But that doesn’t mean that you’ve got to restrict yourself to just a few writing tools at best. What if you wanted to translate some text or insert a tricky-looking formula to your document? Rather than fumbling around with doing things the hard way, consider using add-ins. While the iOS version of Word doesn’t support as many add-ins as its desktop counterpart, there are still a few that can enhance your productivity drastically. So what are they? Let’s take a look, shall we.
1. Wikipedia
Wikipedia is an add-in that anyone could find a use for. Whether you are composing or reading a document, you can seamlessly search Wikipedia’s massive content database for pretty much anything, no matter how popular or obscure the topic is. Articles that match your keywords are automatically opened, where you can then dig through the various sections, images, and infoboxes presented for useful information. You won’t ever run out of ideas with this add-in running alongside. Furthermore, Wikipedia isn’t limited to just research. Want to insert a creative commons-licensed photo to your document? Just tap the image that you want to add. Or do you want to quote something? Forget copying and pasting. Just highlight and drag the text into your document to be done with it.
2. Translator
Developed by Microsoft itself, Translator is another must-have add-in when reading or working on documents that require translation from time to time. Just highlight whatever word or phrase that you want to translate, and the add-in should automatically pick it up. Then simply select the language that you want to translate it to, and you should find translated text show up immediately. That’s it. No more wasting time copying and pasting stuff over to Google Translate. And wait, you can also insert the translated text to your document if you want to.
3. Kwilt
Working with lots of images? Then use Kwilt. Consider it an all-in-one image viewer, where you can access pretty much any image stored on cloud-storages such as OneDrive or Google Photos, or even on social media such as Instagram. It’s insane. Thanks to this nifty add-in, no longer do you need to move around manually hunting for images, adding them to your photo stream, and then inserting them to your documents. Sign into your cloud-storage or social media account via Kwilt, and just tap the image that you want to add. Kwilt even provides filters — Recent, Date Added, Location, etc. — to sort through dozens, if not hundreds, of images easily.
4. MyScript Math Sample
Doing a math or science assignment on your iPad? Adding equations suck, right? Well, not anymore. Fire up the MyScript Math Sample add-in, and just draw it with your finger instead. Adding complex mathematical formulas should be a breeze from now onward. And you don’t have to worry about messing things up either — just tap Undo if the add-in registers your scribbles incorrectly. Once you are satisfied, tap the Upload icon to add it to your document.
5. Symbols and Characters
Symbols and Characters should be your one-stop add-in for weird characters and symbols. You’d be surprised at how much stuff the thing comes packed with. Hell, you can even find emoticons should you need them. The add-in sports three separate tabs that you can use to easily find whatever you want. Either use the Search bar to hunt around for characters by name, or use the Languages and Subsets tabs to insert anything from German umlauts to double-line arrows.
6. PerfectIt
PerfectIt is an awesome solution if you find Word’s error-detection features to be lacking. But rather than being a simple grammar checker, PerfectIt has a lot going for it. Expect advanced proofreading capabilities, multiple English grammar styles, and the ability to check lengthy documents for consistency. If you frequently mess up your hyphen usage, for example, PerfectIt flags any improper instances once you finish composing your document. And of course, the add-in applies the relevant fixes automatically depending on your preferred style. Unfortunately, PerfectIt requires a paid subscription. But since it provides a two-week trial, feel free to give the add-in a spin. You may actually end up paying for it!
7. Text Study Skills
An insanely useful add-in that you definitely shouldn’t skip out on, especially if you are a student or a teacher. What Text Study Skills offers at first glance doesn’t seem like much, but messing around with it for a while shows how powerful the thing actually is. Simply highlight words or phrases with the four colors given, and afterward, you can choose to group together whatever you’ve highlighted by color, thereby making note-taking and reviewing a breeze. And the best part? You can easily export your highlights into a separate document in mere seconds.
8. Word to HTML
Do you hate composing your posts in a web editor? Browser-based editors aren’t fun to play around with, especially on a mobile device such as the iPad. Thankfully, the Word to HTML add-in provides the perfect solution. Just create your article, add your formatting, and then let the add-in convert it to HTML5. After that, go ahead and paste the HTML code into your web editor, and you should find your work rendered automatically in all its former glory. Word to HTML is also pretty great if you want to try learning how HTML works.
9. QR4Office
QR4Office is an amazing add-in that should prove pretty useful not just for that odd marketing campaign, but for pretty much anything involving QR codes. Whether it’s creating question cards with QR code-based answers or a unique greeting card for a loved one, the possibilities are endless. Just load up the add-in and then insert your website, email, phone number, or whatever it is that you want, and QR4Office should encode it immediately. You can change the size and color of the QR code to match the theme of your template as well.
That’s About It …
Well, there you go. With the use of add-ins, you can turn a seemingly limited word-processor in over its heels and get some serious work done. And just because you are on an iPad, don’t think that prevents you from using more than a single add-in at any one time either. So, what was your favorite? Any other add-ins that you can recommend? Do let us know in comments.
