How do YOU use your iPad productively? What are your workflows?

[xxray]

I thought it'd be interesting to see how you all use the iPad productively for work or hobbies and what your typical workflow is. I think it'd be cool for everyone to get new ideas of how you could use iPads that you hadn't known about before. So...

1. What kind of work do you do on your iPad?
2. What is your typical workflow?
3. Why do you like using an iPad for productivity/work?/How does it enhance your workflow/productivity?

 

[TechGod]

I'm a student so I love how much more portable than my laptop it is. Apple Pencil also lets me annotate notes so that's useful although I wish there was more stuff for programming since I'm a comsci major.

 

[MisterMillz]

Notability and TurboScan are two apps that help me get through the day at school.

 

[KGB7]

Porn, internet, movies, email, YouTube.

Not even going to jailbreak it, since there is no need to debloat it like Android.

Learning more about iOS as my first apple device.

 

[BenTrovato]

The type of work I can do an iPad is writing, responding to emails, research (browsing), video calls, and reading. In terms of that work, the iPad does not improve my workflow. I'm 10 times slower and less efficient vs using a computer. I take out the iPad to do that work if I'm not trying to work quickly, working in a cool environment, or moving around a lot (traveling). It's more convenience than enhancement.

 

[Shirasaki]

I would use it as secondary monitor, play games, edit office document, browse the web, do notations, drawing...
I can do a lot with an iPad when I have one.

 

[musicpenguy]

I have a workflow that downloads YouTube videos and then I send that over to Ferrite to edit it into a podcast (record over Hangouts Live) - I then have a workflow that’ll encode the Ferrite finished file as an MP3 and upload it to a specific Dropbox account.

 

[eyeseeyou]

Check email(stock email app), social media(FB, twitter, IG), YouTube(ProTube)/Netflix, web browsing(safari).

For my creative work it's a combination of notes app(design brief), Pinterest(mood board), procreate(sketching), concepts app(inking), affinity photo(photo/layout design), graphic(visual/layout design).

iMovie and quik app for video editing.

Google apps for word processing and data entry.

Dropbox, iCloud, google drive for document storage and sharing.

iMessage/google hangouts/FB messenger for ummm messaging

 

[Fireball Dragon]

Since getting my iPP I have been using it for taking notes.

Also love the iCloud file system on iOS so it is easy to annotate pdfs and keep them in sync across devices.

I have fallen in love with the iPad again since drifting away from my iPad Air. It has really come a long way and I am rediscovering things

 

[MacGurl111]

Consumption
Writing
Sketching/art/calligraphy

 

[Badrottie]

I'm a freelance artist and sometime video editor. I use my 12.9 iPad Pro a lot because I rarely at home. So I enjoyed browsing, playing games, and watching Netflix. I'm hoping there will be FCPX-Lite app for iPad. I have some Adobe apps and Pixelmator here to work on it. Logitech keyboard and Apple Pencil are so good.

 

[MFDoom]

10.5 here with pencil. My killer workflow is to store research material in DEVONthink. From DEVONthink I use LiquidText to read and annotate. OneNote for note taking.

 

[dingclancy23]

I manage an online store through it. But for me the iPad is great for.

Marking up screenshots and sending back to developers for tasking/feedback.
Using Trello to organize tasks for teams
Using Slack for team communication
E-mail replies
Voice calls / Voxer for team meetings
Team Viewer for Screen Sharing
Product edits, import export of data, Content edits
Website edits through Coda, Textastic, and Git

In many ways the experience is superior, and my productivity is equal to the Mac.
For e.g.
Screenshots markup and sending to team is better on the iPad
Slack is better on the iPad
E-mail is better on the iPad as there are many little tricks that Spark has to get me through the inbox quicker.
Voice calls is better on the iPad because there is no heat and fan running. You can also walk with it.
Trello with touch is better and more fulfilling, like moving a real card.

Anything that is happening through Safari, product edits, import/export, content edits, is worse. But passable for less than an hour's work.

Quick edits in code is now equal for me on both the Mac and the iPad

Now any project that needs to be done starteing from scratch, like a new page, new store category, etc. I need a Mac for it. Also when you need to do heavy code work, and running spreadsheets for business analysis, I prefer the Mac.

But man it has replaced a lot of what I do in ways I can never have imagined.

 

[Sasha-1]

I just got mine and I'm getting used to it. So far I have used it for the web, email, YouTube, news, tracking packages and I am just getting into the pencil and iCloud.

