Good for you,
Where I work, we use paper copies. We also don't sign things electronically. Students here submit paper work. We don't email presentations, we print out notes for the presentations.
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Interesting Gizmodo article on the iPad's future
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Good for you,
Where I work, we use paper copies. We also don't sign things electronically. Students here submit paper work. We don't email presentations, we print out notes for the presentations.
As you note, it's the most common software and thus what you need to use if you're doing collaborative work. I need to work in Word as that's what all my colleagues I'm writing papers together with use, what scholarly journals require for submitting papers electronically etc.
Plus it's just what I know and I'd rather not have to learn another software package.
Agreed. Apple has gotten owned in the business market, so they're smart to more or less give up on it and focus on the home market with gadgets like the iPad that are aimed at personal use, entertainment etc. much more than productivity.
Agreed...mostly. I'll always have a desktop and a laptop as the type of work I do (working with big data sets, doing statistical analysis, writing scholarly journal articles, powerpoint presentations, crime mapping etc. etc.) just isn't well suited to doing on a tablet with no keyboard or mouse.
But at the same time, as much as I like my iPad for media consumption (reading the news, reading pdfs, watching videos etc.), it does feel a bit redundant to own both a tablet and a laptop as I can do all that stuff on my laptop or desktop--the form factor just isn't as nice.
The ideal for me would be some kind of docking solution where the tablet snaps onto a laptop base and turns into a screen. The laptop dock has a full OS on it so you have a laptop when you put the two together, and a simple, iPad like tablet when you detach the tablet part. Best of both worlds and less redundant than having a full laptop and separate tablet.
Lenovo and one of the netbook companies (Asus maybe?) have already worked on some designs like that (maybe already out even) but the tablet part didn't seem very good.
Hopefully someone else will get it right. My money is on microsoft with the tablet OS they're working on. They're focused on the business world so they're more likely than other companies to come up with a tablet more functional for my type of business use, and to do that type of docking option etc.
Yeah, I'm a professor and we still do a ton of printing.
I want hard copies of student papers, especially when we're talking a 50-75 student or more class. But even for smaller classes it's still easier to grade and mark up a printout than to do it electronically.
I also print out a lot of PDFs of research articles I'm using in my grad seminar courses etc. It's just easier to mark them up on a printout and flip through them when discussing them in class than to try to do it in Goodreader on the iPad etc.
And then all the paperwork that has to be signed etc. as you note.
So yeah, good for him if he doesn't have to print. But I'll be printing things for the foreseeable future. That said, I don't care about not being able to print from my iPad as I really don't use it as a work tool anyway as most things are just a hassle vs. just sticking with my pcs for work and leaving the iPad for leisure for the most part.
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Yeah, I agree. Engadget has tons of articles saying how the ipad is the future of mankind.
that first statement is a matter of opinion, and the second one used to be true but no longer is...glad you're up with the times
Office '11 mac is the best productivity suite ive ever used, Windows 7 is also a delight to use and far better than any OS they've done in the past. WP7 is the most unique smartphone OS out there, and is a very nice OS, although still quite young...so how can you say they're software is "always poorly coded and designed," especially since you likely don't know anything at all about how its coded to begin with
FAIL for not reading the article.
There's a "blog" view front page option now. Helps a bit. But I usually read with Pulse.
Apparentky this is the best windows tablet out right now and can do everything a laptop can nd more:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004HKIIFI
What is good aout office or excel? Both are confusingnn to use for newbies and casuals. You really need to spend a lot of time memorizing shortcuts and waysto do thingns to even get anything done on office. Heck the way the tabs and indents work is confusing.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004HKIIFI
What is good aout office or excel? Both are confusingnn to use for newbies and casuals. You really need to spend a lot of time memorizing shortcuts and waysto do thingns to even get anything done on office. Heck the way the tabs and indents work is confusing.
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But it's what most people already no and use, and who wants to switch and use something else.
And if you do collaborative work, you need to use it as there's probably a 99% or higher chance that whoever you're working with is using Office.
If you're just making documents on your own, and not collaborating with people, or needing to send them to academic journals or other publishers in. .doc format etc. then you can use whatever you want.
Otherwise, a lot of us have no choice but to use Office as that's just what's dominant/required in our work environments. I don't mind personally as I've used officer for going on 20 years so I know it and don't have problems with it.
