Documents 7
iOS Files app not enough? Try this…
Free (IAPs) FROM Readdle, readdle.com NEEDS iOS 11 or later
Documents began life as a handy way to share files between apps
on an iPhone or iPad. A decade or so later, it’s evolved into a lot more than that and offers quite a bit more than Apple’s own Files app, so it’s worth checking out.
New in version 7 are an improved web browser that supports private browsing, integration with the Files app so you can open files from Apple’s app in Documents, a dark mode, and the ability to mark up images and annotate PDFs. Also new is a big ‘+’ button at the bottom right of the screen. Tap it and you can create a new folder, text file, or PDF. Or you can import photos from the Photos app, files from Files, or transfer files from a Mac or PC using Documents’ Wi-Fi Transfer tool. The ‘+’ button also lets you add cloud storage services like Google Drive and Dropbox to Documents. The app can also connect to SFTP, SMB, WebDAV, and even SharePoint.
Media options
You can also watch movies, listen to music, and view photos, as well as open ZIP files and view Word and Excel documents. Files can be tagged and marked as favourites. But tag support is limited to colours – you can’t create your own named tags. And we couldn’t actually find any way to view all the files tagged with a colour. Our only other minor criticism is that while the Files app (which opens inside Documents) and Photos albums are available from the main screen, to see files stored on a cloud service or server, you need to tap Connections then the name of the service. We would like to be able to add them to the main screen.
Other than that, it works very well. The web browser with its ability to download files is great, as is Wi-Fi Transfer. The new ‘+’ button makes creating folders and importing files easy. It’s free, but if you want to sign or edit PDFs from within the app, you’ll need the £48.99 in-app purchase. KENNY HEMPHILL