GoodReader, iPad Document Readers: Must-Have Apps for Lawyers

You have that shiny new iPad and you want to put it to use in your law practice. As you pack your briefcase for work travel it dawns on you:

That 5-hour flight would be a perfect chance to review documents or pleadings for an upcoming meeting or hearing, especially if you won't have WiFi access during the flight.

But the number of documents required to consume five or more hours of flight time would take up a lot of room. What to do?

Enter the GoodReader app.

For many lawyers on the go, GoodReader has since become the single most important and most often used "law practice" application on their iPad.

GoodReader is just one of many document readers available for the iPad. Regardless of what mobile platform you use (Android, BlackBerry, iOS, etc.) many reasonably-priced and well-designed document readers exist, TechnoLawyer writes.

Mobile document readers perform two core functions: (1) display the most common types of documents (PDF, Microsoft Office, iWork, TXT, RTF, etc.), and (2) provide a file management system to keep these documents organized, Technolawyer writes.

In terms of displaying documents, the ability to quickly and cleanly display very large PDF files is by far the most important feature. GoodReader can handle an 800-page document with ease, for instance. Navigation between consecutive pages is accomplished by finger swipe or tap. You can also scroll though the entire document in seconds using a scroll bar.

The developers of these document readers have added a number of useful features, the most welcome of which is the ability to annotate PDF documents. Here, again, GoodReader excels. It enables you to insert text notes, highlight text in a variety of colors, underline or circle text, and bookmark pages just to name a few.

For iOS devices, two close competitors to GoodReader are Air Sharing and ReaddleDocs.

Popular choices for the Android-based devices include RepliGo Reader and Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite.

RepliGo Reader is also available for BlackBerry.

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