New Tips And Triks For You

The latest version of the app adds support for OneDrive, so you can now view and edit any documents housed on Microsoft's cloud-based service.

(Credit: Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET)

Still waiting for Microsoft to release Office for the iPad? Don't bother. Here's another app that fits the bill, and it's free.

Released last November for the iPad, HopTo lets you view, edit, and create Word documents and Excel spreadsheets, and view PowerPoint presentations. You can access and edit those and other types of files from your local computer and from Dropbox, Box, and Google Drive. And thanks to the latest update, you can now tap into your Microsoft OneDrive files.

Updated on Wednesday, the newest version of HopTo directly supports OneDrive, though the app still refers to it as SkyDrive. To set this up, simply tap on the Add icon in the app's My Cloud section. Choose SkyDrive, enter your Microsoft account credentials, and you'll see a new connection to your OneDrive storage space.

From there, tap on any file on OneDrive to open it in HopTo's editor. Tapping your finger in a document displays the app's virtual keyboard and two toolbars with formatting commands. Bouncing between the Format, Paragraph, and Insert commands on the lower toolbar changes the options available on the top toolbar.

The keyboard and toolbars do take up a hefty amount of space, so you can see just a snippet of your document. But that's fine for editing one small section at a time. And you won't find the full array of commands available in the full desktop version of Office, but the basics are all there.

Wednesday's update adds a few other features. You can now copy and paste content between Word and Excel, access your password-protected files, and open Office files from other apps directly in HopTo.

And what of Microsoft? The folks in Redmond do offer an Office Mobile app to help you create and edit online documents. But that app is available only for Office 365 subscribers. Microsoft reportedly is prepping a version of Office for the iPad, but so far we're still waiting.

Instead, I use HopTo and a similar app called CloudOn. HopTo supports only the iPad, while CloudOn works on the iPhone and Android devices as well. Together, they offer full access to all my online documents whether I just need to read them or perform a few quick edits.