How does iCloud work?

[BlueGoldAce]

Okay, I apologize for my ignorance on this topic. I also greatly appreciate the help.

I am/was excited for iCloud drive. I have used dropbox and google drive (currently) and love having my important stuff backed up in the cloud.

I was excited for iCloud drive because it would be integrated into iOS 8 and os x Yosemite. I have an iPhone 6 plus with iOS 8.0.2 installed. I also have a macbook pro running the latest beta of OS X Yosemite.

How does iCloud work? I moved a portion of my google drive files to iCloud to test it out. The files were mainly powerpoints, keynotes, pdfs, etc. Why can't i access these files in pages, keynote, etc on iOS 8?

Is this something that has yet to be added, or is it a poor excuse for a cloud drive?

For example, it is easy to access my files on google drive app, and import it to keynote, etc.

Again, I greatly appreciate the help.

I also posted this in the iOS 8 forum, as I was unsure of which was the more applicable place to use. Thanks again,

 

[3282868]

I believe [correct me if I'm wrong] that iCloud Drive will be fully functional once OS X 10.10 is released next month. From Apple's documents and Keynote, it should be a fully functional "Dropbox" type system, although I do not know how files will be read that are saved on OS X outside of app's. For example, I can create a folder in Finder, move files into it, but unless my iPhone or iPad has the corresponding app to "read/open" the file, I don't know how they will implement it. Sharing files, certainly, you'll most likely have a URL link you send to others, but as iOS is a closed system without a file system for users, it seems it could be restricting.

Photo's are a mess right now until Apple releases their new "Photos" app for OS X and iOS next year (which is replacing iPhoto and Aperture). For the moment, Apple's timing of releases has been, well, ill-timed.

Oh, I assume if you have compatible files for iWork, move the corresponding Keynote or Pages file into the corresponding folder in OS X Yosemite (not out yet). See attached pic of my iCloud drive folder.