows.
Powerful Search With Multilingual OCR
A powerful live-search function is built into our cloud document management software so you can search documents not only by the file name and metadata, like keywords but also the content of the files thanks to Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. PDFs, Docx files or even screenshots and scans of documents are now thoroughly searchable!
Approval Workflow & Automated Retention
Does an invoice, vacation application or another document need to be approved by one or several people before the next step? Not a problem! Invite people to approve and add their comments. In fixed order or all at once. It’s never been easier to get and track approvals! Learn more about Approval Workflow!
You can also set an optional retention period for any of the folders and files — in days, weeks, months or years!
Document Numbering, Notifications & Audit Trails
Utilize automatic document numbering based on the schemes you define. Set and get automatic notifications for changes in documents or folders as often as you choose. While audit trial logs severy action of every user for accountability.
Custom Metadata & File Linking
Add tags, notes, date and due date to help organise your documents. You can easily add your own metadata fields of different types like lists, checkboxes and much more! You can also link files to create relations between documents in different folder structures. Metadata templates can be defined on folder-level too.
File Versions
You can upload a new version of a document and preserve the existing metadata and all earlier versions of the file — which are always easily recoverable with just one click! A document check-in/check-out feature allows you to lock a document for others while you are editing it on your computer. And each version of a document can be independently approved.
Reminders
Whenever you need a notification at a certain date and time, just set up a reminder! You can add as many reminders as you like and choose a different e-mail address for notification on each of them.
Import Documents Over E-mail
Every folder has a dedicated e-mail address. Just send/forward an e-mail to that address and the attached file will end up in chosen folder with sender, subject and content info intact. It couldn’t be any simpler, and it’s perfect to store documents on the go or for sending them into your DMS from a scanner.
Subsidiaries Supported
Although you can create unlimited hierarchy under your primary account role, you can add separate spaces for your branch companies! So, you can have one for each of your company or its divisions. The teams and data are kept separately, unless you want to give someone access to several of your companies.
Mobile Friendly DMS
Your documents in the Folderit online document management system are accessible to you from every PC, Mac, tablet or smartphone with an internet connection. All over the world.
Local Backup Too
Your documents are stored in a secure cloud and are perfectly safe, yet if you wish, you can easily download the whole account or individual files/folders to your hard-drive as often as you like for your local backup.
Safe & Secure
All your data is triple backed up and bank-level encrypted in the Folderit cloud document management system where it’s safely stored and is transferred via secure SSL layer. You can also customize the password policy (including 2FA) for your team members, so they can only choose extra long passwords and need to change their password as often as you wish.
There are several other software options available that supplement document creation tools:
Spreadsheets software — Similar to document creation software, spreadsheets software organizes, catalogues, and maintains data but in the form of a spreadsheet. The data within the spreadsheet can then be turned into charts and graphs. Spreadsheet software also offers collaboration features similar to the ones offered in document creation software.
Presentation software — Presentation software allows users to create interactive, slide-based presentations using custom or premade templates. Similar to document creation tools, presentation software allows users to generate visual documents in a collaborative manner.
Office suites — Document creation software will sometimes come bundled in with a larger suite of office tools that will also include presentation software and spreadsheet software. Users will benefit from the fact that the software in the bundled office suite integrates with one another, allowing users to easily pull information from one into another. For example, a document creation tool that integrates with a spreadsheet software can pull graphs and charts from it and add them to a text document without requiring the user to leave the software.
Document generation software — Document generation software is similar to document creation software, in that both are concerned with creating text-based documents. However, document generation software is used specifically for documents that require data to be pulled from an outside source and used to generate a form. While document creation tools can be used on nonroutine instances, businesses that require a streamlined workflow between data and form creation would have their needs best met with a document generation solution.
PDF editor software — While document creation tools can usually save a document as a PDF, few can edit PDFs themselves. If users don’t have access to a non-PDF version of a document, they won’t be able to make edits to it using only a document creation solution. Instead, users will need to turn to a PDF editor if they want to make changes to a PDF file.
Conclusion
You almost certainly have a smartphone or a tablet, and you are constantly looking for new apps to install. You probably think that application stores are growing every day. Indeed, they are. There are loads of people creating apps, but not all of them serve your needs. So how to find the best app to edit word files on your mobile device?
Finding a free app to edit documents is not that easy as you think. There are a lot of document editing apps, but almost all of them aren’t free. Many of these apps are also not that easy to use, so having some experience in this area can be beneficial.