Quickoffice Launches Connect – An Amazing Cloud Service For Collaboration And Mobility

By

Connect by Quickoffice iPad app
Connect by Quickoffice iPad app

Quickoffice announced its new cloud service known as Connect at the end of last month. The service is designed to sync Microsoft Office documents between your iOS devices, Android devices, Macs, and PCs. It’s an extension to the Quickoffice apps for iOS and other mobile platforms that offer the ability to create, edit, and view Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files on the go.

Connect by Quickoffice is now available from the App Store and it’s a very slick app and a great addition for any iOS user or mobile professional.

Connect is centered around the idea of having instant access to your documents and files regardless of which devices you’re using and regardless of the where a given document or file is located. Connect offers a seamless search functionality that can not only look through each of your devices but even through other cloud services that Quickoffice supports, which includes a pretty impressive array of consumer and enterprise options.

Connect by Quickoffice integrates with a range of personal, professional cloud services

Beyond the integrated search, Connect also includes the ability to instantly add any folder on a Mac or PC to Connect. That folder can then be managed using the connect app or web interface. It can be synced, shared with other users, or commented upon. The result blows the pants off any cloud service that still relies on a single dedicated sync folder on your desktop. The result is folder and file management on your Mac (or PC) functions exactly as it always has – use the Office, iWork, or any other similar tools with your existing folder structure. At the same time, you have complete access to them on your mobile device.

Connect also offers incredibly easy and flexible collaboration. Since folder on can be shared with other users regardless of where in exists (your computer, a cloud service, or on a mobile device), collaboration is simple, straightforward, and instantaneous – the ability to share is just a contextual menu away. The system supports commenting on files and folders and it presents you with pretty thorough activity log. The only element missing is support for Track Changes when on a mobile device, which no mobile Office-type suite offers at this point (CloudOn and OnLive Desktop include such features, but they’re cloud-based versions of Office rather than on-device apps).

Quickoffice is offering Connect using a freemium model with three tiers of services, though the free tier seems extremely limited in capabilities:

Basic (free) – view documents, cloud access, five sharable folders, sync up to two devices, 5,000 file sync capacity
Premium ($44.99/year) – view and edit documents, integrated search across devices/clouds, unlimited folder sharing, sync up to four devices, remote access, 125,000 file sync capacity
Professional ($69.99/year) – view and edit documents. integrated search, unlimited folder sharing, sync up to six devices, remote access, file versioning, 250,000 file sync capacity

It’s worth noting that Connect is a self-contained solution separate from other Quickoffice products. That means that Connect’s free service won’t integrate with other Quickoffice apps even both are installed on the same iPhone or iPad. While Connect is an amazing product, it remains to be seen if users will find enough value to spend the money for an annual subscription to it.

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.