There’s an app for that – Working from your iPad

With over 15 million of the original iPad’s out there, and another million sold just last weekend when the new version was released, I’m betting that more than just a few of you have an iPad, or are about to get one.

I know, you love playing solitaire and Scrabble on it, and reading books, newspapers and magazines has never been easier, but with this said, I thought I’d take this opportunity to show you a few apps that will make working from the iPad that much easier. Click on each name to go to a link for it.

Docs to Go

This is the grand-daddy of all working apps. It’s been around for years and functions on almost every smart phone out there. Now there’s a version for the iPad too. The app allows you to work on Word and Excel documents, and view PDF, PowerPoint, iWork documents. It synchs between your iPad and the free software that you download onto your desktop so you can create and edit a Word or Excel document on the go. It also stores files that come in via your email for viewing and working on later, and you can email docs out of it too.

Penultimate

It’s said that this is the best handwriting app out there and I can’t disagree; it lets you use your own writing to take notes, make quick sketches, and copy and paste from another app into here. Then you can share the page via email or print it. It’s great for jotting down ideas while on the go.

Instapaper

If you need to read long papers, news articles and blogs, but don’t want to burn up your 3G minutes or don’t always have access to a WiFi network, then this app is perfect for you. It lets you save these articles to read off-line, at your convenience. There are detailed instructions about how to set it up. The free edition strips away the layout, but the paid edition keeps the format intact and includes folders to organize these docs.

GoodReader

GoodReader is a robust PDF reading app that lets you store extensive PDF and TXT files, and let’s you synch them onto Dropbox, iDisk, and other remote servers. It also handles MS Office, iWork, HTM and Safari webarchives. This app also allows you to markup PDF docs, which can be especially useful if you’re working with others on a doc.

DropBox

Even if you already have an iDisk account, DropBox is a handy way to quickly backup your work and share files with others. You will need to have a DropBox account, and it’s free up to a certain size. It’s also useful for backing up your files, as I wrote in my earlier blog “Is Your Head in the Cloud About Data Back Up?”

I’m going to save the Keynote, Numbers, and Pages apps for a later blog about  how to make slide show presentations, construct Excel spread sheets, and design newsletters from your iPad, but if you can’t wait, the links are embedded in the names.

Reminder, the blog about aggregator apps that I wrote a few weeks ago is still here for you to read if you didn’t save it. News & Blog Aggregators


UPDATE: May 16, 2011
Working from your iPad - Part 2 is now up. Click HERE  to read it.


Copyright © The B. Hammil Company, 2011