Looking for an app that can not only manage files on your iPad or iPhone, but also has very extensive viewer and annotation options on board? Then Readdle Documents X – now at version 10 or X – is definitely worth it. If only because you don’t have to pay anything for it in ‘basic’ version.
Let’s get straight to the point: the free version of Documents X will be more than sufficient for the vast majority of humanity – including business users. Additional functionality can be added via in-app purchases, but think before you start. Because if you happen to also use PDF Expert from the same Readdle, and if you have ever bought some extras such as PDF editing, then it makes no sense to pay for it again within Document X.
Anyway, in the basic version – which costs nothing – you will find a huge mountain of options for managing and consuming files. officeView documents, listen to music, view video file, view and annotate PDF, share files with other systems: these are just some of the many possibilities the app has to offer. Basically all your files are collected and managed within the app.
But if you want it, nowadays there is of course a link with the native iOS / iPadOS app Files. Link to cloud storage and the like is also available. In short: it must be really crazy if you can’t import a file into Documents X. Or export it from the app.
Browser and file manager
The built-in browser is also practical. This allows you to download any files within the app at lightning speed. But – at least as handy – you can control the conversion of a web page to with a tap PDFformat (which you can find in the folder by the way) Downloads). And the PDFs created in this way end up in the app again, so that you always have everything nice and clear together. The heart of Documents X is therefore formed by the file browser. Its operation is largely self-explanatory. A list of folders and files, there is little exciting to tell. To create a new folder, tap the inviting + in the bottom right corner. Tap on New folder, give a folder name and you’re done. Then you can grab files and drag them to the new folder. Or first select multiple files via the … button at the top right, followed by a tap on Select. The entire group can then be dragged to the desired folder. Or use the copy and moveoptions in the panel on the left.
Zip and email
In that same panel you will also find the option compression to: it makes the selection a zip file. And you can share that zip, for example, to your mail program via a tap on … behind that (or actually any other file type) file. In the context menu that opens, tap E-mail, after which you can type an email with the chosen file (or files) added as an attachment. By the way, changing the name of the zip (or any other file) is a matter of tapping the button … and then the option Rename to choose.
PDF page management
You may have already noticed that a range of options appears in the context menu of the + button at the bottom right. One of them is Scan Document, which allows you to scan via the camera in your device. Straightening and the like is all available, and you end up making a PDF file that consists of one or more pages. This opens in the PDF viewer annex annotator. This one looks – how could it be otherwise – very similar to the aforementioned PDF Expert from the same makers. Including the ability to annotate and (re)order pages. You can arrange the latter by tapping the button with the four squares in the viewer – i.e. with an open PDF document. For example, to remove unnecessary pages created when creating a PDF from a web page (often found at the end), tap Select top right. Select the deleted pages and then tap delete in the toolbar at the top of the page manager. Furthermore, with Select mode deactivated, you can also grab a page and drag it to another position. To add pages (or, if necessary, a completely different PDF) you use – again in Select mode – Insert. Together with the annotation options, this creates a very complete whole that provides for almost all your wishes in the field of PDFs.
Notes
Conveniently, you can also create text notes within Documents. To do this, tap in the file manager – again outside the PDF viewer – on the + at the bottom right and then on Text File. Type your note and you’re done. By default, the note is really a pure and only text file. If you want formatting options, click on the button in the top right corner and then in the opened context menu on Make Rich Text. You will then see some extra options regarding formatting at the bottom of the note. Incidentally, experience has shown that it is wise to save the note quickly. If you unexpectedly do not do that and switch to another app, you will lose the typing. At least that was the case in the version we were using.
External Storage Locations
One of the strengths of Documents is that you can link all kinds of external storage locations. That can be a cloud storage service like Dropbox, but also your NAS. To realize that, tap in the panel on the left Add Connection. Then choose from one of the available options, for example Windows SMB for a NAS share. Fill in the requested information and you will now have quick and easy access to a folder on your NAS.
Documents has many, many more options. Of course the main feature is the built-in file viewer that can handle a mountain of multimedia or non-multimedia file formats. That alone makes the app worth installing. For everyone who is iPad (or iPhone) seriously or want to use Documents is actually a must have. Don’t think about it, just install. There is a good chance that you will not want anything else very soon. And be sure to try out all the options, because we can fill a book in terms of options. In this article there was room for only a selection. An extra nice detail: the app also runs on the new M1 Macs.
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