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qwertyisbak

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 1, 2016
4
0
I am a university student who is considering buying an ipad for use in class (mainly for jotting down on pdf files with an apple pencil). After I take some notes in class, I use my mac to type thorough notes on the same pdf slides. Is it possible to write notes directly on pdf files saved in my dropbox so that I don't have to download & upload every single time to sync with my mac?
 
I am a university student who is considering buying an ipad for use in class (mainly for jotting down on pdf files with an apple pencil). After I take some notes in class, I use my mac to type thorough notes on the same pdf slides. Is it possible to write notes directly on pdf files saved in my dropbox so that I don't have to download & upload every single time to sync with my mac?
Depends upon what apps you are using.

For the kind of back-n-forth between iPads and Macs, iCloud is preferable. I regularly created and modify documents on my iMac (synced with iCloud) and pick up where I left off on my iPad Pro and then back and forth.

Is there a reason for needing Dropbox?
 
Through Dropbox? No.
However, you can annotate PDFs on the cloud through both the Adobe Acrobat app as well as through GoodReader.

Edit: You can add Dropbox as a storage location in the Adobe Acrobat app. In that sense you can store your PDFs in Dropbox, open up he Acrobat app (on the iPad) and annotate your PDF without having to make the round trip.
 
I just went back to DropBox because the solutions I have bundled with services from work (iCloud, gDocs and OneNote) just aren't as seamless as DropBox. Dropbox can do a round trip to MS Office docs better than even OneNote (just click on the edit icon in Dropbox) and for PDFs, you can do a round trip to Adobe Acrobat in the same way -- it feels pretty close to editing files from the Finder on the desktop. And then there are all the other apps that sync files with Dropbox effortlessly, such as PDF Expert, which I use for reviewing journal articles (I just like it more than Adobe Acrobat). Managing files are also easier in the Dropbox app compared to the apps for iCloud, OneNote and gDocs. You'd think we could be free of Dropbox by now, with all of the competition, but I find every other service too fiddly.
 
GoodReader is awesome for making notes and annotations on PDF and also for organizing storing files for later in folders and sub-folders. You can use apple pencil with it and it can integrate with both iCloud drive and DropBox - both work great on iPad.

I use DropBox for files I need to share with others since it is cross platform ( ie windows) and I use iCloud drive for personal files for faster and more seamless file synchronization with my Mac
 
Can do it via Goodreader, cannot do it via Dropbox app.

At the initial download of the file/folder also set-up a 'sync' command. After the initial download any edits and changes you make will sync with Dropbox. I have my whole dropbox up to date on my iPad with lots of edited PDF's.

The benefit to this is that my Goodreader contents also back-up with my iCloud (200GB plan), so I have a built in solution to backups.
 
YO
Through Dropbox? No.
However, you can annotate PDFs on the cloud through both the Adobe Acrobat app as well as through GoodReader.

Edit: You can add Dropbox as a storage location in the Adobe Acrobat app. In that sense you can store your PDFs in Dropbox, open up he Acrobat app (on the iPad) and annotate your PDF without having to make the round trip.

That's what I do. It works quite well and syncs fast. You'll need both Dropbox and Adobe Acrobat apps, of course, but they work well together to annotate and save PDFs within DropBox.
 
Pretty sure you can use PDF Expert to do all that. I don't sync with a mac, but it is icloud and dropbox friendly.
 
Notability will also import from Dropbox (PDF, RTF, TXT, Photos) but you would then have to reupload I think to sync, unless you buy Notability on the Mac. PDF Expert will do it too but again I think it downloads first.
 
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