I know you really want iOS, but since Tony mentioned Android I figured I'd toss out a third mobile OS: Windows Phone 7.

Although the keyboard probably supports all the extra characters you need and more via press and hold, the version of Mobile Excel for WP7 probably lost too much functionality compared to the versions included with Windows CE/Mobile. The upcoming mega update to WP7.5 "Mango" might fill some of the holes in Excel, but I really couldn't tell you without tracking down and accosting a coworker who has a developer release of Mango on his phone.

None of my iOS nor Android coworkers have mentioned using any kind of mobile office apps, so I am guessing they don't use any. (They are the type that like to show off their latest toys.)

Lee

-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Harris
Sent: Monday, August 08, 2011 4:27 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: lexical management on portable devices

I don't have an iOS system (iTouch/iPhone/iPad), but I do have an 
Android-based mini-tablet (essentially an Android-based iTouch) and have 
found it adequate for very basic management, i.e. a dictionary app 
(WordMate) to look up words, and a notepad app (ColorNote) to record new 
words.  The Android touch keyboard supports at least Latin-1 in that if 
you hold a key, a popup appears with all the available accented 
varieties.  For Alurhsa and Tariatta romanizations this is sufficient.

I wouldn't want to have the mini-tablet be my primary system for this 
sort of thing, though.  It just doesn't have the screen size.  But it's 
great for the two uses I've mentioned.


On 08/08/2011 03:27 PM, Dirk Elzinga wrote:
> Has anyone tried to manage lexical data with a portable device? I would like
> to be able to do this with my iPod Touch, since I can't carry my laptop
> everywhere I go. I've been looking around to see if there are any database
> or spreadsheet apps that might work, but I thought I'd ask here to see if
> anyone has already tried this. Here are my requirements:
>
> 1. the files need to be editable on the portable device--not just read-only.
> 2. I need to be able to sync with the spreadsheets on my laptop that
> currently hold lexical data (I use MS Excel).
> 3. I would like to have some "funny character" support--mostly dieresis,
> acute accents, and macron (full IPA/Unicode would be great, but I don't need
> it right now).
>
> Any recommendations?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Dirk