App for 'file sharing'

[bobgoldstein]

I am new, and my ipad has ios 4.

I would like to park some documents on the ipad from my MAC, and be able to read them on the ipad from time to time.

Do none of the Apple-supplied apps support file sharing? I am mainly interested in PDFs, but maybe some .txt or .doc files as well.

If I have to buy an app for this, how can I select one that works as well as Preview for PDFs, ie supports links, jumping to pages in the index, etc etc?

 

[ThreeWulfMoon]

Check out Dropbox. It let's you share and sync files among multiple machines. It works with many productivity apps like Goodreader and Docs to Go. And a 2GB account is free. Check it out.

 

[chowdown]

While your iPad is not connected to your computer,
- open iTunes
- in the left column, under LIBRARY, click on Books.
- drag your pdfs from the mac's Finder into the right-hand panel of iTunes.
- Quit iTunes (this step may not be necessary, it's just how I do it).
- Attach iPad to computer and start iTunes.
- Click on iPad in left column.
- In right panel go to Books.
- Click apply or sync or something like that.
- Your pdfs will be sucked into your iPad's iBooks app.

For .txt and .doc/docx and .xls I recommend GoodReader (does pdfs too, and you can annotate them).

 

[NumbLock]

I also recommend GoodReader. It is like USB-Stick for iPad, and has the best PDF viewer by far included.

 

[TJK]

DropBox + GoodReader is the killer combo.

Simply copy or drop files in your DropBox directory and they are available on any other device and kept in sync.

Then use the GoodReader app to access the files in your DropBox account.

Brilliant. Could not live without these two apps.

 

[Hasty]

Another dropbox and goodreader user here.

Take a careful look at the goodreader website as they have a small free prog that runs under windows and pops up an explorer window allowing you to drag and drop items onto the iPad. No need to fire up iTunes.

 

[Mickey330]

Oooh, Hasty, good reminder! I use that GoodReader program all the time. Plus, you can put it on a flash drive to take it with you. So long as you have the cord for the iPad, you can drag/drop from any computer.

Marilyn

 

[bobgoldstein]

Thanks to everyone! I will follow up on these approaches.

So far, I conclude that none of the free Apple-provided apps can participate as readers of file-sharing files, except iTunes on the iPad, which can read PDFs as 'books'. I have yet to try that, but will do so shortly.

And Goodreader may be the hoped-for app that can do just about all I need! Again, to be tried in the next few days.

 

[bobgoldstein]

App for file sharing

I misunderstood Chowdown. I thought one was to use the app name Ipod to read a pdf as a book, since it gets onto the iPad from iTunes. Well, wrong.

It is indeed iBooks, as Chowdown said, and it is a very good reader for PDF files! Thanks a lot!

I think for now, I will not get Goodreader until I actually have a need for something beyond iBooks.