Though Google Docs are not fully functional with iPhone, you can create them from a standard email message. On a desktop browser, those you share with can open them, edit them and download them in various file formats. From your desktop, sign up for Google Docs, log in and press the Upload button. At the bottom of the screen you'll see a lengthy email address. Copy and paste this in your Contacts and sync it with your iPhone. Anything you email to this address becomes a Google doc. The Subject is the title of the doc and the body becomes the content.
A cool feature is that you can add emphasis to your doc with standard html tags in your email:
For italic use <i>emphasized text</i>
For bold use <b>emphasized text</b>
For links use <a href="http://iphonesmarts.com/">shown text</a>
For email links use <a href="mailto:me@myselfandi.com">shown text</a>
These are the basics. Many other html tags also work.
View your docs online at Google Mobile. This becomes a convenient place online to store any doc that you commonly need to view.
Creating a Google Doc
Storing Files on iPhone
Yes, you really can store files on your iPhone. You can easily keep many documents as datastreams in Safari bookmarks. (It's not as tough as it sounds.) Just download FilemarkMaker. This little Mac utility converts a file into a datastream and them pops it in a Safari bookmark. If you have your iPhone set in iTunes to sync Safari bookmarks, the file will appear on your iPhone the next sync. Any files that Safari reads will work. This includes HTML, Word, Excel, PDF and image files. Some people have saved files up to half a meg in size. Others report issues even with smaller files. There are also reports that keeping a large number of files slows Safari down, since it appears to keep bookmarks in RAM. You'll just have to try and see what works for you. This is a great way to keep documents so you can view them in airplane mode.
You also have the option of apps like Air Sharing. This can store files in your iPhone's memory. The built in viewer can read most common file formats.
Open & Play Attachments
Mail allows you to view, play and forward attachments in a huge number of common formats. The most common are:
- HTML
- Word
- TXT
- Excel
- vCard (You can save attached vCards to Contacts.)
- Standard photo formats.
- WAV
- Unprotected AAC
- MP3
- H.264 Video
- MP4 Video
- 3GP Video
- QT MOV
Sometimes attachments will not open if the sender uses RTF format for email. You will have to ask them to resend in HTML or plain text. Media attachments burned with a codec not supported by QT may also not play. Since attachments remain on the server, you can forward them, even the ones you can't open on your iPhone. The only attachment you can make directly from your iPhone is an image from your camera or Photos.
