Microsoft finally woke up and created this year the Office applications for Android smartphones and tablets, for iPhone and iPad, all free. We talked about these apps in two different articles, with the Office Word, Excel and Powerpoint apps for iPhone and Android phones and the Word, Excel and Powerpoint apps for iPad .
Google, for some time now, has its Google Docs applications for Android and iPhone, included in Google Drive (for Android and iPhone) or downloadable individually, always for free: Word is called Documents (Android and iPhone), Excel is called Google Sheets (for Android and iPhone) while Powerpoint is called Google Slides (for Android and iPhone).
Thanks to this wide choice, the possibilities to work from tablet or smartphone on Office files are absolutely concrete and it becomes easier to edit a document on the fly, take notes or create presentations even while away from home or office.
It is therefore worth trying to understand which are the best Office apps for smartphones and tablets by comparing those of Microsoft with those of Google Docs to see which ones work best.
READ ALSO: Better LibreOffice features compared to Microsoft Office on PC
Comparison 1: Google Docs vs Word
If there is something useful for a writing app for smartphones and tablets, it is not so much the ability to create a document from scratch, but to take it back and edit it.
Taking, for example, a well-formatted curriculum with text aligned in the template, we find that Word works better than Google Docs .
In fact, Microsoft Word has more options for formatting documents (we always talk about the mobile version) to change the font size and colors, to make annotations, to add page breaks, columns, images, margins etc.
Some of these may be superfluous but they are always handy and easier to use than in Docs.
Google Docs, on the other hand, works very well if you need to edit a document in collaboration with other people.
Google Docs has unique tools for collaborative editing that not only allows multiple users to simultaneously make changes from different devices, but they can also make suggestions without making changes to the document until the owner approves them.
The downside of Docs is that the mobile version lacks many features found on the Google Drive website instead.
So if Google Docs is good for writing text without paying too much attention to formatting, it remains inferior to the Word app, much more complete.
Comparison 2: Microsoft Excel vs Google Sheets
Microsoft also wins in this comparison, with Excel which is really an excellent app because it includes models for making personal budgets, calculating winnings, managing university courses and organization of various types.
In practice, just make a few small changes to already have a working spreadsheet and only to fill in the values.
The ribbon interface helps to use the numerous formulas by selecting them from a drop-down menu, to format and color the text as you wish and to add images, text boxes or graphics.
Google Sheets has much less options than Excel, it does not have a list of formulas even if these will be completed automatically by the application, starting to write them (if, however, you do not know that writing there is no way to find it).
Cell colors, font sizes and other basic formatting elements can be changed, but graphics cannot be created or images cannot be added.
The gap in terms of functionality is quite large in this case and Sheets looks more like an app for viewing already created spreadsheets or making small changes.
With Microsoft Excel it is instead possible to work in a serious and complete way, perhaps by connecting a bluetooth keyboard to the smartphone or tablet.
Comparison 3: Powerpoint vs Google Presentations
PowerPoint on Android phones, on iPhone and iPad is very simple to use: just touch the text boxes to edit them, drag them around grabbing them with your finger, insert images or tables or even transition effects from the main menu.
With Powerpoint you can also view the presentation on another screen and use a pointer to highlight information in real time.
Google Presentations, on the other hand, is an app still too scarce to compare with Microsoft's Powerpoint, with no options to insert images or text boxes, making it impossible to create a presentation from scratch.
To close the comparison you need to talk about the Cloud side of Microsoft Office and Google Docs, that is, the possibility of saving files online or resuming documents saved from the computer.
Both Google Drive and Microsoft Office have integrated cloud storage functionality for all their applications.
With Google, saves are automatic in Google Drive without any option or configuration, with Microsoft Office you can instead choose to use Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, or a local server.
The downside of Microsoft Office is that it doesn't automatically save your changes.
In the end, Microsoft's are very powerful Office applications, which still cannot replace the PC versions, but functional enough to be used for every job.
Google Docs apps work well for viewing already created documents (which, to be honest, is probably the most needed function on a smartphone), but it has few options (although many of these may be superfluous for most users).
