I mentioned "if available" for the edit button because I was unable to edit several documents on the iPad that I owned in my Google Docs. I verified that I was able to edit them on my laptop, so it definitely had to do with the mobile experience. Another flaw seems to occur when I enter edit mode on the iPad, there is no easy way to return to my docs homepage other than pressing back and then all docs. The good news about Spreadsheets is that neither of these errors appeared. I was able to edit every spreadsheet I opened, and I was able to return to "All Docs" through the button found in the upper right of the spreadsheet.
What about Google Presentations?
Opening a Google Presentation on the iPad will take you to a View only version of the presentation. In addition, while looking great and functioning well in portrait mode, the presentation fails to render correctly in landscape mode. However, the presentation runs well in that links are active, and it's worth noting that tapping on the screen advances the slide. Overall, a nice viewing experience for slides.
Conclusion
So, where do we stand with Google Docs on the iPad? It is safe to say that you won't be writing your 10 page essay exclusively on the iPad using Google Docs (OK, somebody probably will). However, as Google promotes in its YouTube introduction (see below), mobile editing of a Google document or spreadsheet would best be suitable for quick memos, group editing of proposals, and/or meeting notes. To this, the company may have a good start in this current version. Readers should note that there are other apps available in the App Store that give Google some competition in the document editing arena, and many users already use some combination of a word processor app such as Documents to Go and an online storage solution such as Dropbox. It will be interesting to see how much usage Google Docs Mobile gets, and whether it can make a dent into classrooms looking at the iPad as a possible 1:1 netbook alternative.
Article comments
1 - David
Google has recently updated its application to now allow iPad users to access the desktop version of Docs on the iPad. I tried it out with positive results. Check out my blog post for additional details.