I posted earlier today in the "new member" thread but am posting some of my questions here since they are specific to business use. I am a new iPad user, and I will also be having to help my mother learn to get more out of her iPad in her work use. She'd like to be able to stop hauling her laptop everywhere and only keep the iPad with her. Here are a couple of the specifics I'd like input for:

1. Calendar
My mother's workplace uses Outlook and an Exchange server. Now, I haven't even looked at her iPad's built-in calendar yet to see how it does, but the catch that I will need help with is this: On her laptop, her view also includes a second calendar (a supervisor) to which she has read access. She needs to be able to see both calendars on her ipad if she is to start leaving the laptop behind. Can the built-in calendar app do this (and if so, how?) or what calendar app would be appropriate?

Editing these into a quote because they are secondary. The primary item I need to make sure to work out is the calendar.

2. remote pc access / remote file access
Since the plan is to leave her laptop in the office, we'll need to make sure that on occasion she can remotely access either it or the server where her documents are stored so she can grab a file if she needs one that she didn't copy onto the iPad. Her office has a web site she can login to for access to her laptop...they are apparently running Small Business server 2003 with a "Remote Web Workplace" offering. Only problem is that it uses ActiveX, so you can't use it from Safari on the iPad. Probably the access to focus on is access to her laptop...so that she can also run a remote session of Word/Excel as needed and copy files to her Dropbox folder. I'm fairly certain she will NOT want to pay $129.99 for LogMeIn Ignition nor will she want to pay $$ for a monthly subscription (ie. LogMeIn Pro?). But I don't think we will really need sound or HD video. Should we try the free LogMeIn or Teamviewer? or pay for Jump Desktop or Splashtop?


3. Note Taking
My mother is a list maker. LIST MAKER. So, I need an app that she can both type and handwrite into. Something that allows her to create folders for different projects. Something to put meeting minutes into. And something that will sync to her iPhone. She doesn't need to be able to edit/write from the iPhone, but she needs to be able to access/refer to her notes. So something that syncs to Dropbox or maybe even one of the options that syncs to Evernote? She does not have Evernote installed yet, but I am considering it for her.


4. Pages/Dropbox
I've been doing some reading and I think I have this figured out. We have my mom setup with Pages and Dropbox (she already bought Pages as rec'd by other people in her office), so she can open documents. But, saving back to Dropbox would be nice too. My understanding is that maybe the easiest way to do this (and I need EASY! for her) is to use a WebDAV service (DropDAV/iSEMStorage/otixo) so that she can use the WebDAV option from Pages to save back to Dropbox. Is this right? Alternately, between Docs to Go and Quick Office HD, which is the better program?

Originally Posted by txniteowl

I posted earlier today in the "new member" thread but am posting some of my questions here since they are specific to business use. I am a new iPad user, and I will also be having to help my mother learn to get more out of her iPad in her work use. She'd like to be able to stop hauling her laptop everywhere and only keep the iPad with her. Here are a couple of the specifics I'd like input for:

1. Calendar
My mother's workplace uses Outlook and an Exchange server. Now, I haven't even looked at her iPad's built-in calendar yet to see how it does, but the catch that I will need help with is this: On her laptop, her view also includes a second calendar (a supervisor) to which she has read access. She needs to be able to see both calendars on her ipad if she is to start leaving the laptop behind. Can the built-in calendar app do this (and if so, how?) or what calendar app would be appropriate?

2. remote pc access / remote file access
Since the plan is to leave her laptop in the office, we'll need to make sure that on occasion she can remotely access either it or the server where her documents are stored so she can grab a file if she needs one that she didn't copy onto the iPad. Her office has a web site she can login to for access to her laptop...they are apparently running Small Business server 2003 with a "Remote Web Workplace" offering. Only problem is that it uses ActiveX, so you can't use it from Safari on the iPad. Probably the access to focus on is access to her laptop...so that she can also run a remote session of Word/Excel as needed and copy files to her Dropbox folder. I'm fairly certain she will NOT want to pay $129.99 for LogMeIn Ignition nor will she want to pay $$ for a monthly subscription (ie. LogMeIn Pro?). But I don't think we will really need sound or HD video. Should we try the free LogMeIn or Teamviewer? or pay for Jump Desktop or Splashtop?

