Writing with an IPad
I'm writing today's blog on an airplane somewhere between Chicago and Boston. The flight attendant just left my side after a long conversation (that elicited some glares from thirsty travelers around me). She stopped by my seat to ask me how I liked my IPad. It's a bit disconcerting to an introvert like me, but the IPad I use for writing, and the set up I've designed that works well for me, is quite the conversation starter for strangers. People have stopped me in coffee shops, meetings, airports and, yes, even on airplanes to ask about my IPad. I'm certainly not a technology expert, but it I do love to play around with new devices to assist me with my writing, and that's our topic for this week's blog - Technology for the Writer.
At first I wasn't particularly keen on getting an IPad, mainly because I'm a PC user and wasn't sure about working with Pages, IPad's word processing software. Everything I write is in Microsoft Word, and I needed to be able to seamlessly transfer documents between several different computers. After about six months, I'm completely won over. I LOVE my IPad! Below are some reasons and some things learned.
1) The set up of a simple portfolio stand with a wireless keyboard makes for a sleek, transportable work station (see picture above) that travels easily and sets up quickly. Everything is on one slim device--music, videos, email, internet and documents.
2) Pages imports and exports to Microsoft Word with ease. It also saves automatically, so I don't have to worry about losing the most recent version. I usually end each work session on my IPad by emailing myself a date stamped copy.
3) There are two small issues I haven't resolved yet. The "track changes" feature in Word doesn't work well in Pages. When you open a Word document with tracked changes in Pages, it automatically makes the suggested changes without you accepting them. Secondly, the word count is different. I have no idea why--to me a word is a word--but if word count goals are important, you should know they will be different from one application to the other.
Overall, the IPad has proved to be a fantastic writing tool and I would highly recommend it.
********And, finally, be on the lookout in the upcoming days for the FANTASTIC, GRAND, EYE POPPING, SUPERDEDOOPER, YAMuses blog surprise. Coming soon to an IPad near you!********
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6 comments
I should take lessons from you! I have a Mac, which I love, but I'm usung an iPad while I recuperate from foot surgery, because it's lighter and easier to use while flat in bed with my foot on pillows. But I haven't figured out how to attach and mail documents from my iPad. Or a few other things. I suppose with a little more bumbling around I will. It is a blessing, though, for my situation.
Have you downloaded the Pages app from Itunes? It does cost about $10, but makes sending and working on documents very easy.
This is very helpful, Donna. I've often wondered about how well an iPad would work for writing. Definitely not complaining about my laptop (love ya, old girl), but the iPad has some interesting features for sure.
Really good to know! There's an Ipad in my future--at least, I think so. I was wondering about the transfering of docs from Mac to PC. Thanks!
Love my Ipad as well. Havn't quiet got to the point where i can write seamlessly on it, however i do use pages for my ideas. When an idea pops into my head when i am out and about. I write what ever chapter/scene comes into my head.
Great little devices.
enjoy.
I love my iPad too. It has so many useful apps for the writer like Penultimate for writing notes or Noterizer and Index Card for outlining. QuickOffice HD is Word for the iPad. But I like iAWriter for distraction-free, quick, and instant save writing. You can email docs straight from all these apps or sync to cloud services so that you can work on them on your computer. Very handy!
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