Apps for Academic Productivity

[naomired]

Complementing my other post on choosing the right iPad (or avoiding it) for academic use, I would like to seek your opinion on the Apps that can help in academic productivity.

The (academic) activities are:

i. managing article- and ebook- library on iPad [a file management similar to itunes for music]
ii. preparing lectures notes and lecture slides
iii. reading and annotating ebooks and pdf journal articles (with the capability to export the highlighted/annotated texts and comments)
iv. taking notes while reading an article or book
vi. idea generation/ideation / mind mapping
vii. reading and marking MS Docs
viii. Text editor - sophisticated, but without a steep learning curve

 

[Macman45]

Complementing my other post on choosing the right iPad (or avoiding it) for academic use, I would like to seek your opinion on the Apps that can help in academic productivity.

The (academic) activities are:

i. managing article- and ebook- library on iPad [a file management similar to itunes for music]
ii. preparing lectures notes and lecture slides
ii. reading and annotating ebooks and pdf journal articles (with the capability to export the highlighted/annotated texts and comments)
iii. reading and marking MS Docs
iv. Text editor - sophisticated, but without a steep learning curve

Based on what you have posted:

Pages ( Word Processing and document production)
Numbers ( spreadsheet and calculations )
Keynote ( Presentation and slides

These are sold separately or in a bundle known as iWork...I think they have all you need to get going with the iPad.

 

[saberahul]

You will have to create content so I recommend iWork applications like above.
You will have a lot of reading to do and will have a lot of PDF's for which I recommend PDF Expert or Documents.
As for notetaking, get a rubber tip stylus and get notability.

 

[rbarry]

Complementing my other post on choosing the right iPad (or avoiding it) for academic use, I would like to seek your opinion on the Apps that can help in academic productivity.

The (academic) activities are:

i. managing article- and ebook- library on iPad [a file management similar to itunes for music]
ii. preparing lectures notes and lecture slides
iii. reading and annotating ebooks and pdf journal articles (with the capability to export the highlighted/annotated texts and comments)
iv. taking notes while reading an article or book
vi. idea generation/ideation / mind mapping
vii. reading and marking MS Docs
viii. Text editor - sophisticated, but without a steep learning curve

For #'s iii, iv, vi and even vii, I use GoodNotes. GoodReader is a close second for PDF's, but GoodNotes will convert DOCs into PDFs for annotation, but not keep the same formatting, so I insist students submit papers in PDF format.

For #i, I would use DropBox, pulling the document into GoodNotes for reading/annotation. This allows you to sync with a folder on your main computer, and only bring in what you need (full-resolution PDFs of medieval manuscripts can quickly add-up and max out your iPad's memory).

For #ii, Keynote and for #viii, Pages.

There is probably a dedicated program for #vi, but I don't do that kind of mapping, so I cannot recommend anything in particular.

 

[cez1]

Complementing my other post on choosing the right iPad (or avoiding it) for academic use, I would like to seek your opinion on the Apps that can help in academic productivity.

The (academic) activities are:

i. managing article- and ebook- library on iPad [a file management similar to itunes for music]
ii. preparing lectures notes and lecture slides
iii. reading and annotating ebooks and pdf journal articles (with the capability to export the highlighted/annotated texts and comments)
iv. taking notes while reading an article or book
vi. idea generation/ideation / mind mapping
vii. reading and marking MS Docs
viii. Text editor - sophisticated, but without a steep learning curve

i) I use Sente both on my iPad and laptop/desktops and I can also share refs and notes with the students in my lab. It also acts as a citation manager like Endnote.

ii) I do not use my iPad for this, but if I did Pages and Keynote would be my choice.

iii and iv) see i.

vi) For mindmapping I use Mindnode on both iPad/iphone and laptop/desktops. I also use Notability as a basic note pad.

vii) This is currently evolving for me: I used to use notability, but with the new features added to Pages (track changes) I am contemplating switching.

viii) Pages - excellent iCloud sync and very compatible with MS Word.

Hope this helps!

 

[jojoba]

i. managing article- and ebook- library on iPad [a file management similar to itunes for music]

For my research articles, I use Bookends. For ebooks, I use amazon or kobo.

ii. preparing lectures notes and lecture slides

Keynote.

iii. reading and annotating ebooks and pdf journal articles (with the capability to export the highlighted/annotated texts and comments)

I use GoodReader and iAnnotate.

iv. taking notes while reading an article or book

Evernote. But I mostly use my Air to take notes. I store these notes in Evernote and Circus Ponies Notebooks, which are synced to my iPad.

vi. idea generation/ideation / mind mapping

iThoughtsHD and OmniOutliner.

vii. reading and marking MS Docs

UX Writer.

viii. Text editor - sophisticated, but without a steep learning curve

Pages.


I have a blog on using iPad and mac for academic purposes here, where I've written about some of these apps.

 

[naomired]

Thank you all for your responses.