3. Note Taking
My mother is a list maker. LIST MAKER. So, I need an app that she can both type and handwrite into. Something that allows her to create folders for different projects. Something to put meeting minutes into. And something that will sync to her iPhone. She doesn't need to be able to edit/write from the iPhone, but she needs to be able to access/refer to her notes. So something that syncs to Dropbox or maybe even one of the options that syncs to Evernote? She does not have Evernote installed yet, but I am considering it for her.

4. Pages/Dropbox
I've been doing some reading and I think I have this figured out. We have my mom setup with Pages and Dropbox (she already bought Pages as rec'd by other people in her office), so she can open documents. But, saving back to Dropbox would be nice too. My understanding is that maybe the easiest way to do this (and I need EASY! for her) is to use a WebDAV service (DropDAV/iSEMStorage/otixo) so that she can use the WebDAV option from Pages to save back to Dropbox. Is this right? Alternately, between Docs to Go and Quick Office HD, which is the better program?

1. The native calendar app can, the calendar has to be subscribed to. This can be managed using the login for the exchange account it was created in and set the mail-setting to just subscribe to the calendar.

2. Try team viewer

3. Try Awesome Notes - they do have a light version

4. WebDAV does work with box.com, dropbox I din't try yet. Docs to go I din't try, have Quickoffice Hd but dumped it since I have pages.

☠ stay safe ☠ stay legal ☠

1. I do not know.
2. I use Teamviewer to help other people and Jump to log into my own machine. When you use Teamviewer the other can see what you do and when you jump into another machine the logged in user is logged out.
3. I do not know.
4. I use pages, but if you need to decide between DocsToGo and QuickOffice HD I would go for QO. DropDAV works with pages and dropbox.

Knut

Originally Posted by hpulmer

1. The native calendar app can, the calendar has to be subscribed to. This can be managed using the login for the exchange account it was created in and set the mail-setting to just subscribe to the calendar.

So, please forgive me, I am an exchange/outlook dummy. Is she already "subscribed" if she currently does have read access to the second calendar? I know when she is working in Outlook on her laptop for example, she has both her calendar and she can view the secondary calendar to which she only has read access. So, if she just sets up her calendar in the native app, will she get both? Or would she have to get the other person to enter their credentials on her iPad for that other calendar? (Because I'm not sure that would fly.)

I may just have to have her bring her laptop and iPad home tonight.

Oh, and thanks to you both so far. We will give Teamviewer a try first. It doesn't matter that others can see it since her laptop would be left in her own locked office. But if we need to, we'll consider Jump or Splashtop after that. And we'll stick with Pages for now and I'll set up a WebDAV entry for her of some sort.

Sorry, I do not know about the calendar item that much as I do have several calendars which I actually own only.
Guess the credentials have to be entered, which will also give writing rights...

☠ stay safe ☠ stay legal ☠

I thought about #1.
Of course, you can create a new account on the iPad and enter the exchange credentials of your mother's team member. Then, you have full access to calendar, contacts and emails. (tasks). You can of course deselect what you do not want to see or sync. But you still have FULL access.
But, this is not what you want, I guess.

I did a search on some German forums and found the same question but no answer.
Sorry.

Knut

Thank you for looking. Would prefer not to have to put the other user's credentials in my mother's iPad. I will try doing some research into Outlook instead I guess and see if it is possible to maybe automatically sync/duplicate the entries from the read only calendar into my mother's calendar?

At least you have confirmed we're not the only ones wanting that feature!

Originally Posted by txniteowl

I will try doing some research into Outlook instead I guess and see if it is possible to maybe automatically sync/duplicate the entries from the read only calendar into my mother's calendar?

At least you have confirmed we're not the only ones wanting that feature!

While I was searching I came across a syncing/copying solution. Yes, you copy the calendar entries into your mother's calendar -with a different category to tell which entry is which - and then the 'merged' calendar is synced. But I remember that this is an outlook add-in or so and maybe comes with a price tag and needs administrative privileges on the windows machine.

Knut

It seems to be more than an outlook add-in. Here in English.

Hope this helps, a bit.

Knut