Hi I'm Viki - live in North Dakota - 61 years old- just got my new ipad2 and am dismayed there is no manual!
I would like to do things off line on the ipad but don't know what is available to do without being connected. may ask some dumb questions so please, bear with me.

Welcome Viki from Mississippi!

You'll find lots of nice people here that can answer most any question you have.

The iPad manual is online, available for download to your iPad.

So be sure to take a look at the iPad manual, and the forum rules by clicking on the links.

The manual should also be available in iBooks.

The Archangel

Hi Viki - I had to do a lot of reseach on off line readers. I think that is what you are looking for but I'm rather new to the iPad2 myself. I am looking for someone who has Pocket Informant so i can ask all those unanswered questions that PI has online. Wlcm to the "unknown" iPad lol

Welcome from Scotland, too.

Tim

Originally Posted by PatriciaF

Hi Viki - I had to do a lot of reseach on off line readers. I think that is what you are looking for but I'm rather new to the iPad2 myself. I am looking for someone who has Pocket Informant so i can ask all those unanswered questions that PI has online. Wlcm to the "unknown" iPad lol

I looked at several apps for this and, in the end, chose Pocket Informant HD.

I read that Pocket Informant was buggy but, in my (admittedly) limited experience, I’ve found no problems at all. It has a very nice user interface that's almost infinitely configurable - a complaint that many Forum members make about the iPad’s native ‘Calendar’ app. So you can choose how tasks, events, projects, appointments are colour coded and there is a wide choice of notifications and alarms - so, for example, you can have different alarm sounds for different categories of notifications.

Pocket Informant ‘sits on top’ of the iPad's native ‘Calendar’ app and (optionally) imports all entries that it finds there. They can be colour coded so they can be distinguished from entries made in Pocket Informant itself.

This is important because many other iPad apps use the native ‘Calendar’ app as the default place to put events, invitations etc. So, for example, if you are invited to a meeting by email and you receive that invitation in the iPad’s native ‘Mail’ app, that app can automatically (and quite cleverly) insert that invitation into the default calendar app. Without that integration between the native app and Pocket Informant, you'd have to enter those invitations all over again.

Pocket Informant has lots of ‘hidden’ features too. One of the reviewers remarked that part of the ‘fun’ of using Pocket Informant was discovering them!! The display is infinitely configurable - day, week, month, year at a time. Tasks, events, overdue tasks, projects, projects in progress etc etc all can be optionally displayed on the main calendar. Projects and tasks can have infinitely nested sub-tasks and projects - these can cleverly be integrated with GPS - so, say you needed to purchase some goods from the hardware store. Put that in a To-Do list and link it to the location of the hardware store using the iPad’s native ‘Maps’ app. Next time you’re driving past the hardware store, up pops the notification (‘Remember to purchase some 2”x4” timber’).

Repeating events are very flexible too, with the ‘custom’ mode being infinitely (I keep using that word!) configurable. So, meetings that occur on the last Thursday and first Monday of every other month - no problem.

It can sync with external calendars - Google for example - and back-up is cool, it creates a backup file that you can email to yourself for safe keeping. If you lose your iPad or all your data is corrupted, that backup can be imported back into Pocket Informant with a single click.

You can create multiple diaries within Pocket Informant - say ‘Work’, ‘Family’, ‘Golf Club’ etc and have their entries optionally displayed on the main screen or restricted to the display of the individual diary. So it’s easy to check if there’s a clash between the golf tournament and your wife's birthday - and hide it if there is......

If you surf to the developer’s web-site, you can download for free a very comprehensive User Manual that will show you in detail what Pocket Informant can do.

The developers are constantly updating the program - always a good sign in my view.

As I said at the beginning, perhaps I'm not a particularly demanding user, but I’ve had no stability problems at all. I should add the usual disclaimer that I have no contact or other relationship with the developers of Pocket Informant other than being a very satisfied customer.

Tim
Scotland

Thanks Tim. I am really thinking hard about purchasing it since it's $14.99 and was hoping with Memorial Day there might be a sale but I highly doubt it. One more question if you don't mind. Can you re-arrange the tasks? I have an app where you can drag or pull the task to whatever location you want it. Say I put in Buy milk than another task Pick up dry cleaning in that order. I can drag the Pick up dry cleaning above the Buy milk with my finger. That is what I am hoping for with PI. I type and type and then rearrange my tasks according to my time and what I need to do first. Thanks again Tim, Pat

You can't drag them, as far as I know (well, I've never been able to do it) but you can easily re-order them and set up templates and cut and paste. Also tasks have notes attached - I saw your question in another post. Also you can geographically organise tasks and, using the GPS in the iPad it will pop up a reminder if you're geographically close to that location.

I'll have a look at re-organising tasks and see if there is a way they can be dragged - there are so many hidden features in PI, that it's possible you can and I've never found it...

Tim

Thanks Tim, I was watching a video on youtube by crazymiksapps and just recently email Mike. He said that he didn't get that far into this app and his video is just a general overview of PI. Mike mentioned in his email that he wasn't too fond of PI but from all I have read everyone else seems to like it. The verdict is still out. Thanks again Tim!