Readdle’s Documents 5 Focuses On iOS 7 Redesign And App Ecosystem

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This past week Readdle released Documents 5, the big iOS 7 redesign of their popular document manager. The download is a free update to existing users, and it brings a much-needed design refresh and several feature additions.

Readdle makes a great suite of productivity apps in the App Store, like PDF Expert and Scanner Pro. Users of the recently-updated PDF Expert 5 will be immediatley familiar with the new Documents interface. It borrows heavily from the design language Readdle has already established for itself.

Not only is the app better on the eyes, but it is considerably easier to navigate. The file manager is nearly comparable to what you can do on the desktop in Finder, and you can even drag-and-drop to move files around.

While the feature additions are great and there are more than mentioned here, the really interesting part of Documents 5 is what Readdle is calling “Add-ons.” While only available on the iPad, these Add-ons hook Readdle’s app ecosystem together in way no other app maker has done.

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Readdle is trying to solve the issue of inter-app communication that Apple still hasn’t solved in iOS. Moving files between apps usually requires creating several copies while jumping between apps. A trail of duplicates is then left to clean up, and it isn’t pretty.

If you have Documents 5 and PDF Expert 5 installed, you don’t need to bring a document from Documents to PDF Expert, create a copy, convert it to a PDF, and then bring it back to Documents and create another copy. Instead, a “Convert to PDF” option will do the trick without leaving Documents. The same goes for editing PDFs. You can also use Printer Pro’s features in Documents if you have both apps installed.

If you want a document manager for iOS that hooks into multiple services, including iWork in the Cloud, Office 365, and Dropbox, give Documents 5 a try. It’s free in the App Store.

Source: App Store

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