iSpreadsheet: An iPhone Excel app for number crunchers

Editing documents has been one of the major holes in the iPhone experience. While the e-mail and other apps give a solid performance in letting one view and send files, the ability to manipulate them has been lacking.

Enter iSpreadsheet, the first app that allows you to actually create and save spreadsheets. It is a solid concept — giving users the ability to keep track of business expenditures, household expenses, or other types of data. There are some very clever functions that make good use of the iPhone’s touch interface.

But there is a downside to being first out of the gate. iSpreadsheet leaves a lot to be desired in functionality. Some features that one would expect are missing, and others are a bit on the clunky side. While iSpreadsheet may improve with updates and time, as it currently stands you should consider that at a price of $3.99, you are going to get what you paid for.

Using the software is fairly simple. You can create headings for your columns, change their width, and format them just like you would with Excel. The icons appear when you are working in a column format.

As with Excel, you can name your rows and put in the ever-popular Excel formulas that power users are familiar with.

Color is available for highlighting the background or just the symbols themselves Bold and italics are also available for making things a bit more legible.

The biggest drawback is the learning curve, as help is available but hard to find. The italic “i” in the left-hand corner is where you go for help.

The syncing with Google Docs is handy, but of course this will only be of benefit if you are a Google Docs user. There is a familiar large Googlesque “G” on the header where you can access your Google Docs.

iSpreadsheet is handy tool if you want the power of spreadsheets in your pocket. It is the first of hopefully many apps that will unleash the iPhone’s screen power for productivity tools.