[NickRWin]

At the risk of exaggeration, since upgrading to the 8700 last week, RepliGo has come into its own, operating at a usable speed. Now I can read pretty much any attachment (PDF, PPT, XLS, DOC, etc.) while on the road, and deal effectively with business e-mail without having to wait to hook up my laptop.

Frankly, RIM should buy Cerience (who make RepliGo) to upgrade the lousy native attachment handling.

The only feature lacking in RepliGo is more control over zoom levels, and of course I wish the 8700 screen was 320x320, or better still 400x300 or the like.

And no, I don't work for Cerience, I'm just happily more productive=more family time.

[Dazed]

Have you also tried DocHawk ?

I tried Repligo and thought it was great but since I dont need to handle too many attachments I didnt think it was worth the $99.

Im now trying DocHawk which is cheaper and so far seems just as good. I'd be interested in which of the 2 people prefer.

[davef]

Great feedback about the zoom levels. Also, we just lowered the price on RepliGo to $79.

[NickRWin]

I have not tried DocHawk, but I read in the review of it on this site that you have to wait for the documents to be returned to the BlackBerry, whereas RepliGo's e-mail-based approach allows you to simply send the document for processing, and then open the returned file like a normal e-mail. However, I may have this wrong as I haven't tried DocHawk. Search for the reviews on this site or download the trial. Also I paid the lower price for RepliGo (using a BBF discount code), but a difference of a few $ per month is irrelevant in the context of what these applications do, and what you pay for cell service anyway (or a latte).

[WFLDEng611]

I have tried both Doc Hawk and Repligo. In my opinion Repligo is superior to Doc Hawk. With Doc Hawk, when you scroll through a document, your BB have to send it back to Doc Hawk's server and then it sends it back to your BB. There is about a 10 to 16 second delay when viewing a document. With Repligo each page is sent to your BB, and the only delay in viewing is your processer speed. You can get trials to both, be prepared to buy Repligo.

[Starz26]

I will have to put my kudos to repligo in as well. I was an original beta tester and the difference between DocHawk and Repligo is mainly the interface and implementation. You will have people in both camps but I would be willing to bet that the camp for repligo is much larger.

It is smooth, easy, intelligent, and quick.

[HRom]

I've tried them both and, hands down, Repligo wins!

[nelis x]

i can view most documents on my 8700c w/o any additional software....

[infernox]

Originally Posted by nelis x

i can view most documents on my 8700c w/o any additional software....

I think the question is how easy is it to view those documents. No one is arguing that you can't view them. It's how convenient and easy to view them.

[wclyffe]

Originally Posted by infernox

I think the question is how easy is it to view those documents. No one is arguing that you can't view them. It's how convenient and easy to view them.

I, too can view all the documents on my 8700g with T-Mobile and it is really fast. When I open the email, the first word in the email is "1 attachment", and I just click on it and select "Full Content". The attachment opens right away and looks exactly as it was in that application. I've sent myself .doc, .pdf, and .xls attachments as test examples, and they appear just like the originals. You can zoom in, and move around the whole document. Is this attachment viewing something added in recently by T-Mobile? Either way, its great!

[davef]

Originally Posted by wclyffe

I, too can view all the documents on my 8700g with T-Mobile and it is really fast. When I open the email, the first word in the email is "1 attachment", and I just click on it and select "Full Content". The attachment opens right away and looks exactly as it was in that application. I've sent myself .doc, .pdf, and .xls attachments as test examples, and they appear just like the originals. You can zoom in, and move around the whole document. Is this attachment viewing something added in recently by T-Mobile? Either way, its great!

To me, the phrase "appear just like the original" means that a document will be displayed just like you would see it on your desktop computer. The page layout would be preserved, complete with fonts, graphics, tables and charts.

The built-in attachment viewer can only show attachments in their original form if they are image-based .pdf files (e.g., fax) or .ppt files on later models. For these types of files, you can see a thumbnail of each page and you need to zoom in to see more detail. After you zoom in, you often need to select the "Enhance" command to make the document readable. Once enchanced, you cannot scroll around on the page.

Word processing documents such as .doc will be displayed in a flowed manner, with text and graphics intermixed. You cannot see the document in its original page layout.

Spreadsheet documents such as .xls will be displayed in a grid view as you would expect, but you will not be able to see charts and graphs.

So it all depends on your need to see attachments. If you just need a quick peek at them while you're mobile and full page layout is not that important, then the built-in attachment viewer may be enough.

If you want something more akin to a desktop experience, then consider a 3rd party application that can offer complete PDF, Office and fax file viewing and management.

[wclyffe]

Originally Posted by davef

To me, the phrase "appear just like the original" means that a document will be displayed just like you would see it on your desktop computer. The page layout would be preserved, complete with fonts, graphics, tables and charts.

The built-in attachment viewer can only show attachments in their original form if they are image-based .pdf files (e.g., fax) or .ppt files on later models. For these types of files, you can see a thumbnail of each page and you need to zoom in to see more detail. After you zoom in, you often need to select the "Enhance" command to make the document readable. Once enchanced, you cannot scroll around on the page.

Word processing documents such as .doc will be displayed in a flowed manner, with text and graphics intermixed. You cannot see the document in its original page layout.

Spreadsheet documents such as .xls will be displayed in a grid view as you would expect, but you will not be able to see charts and graphs.

So it all depends on your need to see attachments. If you just need a quick peek at them while you're mobile and full page layout is not that important, then the built-in attachment viewer may be enough.

If you want something more akin to a desktop experience, then consider a 3rd party application that can offer complete PDF, Office and fax file viewing and management.

Makes a lot of sense and thanks for the detailed explanation. My needs are strictly to read the document as I have no interest in modifying it while on my Blackberry.

[infernox]

I installed the Trial version to check RepliGo out. I must say I am impressed. I think I will sign up for it after a couple more days usage.