I want to be able to use word, excel on my Ipad and wonder what everyone is using. I see the apps on iTunes for spreadsheets, word processing, but I need to get some understanding if this is what I need to purchase. Also what about saving things to the iPad. These questions may seem silly, but I really don't quite get it yet.

Thx
Bob

Microsoft has not yet released Office for the iPad. There have been rumbings and a video showing someone using Office on an iPad but nothing offical.

You can purchase Apples own Pages, Numbers for the iPad and it saves the documents on the iPad. You can actually use it across all iOS devices.

Microsoft has not yet released Office for the iPad. There have been rumbings and a video showing someone using Office on an iPad but nothing offical.

You can purchase Apples own Pages, Numbers for the iPad and it saves the documents on the iPad. You can actually use it across all iOS devices.

Are 'Pages/Numbers' apps I buy from iTunes or are we talking about something different?

I would recommend pages and numbers respectively, they both handle Microsoft office file formats just fine, that said there are a few other apps that will also do this, though as previously mention Microsoft has not yet released their own version for ios. Personally even if they did I'd be unlikely to bother with it myself as the only significant argument I can see for actually using Microsoft office for Mac vs another of the plethora of cheaper (in some cases free) alternatives is a familiarity with the user interface, would be a completely moot point when considering the user interface will need to redesigned around touch anyways...

Pages and numbers are both apps made by apple you can buy from iTunes for iOS ( or the app store on device). They also have OSX versions (if you have both you can use iCloud to easily and seamlessly move from working on a document at home, to on the iPad or even iPhone)

Pages and numbers are both apps made by apple you can buy from iTunes for iOS ( or the app store on device). They also have OSX versions (if you have both you can use iCloud to easily and seamlessly move from working on a document at home, to on the iPad or even iPhone)

Thanks...I'll go ahead and purchase the apps and get used to using these before I move forward using iCloud. For me it's always slow methodical steps so I gain a full understanding before I move onto something else.

Thanks again!

There is also Documents to Go for the iPhone and iPad. You can use word and excel files directly (albiet really advanced options aren't supported). You can use Dropbox as an access point to move/synch files with a mac or pc. For basic documents I find this route easier and faster than Apple's apps when working with office file formats.

All depends on what you really want to do and what level you are working at.