I use my iPad to create, manage and share my documents
Those of us who have taken the plunge into the seemingly clear waters of Apple technology for the very first time, by departing from the so-called security, flexibility and well understood environment of a portable PC running Microsoft Windows, such PC knowledge and dependency having been nurtured over several decades, and are early adopters of the gorgeous, sleek and ultra-cool Apple iPad, like myself, may well have encountered a cooler and more turbid aquatic experience than first imagined, particularly in matters of file management under the iOS4 operating system.
That is not to say in any way that the iPad experience overall is less less I in particular had initially hoped for; quite the opposite, the iPad is in fact a joy to hold and a delight on which to express creative urges, far more so than a Microsoft/PC juggernaut could ever dream of achieving.
I would like to take a moment or two of my readers time now to describe the approach I take to creating and managing documents on my iPad, sharing these documents with particular people through the internet cloud service offered by Google Docs, and archiving documents with Google Docs. The approach can be taken on the iPad alone, it does not require access to a PC, which is the whole point of my purchasing an iPad in the first place.
I am becoming quite a user and admirer of the flexibility and convenience of holding a single user name and password and accessing completely free Google services managed through a sole Google Account; in my particular case I use Google Mail for all of my email, Flickr for my photograph albums, Blogger for journal entries like this missive and Google Docs, not for document creation, but for archival, transfer of documents between iPad Apps that allow assess to cloud services, and document sharing with groups of people or at the individual person level.
I create my Notes using the iPad NoteMaster App, which allows synchronisation of my notes with the Google Docs cloud service; my Documents are created using the Pages App, mainly because it provides a tidy way of inserting graphics into my text, even though Pages and the following App Numbers are rather limited in their ability to share output with other Apps on my iPad, they use email to post documents to oneself, as the solution to this requirement; my spreadsheets are created using the Numbers App; my documents are managed on my iPad in a single place through the FileApp Pro App; and finally my documents are synchronised between my iPad and Google Docs using the Docs to Go Premium App.
If I wish to share one of my documents with a particular group of people, each of whom have different needs regarding viewing and editing this document, *wish to archive the document in a remote place like the internet cloud, and wish to synchronise versions of this document with my iPad, *then I employ a workflow that initially unzips the document and sends it by mail to my Google Mail account; then, using the Safari browser on the iPad opens the mail account with a desktop, not a mobile, view, the switch between views being located at the bottom of the mail list in Google Mail; then, view the document in Google Mail, Google Docs being automatically initiated as a viewer at this point; then, switch from Google Docs mobile to desktop view, the switch being located at the bottom of the Google Docs page; then, set the access rights, view or edit, for each person in the group by entering their email addresses and send an email message to each member of the group alerting them to the availability of the document; then, finally, using the Docs to Go Premium App synchronise versions of the document that have been edited by group members and transfer these versions back to the FileApp Pro App for iPad archival.
A simple technique, maybe not at first reading, but when you get the hang of it the method works well; and as far as the monetary cost of the Apps mentioned in this blog are concerned, I regard the USD47 outlay for NoteMaster (USD3.99), Pages and Numbers (USD9.99 each), FileApp Pro (USD4.99) and Docs to Go Premium (USD17.99) as a very small price to pay, for peace of mind resulting from proper document mangement, and compared to many serious Windows Apps.
Best wishes, Peter Holland
