Thread: Greetings

I purchased my iPad a couple of months ago. I am very (PC)computer literate, but not so much with Apple's OS'. I have been trying to learn the ins and outs of how my iPad works. I have struggled a bit with being able to print various file types and playing videos designed to play with flash.
I hope to pick up some tips and tricks from this forum.

Thanks,

Larry

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Originally Posted by Larryp

I purchased my iPad a couple of months ago. I am very (PC)computer literate, but not so much with Apple's OS'. I have been trying to learn the ins and outs of how my iPad works. I have struggled a bit with being able to print various file types and playing videos designed to play with flash.
I hope to pick up some tips and tricks from this forum.

Thanks,

Larry

Good to hear from you. You’ll find a whole bunch of iPad enthusiasts in this Forum who are only too willing to help other iPad owners and to hear of their experiences. Don’t be afraid to post any questions you may have or use the ‘Search’ button near the top of the Forum web page. I usually find I discover one new interesting and useful piece of information about my iPad every day - and often not even what I was looking for!!

As I'm sure you're aware, the iPad does not support Flash so any 'solution' to watching Flash-embedded videos and webpages is always something of a workaround and there are varying degrees of success - but nothing is 100% successful.

You also mention printing.

Apple have their own proprietary printing protocol called 'AirPrint'. Only a few printers support it at present - HP is one of those that do and you can see if your model is on the list at the Apple web site

Apple - iPad - Print right from your iPad with AirPrint.

If it is there, then you can print directly under iOS 4.2 and 4.3 from apps that support in-app printing, such as Apple's iPad iWorks suite ('Pages', 'Numbers' and 'Keynote'). Not all apps support in-app printing, so you need to check out whether the app you're interested in does. For example, Apple's native iPad 'Calendar' app does not support in-app printing.

If your printer is not on the list then there are third-party apps that can help. Some printer manufacturers have released apps for PCs with their printers connected (i.e. Lexmark). On these models, an app on your PC or Mac 'pretends' to be an AirPrint printer and the app translates the AirPrint printing protocol into a form that the printer understands.

However, there are standalone apps for the iPad and 'Print N Share' is one of the best known. It can print directly from the iPad to a WiFi printer without any PC being involved. It does this by cleverly inserting itself into the printing menu of apps that support in-app printing and 'pretends' to be an AirPrint printer. It then, similar to the previous case, translates the AirPrint printing protocol to a form that your printer understands.

Most all WiFi equipped printers are supported by 'Print N Share' but even those few that are not are able to print via a PC using, again, a small (free) app that's available from the developers of 'Print N Share'. Once again, this app sits on your PC or Mac and links your iPad to the printer via your PC - meaning, too, that the printer can be WiFi, USB or even Bluetooth. The downside is that the PC has to be switched on.

One 'issue' that sometimes confounds users of 'Print N Share' is that this only works under iOS 4.2 or 4.3 - the iPad's 'multi-tasking' operating system (OS). 'Print N Share' needs to be loaded and running before you can print!! So, if you're going to be doing some printing, you need to first of all fire up 'Print N Share' and leave it running in the background. You can check whether it is running by double tapping the iPad's 'Home' button, to see the tasks that are 'loaded' in the 'Multi-task' menu bar. For various reasons, it's helpful if 'Print N Share' was loaded quite recently. If you haven't printed for a while, use the multi-task bar to 're-activate' it.

Hope this helps, but don't hesitate to post any more detailed questions that you might have.

Hope to hear from you soon with your thoughts about the iPad.

Have fun and enjoy your iPad


If you don’t already have it you can download a copy of the iPad manual for free from


http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/...User_Guide.pdf

Also the iPad2 manual is available at http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/...user_guide.pdf

It’s free too.

Tim
Scotland

Originally Posted by Larryp

I purchased my iPad a couple of months ago. I am very (PC)computer literate, but not so much with Apple's OS'. I have been trying to learn the ins and outs of how my iPad works. I have struggled a bit with being able to print various file types and playing videos designed to play with flash.
I hope to pick up some tips and tricks from this forum.

Thanks,

Larry

Welcome to the iPad forums!!! So far the only flash enabled browser is iSwifter and even that is slow.

Welcome to the iPad family...