A text editor??

[pawnslinger]

I am getting frustrated. I am looking for a simple text editor program that can import TXT files thru iTunes. I have tried quite a few of them (but there are a bunch of them left to try), and it seems they are either (a) expensive (like "Pages"), or (b) use something like DropBox (which is cool, but I don't trust), or (c) no way to import from iTunes (for example, the default Notes app).

I have a ton of notes written with NotePad on my PC, that I would like to migrate to my iPad, but I don't need an elephant gun like "Pages", and I don't want to use the cloud, like DropBox. There has got to be a simple tool for this... right? So far, I can't find it.

Any ideas?

 

[jsh1120]

...
I have a ton of notes written with NotePad on my PC, that I would like to migrate to my iPad, but I don't need an elephant gun like "Pages", and I don't want to use the cloud, like DropBox. There has got to be a simple tool for this... right? So far, I can't find it.

Any ideas?

No, you're wrong. (Unfortunately.) There doesn't "got to be a simple tool for this" because it runs counter to the philosophy of iOS. However, I suspect you can accomplish your objective with Goodreader.

 

[pawnslinger]

No, you're wrong. (Unfortunately.) There doesn't "got to be a simple tool for this" because it runs counter to the philosophy of iOS. However, I suspect you can accomplish your objective with Goodreader.

Okay, that was a rhetorical question...

But now you have my interest piqued... what is the philosophy of iOS? And how does it run counter to it?

I am genuinely interested. I guess I was under the mistaken impression that the philosophy of iOS was to fulfill the needs of its users.

I will checkout Goodreader in the meanwhile. Thanks for the tip.

 

[giradman]

Hi Pawnslinger - there are plenty of options of transferring your text files to your iPad, but as you've noted the 'simplicity' of the process may not be to your liking?

I'm not sure 'how many' Notepad text files you want to transfer, but if I had just a few then e-mailing each to yourself and saving to your iPad would be an option; of course, you could zip a LOT together and transfer one large file (assuming that you had an iPad app to unzip the file - GoodReader can zip & unzip files; I have the program on my iPad). Sending your files (separately or zipped) to the Cloud would be another choice - I'm not sure about your negative feelings to Dropbox, but I (and many others here) use it and are quite happy; in fact, I just zipped together 4 *.txt files on my laptop, dropped the file into Dropbox, picked it up on my iPad, and then unzipped it on GoodReader - a little effort but works.

Last spring I acquired an iPod Touch and had a bunch of files on my old Palm device that I wanted to transfer; finally, found an iPod program called Awesome Note - this integrates well w/ Google Docs; so one can upload (and edit) programs in Google Docs and then easily via Wi-Fi sync w/ Awesome Notes - there is an iPad version which I've not used but might be a program for you to consider.

I'll stop there since plenty of other choices exist and others will likely 'chime in' w/ suggestions; you may also want to be more specific as to your needs - good luck!

 

[jsh1120]

No, you're wrong. (Unfortunately.) There doesn't "got to be a simple tool for this" because it runs counter to the philosophy of iOS. However, I suspect you can accomplish your objective with Goodreader.

Okay, that was a rhetorical question...

But now you have my interest piqued... what is the philosophy of iOS? And how does it run counter to it?

I am genuinely interested. I guess I was under the mistaken impression that the philosophy of iOS was to fulfill the needs of its users.

I will checkout Goodreader in the meanwhile. Thanks for the tip.

A couple of tenets of the Apple "philosophy" (at least as far as iOS is concerned) are relevant here. First, you'll notice that there is no common file system on the iPad. That's because Apple believes the data associated with an application "belongs" to that application and should not be readily available to other applications.

There's some justification for this approach, though I find it cumbersome and problematic. The usual rationale for the approach is that such a design goes a long way toward eliminating malware, viruses, etc. from finding their way into the device's OS since the data are segregated into "walled gardens" associated with specific applications.

The other aspect of the Apple "philosophy" is more pragmatic. Avoid if at all possible making it simple to interface Apple products with other manufacturers' applications and hardware unless said third parties are willing to pony up sufficient incentives to Apple and abide by its rules. It's a "philosophy" that is hardly unique to Apple, of course. IBM lived by the same philosophy in 1970.

P.S. Just to reinforce the "Goodreader" option, I think you'll find it an indispensable application for a variety of purposes. You'll note, however, that when you import documents using it that you're putting them under the control (and using the space) associated with that application. Fortunately, Goodreader supports the concept of folders which should allow you to preserve a reasonable level of organization for your documents.

P.P.S. I'd also agree with the poster above with regard to DropBox. I'm not sure if your expressed distrust has to do with security or reliability. If it's the latter, I'd recommend that you never put anything into the cloud that you don't have backed up elsewhere. If you're concerned about security, I suspect that you won't be persuaded by anything anyone could say. In that case, the Goodreader option with a USB cable (or if you're adventurous a wifi connection on your network) may be a better solution.