 

[eyeseeyou]

Quick edits in code is now equal for me on both the Mac and the iPad

What app do you use to edit code?

Also do you use a keyboard?

 

[dingclancy23]

What app do you use to edit code?

Also do you use a keyboard?

For quick edits you can use the on-screen keyboard . I use the Logitech K780 allowing me to switch from iPad to the Mac with that one keyboard and it also has a built in stand/pocket that can hold the 12.9 inch IPP.

As for the apps check out:

Coda
Textastic
Working Copy (Git Client)

Textastic is interesting because you can open any file in your repo branch pulled from Working Copy. Then as it auto saves your changes, all you then need to do is go to Working Copy to push your commit You can deploy code to Live in the same time as how you would do it on the Mac.

Then Coda does direct FTP edits, can let you connect to SSH etc.. and is not really different from the Mac app. It is cool!

The only aspect I hate about working on an iPad is that there is no desktop class browser. I wish other browsers can run their own rendering engine. Complex web apps just don't work on an iPad even those as simple as Google Sheets. It is like pulling teeth.

 

[Poki]

I'm using it mainly as graphic tablet via Astropad to edit photos in Capture One Pro and Photoshop and to create vector designs in Affinity Designer. The huge advantage over other graphic tablets is that I can also use it via WiFi, so I can bring my work to the couch and continue to work while not having to sit at my desk all day.

 

[sjleworthy]

i'm an industrial artist (working from home) heading up a creative team of 5. My main workhorses are 3 multicore pc's. these are dedicated purely to the creation of graphics and are not general usage pc's.

so......

my 12.9 ipad and smart keyboard with Pencil are my eyes and ears to the world. i need to co-ordinate and organise between myself my team and our clients all day and everyday throughout the working day.

email is obviously live 24/7
skype for constant messaging, transferring and video chatting
Notability for quick note and sketch access (with Pencil) for impromptu briefings and telephone cons
Pages for invoicing and business letters
Numbers for accounting
Sheets/Google for my myriad of constant live google docs and sheets, all live to the team of course
myCal for all my professional and personal daily diary entries
Outlook for all work related diaries
IconMemo for reminders and stickies

and other general admin apps like Dropbox, iPrint&Scan, CalculatorHD etc etc.

I used to attempt most of this with my old ipad2, but of course, 12.9 is on another planet compaired. And IOS11 will be super peachy. I cant even dream of replacing my pc's with an ipad (or macs come to that), but for general computing and day to day use, the iPad Pro easily replaces the use of a regular laptop.
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Complex web apps just don't work on an iPad even those as simple as Google Sheets. It is like pulling teeth.

i find Google Sheets and Docs wonderful to create on iPad. But, the dedicated google sheets/docs apps are a MUST. also, to make my own life easier, i like to create my sheets in Numbers on my ipad, then transfer that over to google sheets to use.

 

[sracer]

R E M O V E D

 

[OperatorJ81]

I am a business executive running a cyber consulting company. I love the portability of the iPad, but the power of a laptop. Here is how I use mine most often:

Movies when traveling
Taking notes in meetings (OneNote & Notability - Nebo when I want to be able to change handwritten notes into text)
Signing contracts on the go
As a second display when traveling (Duet)
Document scanning
Email
Sometimes a laptop is not permitted in secured environments, but an iPad is (their rules, I don't always understand them, but I have to abide by them)
Web browsing
Online shopping (Amazon/Best Buy, etc)


On the personal side, I am an amateur radio operator and storm spotter, so I run several weather and radar apps as well as some HAM radio tools. I also use it to stream media throughout my home, so I use it as a bit of a media controller and hub in a sort of way.

I have found the iPad Pro to be an extremely powerful and flexible device. And that's all with my 9.7" gen1. I do plan on upgrading to the 10.5" shortly and look forward to the new toy... ahem... "tool".

Jason

 

[spiderman0616]

1. Podcasting: I use an app called Ferrite and hook up an Apogee Mic to the lightning port on my iPad. I record my audio in Ferrite, edit/sync tracks in Ferrite using the Apple Pencil, and then publish the file to iTunes right from there. It does everything I ever needed Garage Band to do, but easier and higher quality sound. Since Ferrite is more tailored for podcasting, I just find it a more versatile option for that task. If I need to download audio from guests or other sources, I use Workflow--I have an automation set up to just download whatever audio files I have from the URL in my clipboard. It sounds complicated, but it's literally just one tap and I have the file.

