New Member and new owner of IPad 2 Needs Help.

I'm a retired army officer and Vietnam vet and I live in Horseshoe Bay,Texas (west of Austin). I'm politically conservative and am an amateur American History buff and play tennis.

Got an IPad 2 and a Roku XD for Christmas. I'm a real novice. Lots of questions about how to use my new IPad and Roku. I have wi-fi in my house and the ipad and Roku seem to recognize it.
I would appreciate suggestions/resource references for the following things:

Setting up my gmail acct to sync with my pc gmail account which is on Firefox Thunderbird, so that when I sync my computers together, the latest info is updated on both devices. I would like to transfer my existing pc email files to my ipad email setup too.
Same for my calendar and Microsoft Word files.
Any recommendations for useful, free apps for the ipad would also be appreciated.
Have hooked up my Roku XD, but not sure how to get it to be recognized by both my TV and my computers.

Need to buy an ipad case too. I write a lot on Word so I'm leaning towards something with a bluetooth keypad. Any recommendations?
Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to give me.
Trevor

 

Hello Sir, thank you first and foremost for your service, I am currently an NCO in Active duty Army. I would be glad to provide any help I can.

Gmail sync: go to settings, then, (mail,contacts,calendars) tab, hit add account, select gmail and then put in your login info and it will mirror your gmail account.

Microsoft word docs: quickest way I know is to download dropbox for both PC and iPad, setup account (2gigs free), then on PC drop the files into Dropbox folder, they will instantly show up on Dropbox app.

I got an app called app advice which has tons of information on tons of apps in every imaginable category

Free apps you may be interested in
Drudge report
Fox news
Iheart radio (good for conservative talk radio)
iBooks I found good as a history buff too is the 5,000 year leap, rise and fall of roman empire(whole set free)

Hope any of this helps, good luck!