 

[pawnslinger]

I do not trust the cloud, DropBox or otherwise, because of the confidential nature of my notes... things like account passwords, etc. It would be a disaster if it were to be disclosed to the wrong people... and nowadays how can you tell who is the wrong person, with all the big companies that routinely get hacked. My sons tell me that I shouldn't even store this information... not anywhere, except my brain. But I am afraid my brain is too feeble for more than my SS number.

I just purchased an App called "TrustyBook" from the app store. It looks good, and says it will do what I need, the iTunes USB file sharing... but I can't get it to work. When I drag a file for it into iTunes, I end up with an empty file in TrustyBook.

I am familiar with Apple products and it being a closed system. No need to explain that to me. I have a jailbroken iPod... my wife told me I was nuts when I cracked it, but I wanted to do with it what I wanted to do. I may end up cracking this darn iPad. But this is not an iOS philosophy, it is an _APPLE_ philosophy. iOS is just a tool... and a pretty good one, in my opinion (I keep buying iOS products, we have 5 of them floating around this house).

Oh well, I don't have many text files. Most of my files that needed to be transferred were Excel spreadsheets and they imported smoothly into "Numbers". I was willing to pay $9.99 for Numbers because I use the spreadsheet stuff a LOT more than text files. I guess I can just leave the file on my PC, but it would be nice to have it on the iPad. Maybe I will breakdown and buy "Pages"... but I resist that because I think that is why they left the iTunes sharing feature out of the default Notes app... to encourage people to buy into Pages. Just a guess.

 

[pawnslinger]

By the way, I did look at GoodReader, and it seems like it will do the job, but hard for me to be sure. The app page for it says that it deals with PDF files, and I just need plain Jane text files. Everything seems too fancy for what I need. I have been thinking of just putting the information manually into a spreadsheet in Numbers and forgetting about the whole text file bit.

 

[twerppoet]

Essay will do what you want. It uses Markup language to give you simple formatting (but you don't' have to use it). It appears in the iTunes File Sharing section so you can import/export files easily.

There are tons of simple text editors out there, and while many of them offer DropBox support most of them will also copy files through iTunes. It's not something you have to use.

iOS: About File Sharing

 

[pawnslinger]

Essay will do what you want. It uses Markup language to give you simple formatting (but you don't' have to use it). It appears in the iTunes File Sharing section so you can import/export files easily.

There are tons of simple text editors out there, and while many of them offer DropBox support most of them will also copy files through iTunes. It's not something you have to use.

iOS: About File Sharing

Thanks for the tip!

I have tried around 4 text editors so far, a couple free ones and a couple of pay ones. So far, only 1 actually supported the iTunes sharing, and it was buggy... didn't work properly.

I will give a look at Essay!

 

[twerppoet]

Thanks for the tip!

I have tried around 4 text editors so far, a couple free ones and a couple of pay ones. So far, only 1 actually supported the iTunes sharing, and it was buggy... didn't work properly.

I will give a look at Essay!

Shazbutt!

It doesn't appear to be available in the App Store anymore. Sorry for the false lead. I finally tracked down the developer's site, but there is no info there.

 

[pawnslinger]

Yeah, I was about to write that I couldn't find it!

Oh well, while looking for Essay, I found WriteRoom. It actually works! But there is some room for improvement... it would be nice if the search function worked like the "Find" command in NotePad (of Windows fame). In WriteRoom, the search function finds the file containing the text, but doesn't allow any upper/lower/ignore case options, and it doesn't hilite the occurrence of the text (and it seems some text that is present, couldn't be found). Hmmm, some work needs to be done on this one.

But it does import text files from the PC correctly. I guess I have to play around with it some and see how it goes. Someone who is a good programmer could make $$$ by creating a good text editor. Many of the programs I have taken a look at seem half finished, or rushed... much room for improvement (not the least of which is some help files -- that would be really nice for us folks that are somewhat challenged).

 

[jsh1120]

By the way, I did look at GoodReader, and it seems like it will do the job, but hard for me to be sure. The app page for it says that it deals with PDF files, and I just need plain Jane text files. Everything seems too fancy for what I need. I have been thinking of just putting the information manually into a spreadsheet in Numbers and forgetting about the whole text file bit.

Works fine for .txt files. I actually hadn't used it for that purpose but based on your question I tested it. Works like a charm and is very easy. Where you would encounter problems, I'd think, is with .doc or .docx files. For those you need an application like Documents To Go (or another of the Microsoft Office emulation tools) that could read the Microsoft formatting.

Goodreader isn't really complicated. It's just that it's a Swiss Army Knife, good for a variety of tasks.

But for your purposes all you have to do is...

() Open iTunes on your computer.
() Connect your iPad to the computer with the usb cable.
() Open the object on the left side column that identifies your iPad.
() Open the apps tab.
() Open File Sharing and click on GoodReader.
() Drag the .txt files on your computer to the Goodreader pane of the iTunes app.

You're done.

The detailed instructions are all available when you open GoodReader on your iPad.

 

[pawnslinger]

GoodReader sounds really nice. What sort of search ability does it have?