2. Note Taking: OneNote and Pencil. That's all I need. Syncs to my iPhone and Mac perfectly. For personal notes, I use Notability. I've found that writing things down helps me remember them better than when I just type them out. Also, I like that I can add graphics and pictures and things like that on the fly. Will be even easier with iOS 11.

3. Writing: I do all my writing in Medium. If I'm writing for someone else and they need it formatted for their blog, site, whatever, I use Byword instead so that it's immediately ready for publishing. Both work well on iPad.

4. Spreadsheets: I'm not a power user of Excel by any means, but I use Excel for work stuff and Numbers for personal stuff. I've been pleasantly surprised with how much better Numbers has gotten. If my employer took away my Office 365 access for some reason, I would have to think very hard as to whether I'd pay for Office 365 or just stick with Numbers for free. It would be a tough call at this point.

5. Presentations: Keynote or PowerPoint or sometimes both for the same project. Again, I try to keep work and personal separated, but sometimes I start something in one and import it into the other. Hasn't caused me any issues thus far.

6. Writing music: Notion. You can type the notes into the staff, or you can handwrite them into the app and it recognizes them and puts them in the staff for you. It's fantastic. I prefer handwriting my music because I'm just faster that way, so the Apple Pencil + Notion was a godsend in this regard.

7. Email: Outlook and Mail (work and personal, respectively)

So, I do have a Macbook Air. It's a work computer, and it's hooked up to my desktop setup at all times. (2 big monitors, Magic Mouse, Magic Keyboard, etc.). I am required to use it for my full time job because they want me working on company issued equipment at all times. However, it's only truly necessary for exactly one thing I need to do during the day: hosting conference calls using Flash based conference call software. There's a version for the software on iOS, but it doesn't work the way I need it to. That's truly the only computing limitation I feel that I have by using an iPad, and if I don't need to share my screen out for the call, I can actually host it on Skype for Business from my iPad.

There are a lot of die hard laptop/desktop users that like to get on here and tell people they're wrong and can't do things on an iPad. I do it every day by choice. macOS and Windows both seem like "the old way" to me now. I create and consume a ton of content on my iPad every single day. And at the end of the day, I fold it up and it becomes my book, TV, movie screen, game console, etc.

 

[dingclancy23]

i find Google Sheets and Docs wonderful to create on iPad. But, the dedicated google sheets/docs apps are a MUST. also, to make my own life easier, i like to create my sheets in Numbers on my ipad, then transfer that over to google sheets to use.

Yes. The app is good enough but the web apps are not really good. So if they do not have an equivalent native app, that is where it gets hard. An example would be apps like Google Analytics and other similar apps. But I get by anyway, as those hindrances get fewer and fewer with more services bringing out equivalent native apps, and the performance of the iPad catching up in Safari rendering.

There are still a few components from the desktop version of Safari that has to be ported to Mobile Safari to make it work well, though I realize this will not be Apple's priority.

Though it looks like iOS 11 is getting updated with more Safari components:

Safari - In the Settings app in the Safari section under Advanced, there's a new option to turn on experimental features like Constant Properties, CSS Spring Animations, WebGPU, Web Animations, and more.

 

[mcpryon2]

Our team does a week-long shoot at what is basically a debate/ethics bowl camp that has students going to events. This year we're going to use Adobe Creative Cloud to incorporate an iPad and phones. It's going to be quite a timesaver, I think, since our people in the field can shoot video and take pictures then upload assets to the Cloud drive, then an editor can grab them back at the base station.

Since we go all over we could basically have a first edit done before everybody is back from the day's event, which is exciting. Saving a few hours is pretty huge when you're making a ten minute video over the course of a week that shows on the last night.

It's pretty cool being able to sketch, take photos and video, get signatures, and write documents on one device. I'm looking forward to taking this 12.9" iPad Pro on this project.

 

[cwosigns]

There are some things at work that I can't do on an iPad (access to network drives, software that is PC only, etc.). But there are some things that I do that just require the Microsoft Office suite (writing, reporting, presenting), internet (research), or project management (Todoist). Some days I prioritize the work I can't do on an iPad so that I have more flexibility later with regard to where I work. I love being able to work from anywhere on my iPad.

 

[jaeb0922]

Porn

iPad Pro's best feature! YUS! HAHA!