How do I transfer Office files?

[Dougbert]

This sounds like it ought ot be a no-brainer, but amazingly I can find nothing in a Google search that actually tells you how to use Android. (What passes for a manual on my machine is predictably written in Chinglish and tells me nothing I couldn't have worked out for myself.)

I recently bought a generic Chinese 7" tablet (branded in Australia as a Pioneer EPad) running Android 1.6. I want to use it essentially as a PDA, storing about 3 gig of my own Office files and about 2 file drawers' worth of literature in PDF for reference on the move. A 16 gig micro-SD, which my device claims to be able to handle, should comfortably hold everything I need, but the thing I can't work out is: how on earth do I get the data across? It's currently all in Windows folders, but when I copy the folders to a USB and try to get the device to read it, it won't recognise that anything is there.

There must be some way, short of e-mailing the lot to myself as attachments a couple of files at a time, which would take longer than the exercise is worth. Can anyone tell me what it is? Alternatively, is there an app available for this release that will enable me to sync an Android device to a PC running Win 7?

Another probably naive question while I'm at it. QuickOffice, which is loaded on my machine, will apparently enable me to read Office files, and I gather there may even be an enhancement available that will let me edit them. But can it handle PDF? And if not, is there a PDF reader app that you'd recommend?

 

[momoceio]

Sign up for a free dropbox account, install the Android dropbox app, install the dropbox app on your PC. Any file you place in your "dropbox" folder will be accessible from your phone and vice versa. Super easy and extremely convenient!


https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTExODIxNDk5OQ?src=global0

 

[Dougbert]

Thanks for this. I have checked this option out and may well follow it up later.

As it turns out, I discovered on another forum that the problem with the USB flashdrive is probably either a hardware or a firmware one - the USB adapter is an obvious afterthought and it looks as though nobody at the factory bothered to check whether it would actually read anything. Once again, be warned if you are contemplating buying a low-end device like this one.

The partial solution turned out to be copying the relevant Windows directories over to the micro-SD using the PC and returning it to the Android device, whereupon, for a wonder, the file browser will recognise the files, and even open some of them. Problem is, none of the apps will. Word files open in Word format, JPEGs open as JPEGS (usually with some distortion because of the different aspect ratio), but nothing whatever happens with Excel, PowerPoint and worst of all, PDF files, and Quickoffice refuses to acknowledge that any files at all exist on the card.

Is this problem something to do with using an early version of Android? Is it something that besets Android generally? Or have I just got a bodgy copy of the software? And would it help to install one of the several alternative file manager apps which are available?

 

[johnlgalt]

Depends also on what version of Office you have versus what version of QuickOffice the tablet has.... They may not be fully compatible with the newer .???x formats of Office 2007 / 2010.

 

[Dougbert]

I think the problem starts earlier than that. When I open Quickoffice it immediately opens on "memory card" (giving me no choice) and throws up a message saying "This folder is empty". A few seconds later the screen just goes blank. There doesn't seem to be any kind of command bar by which I can prompt it to do anything else, nor is there any introductory screen telling me what version it is. Double-taps or long taps on the icon from the menu screen have no effect - all I can do is a single short tap to bring the program up.

As it came pre-installed and this model of tablet has only been on the market since Computex in March, I assume it must be the current version.

 

[johnlgalt]

Indeed. One of the alternate ROMs I tried out had quick office installed, and I got rid of it and installed documents to go. Much more robust program suite.

 

[Dougbert]

This may indeed be so; as you recall, I originally suggested as much. But I'm afraid it doesn't help much unless you can provide me with at least a tiny bit more detail