But I'm a PC guy--like office, love Windows 7 etc.--and respect that others prefer the Mac environment. I'll never make that switch, and will probably get off the iOS platform when some decent windows Tablet comes out down the road when MS finishes their tablet OS they're supposedly working on.
We are in an interesting spot on the technology evolution curve. I was a CIO for 15 years or so and was mostly a PC fsn beginning with 1-2-3 and then eventually moving to Office. However, the advent of the Cloud changed a lot for me ie google Docs and Dropbox etc. Another eye opener is when my MBA daughter and industrial Design son went to Macs. Then my computer science graduated son went to Mac running parallels. I finally tried MacBook a couple years ago. Now I run my storm restoration business entirely on the Cloud (before mentioned Google Docs and Dropbox). It is not critical to my business scheme whether I use macs or pcs but I have chosen to go 100% Mac, at least for now.
We have 3 MacBook Pros, a 27" iMac and I am writing this from my new iPad 2.
I spend the Summer months in a pickup truck and the iPad 2 is beginning to revolutionize the work I do on the road. I can do about 85% of my business functions from iPad on google docs. The printing part is easily and seamlessly done when I am home from one of the macs. I tried using MBP in my pickup but it is a little cumbersome. I plan to mount iPad on a swing arm to use while at job sites etc.
The iPad has been an eye opener for me. The smaller form factor along with apps designed for the touchscreen as well as the screen size is synergistically powerful. Leave it to Apple to be able to "see" the importance of these factors and begin to build a platform to take advantage of this synergy. Apparently it is not just a few people who are benefiting from these strengths as the number of iPad purchases testify. I am guessing that maybe 80% plus of ipad owners just really enjoy how easy the ipad makes web browsing. However, there is another growing group whos business can really take advantage of the ipad's strengths. I am excited where the iPad/ tablet platform is going!
We have 3 MacBook Pros, a 27" iMac and I am writing this from my new iPad 2.
I spend the Summer months in a pickup truck and the iPad 2 is beginning to revolutionize the work I do on the road. I can do about 85% of my business functions from iPad on google docs. The printing part is easily and seamlessly done when I am home from one of the macs. I tried using MBP in my pickup but it is a little cumbersome. I plan to mount iPad on a swing arm to use while at job sites etc.
The iPad has been an eye opener for me. The smaller form factor along with apps designed for the touchscreen as well as the screen size is synergistically powerful. Leave it to Apple to be able to "see" the importance of these factors and begin to build a platform to take advantage of this synergy. Apparently it is not just a few people who are benefiting from these strengths as the number of iPad purchases testify. I am guessing that maybe 80% plus of ipad owners just really enjoy how easy the ipad makes web browsing. However, there is another growing group whos business can really take advantage of the ipad's strengths. I am excited where the iPad/ tablet platform is going!
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Also, whatnis up with the whole doc.x thing. Every docx file doesnt seem to open up correctly in even other windows systems unless they have like the exact same version of office or something. Whats the pointnof that docx fiasco anyway? Excel and powerpoint have it asn well.
Also, it's weird how businesses always use Wndows programs but univeristies at least csu's always use macs for everything. In my former csu every classroom had macs with a bunch of adobe stuff, so its really sivided I think and not so cut and dry that office is used everywhere.
Also, it's weird how businesses always use Wndows programs but univeristies at least csu's always use macs for everything. In my former csu every classroom had macs with a bunch of adobe stuff, so its really sivided I think and not so cut and dry that office is used everywhere.
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.docx means it's an Office 2007 or Office 2010 file. They made a bit change to the Office suite then, so if you have an older version of Office you need to download and install a compatibility pack to read the .docx files. You can save as regular .doc in Office 2007/2010 to avoid the problem as well if you're sending it to people who may be on older versions.
At least that's how it works on PC, someone else would have to speak to the MAC versions.
What does universities using macs have to do with Office being used everywhere?
I have a Ph D and work as a professor.
PCs are still the norm in higher education. The only Macs on campus tend to be in departments like graphic design, advertising/print layout and so on.
Otherwise the computer labs are all PCs and the vast majority of professors are using PCs in their office (again outside of a few fields). I'm sure some universities have more Macs, but none of the one's I attended or have worked have had much Mac presence on campus.
Research requires a lot of specialty software and many of those programs aren't on the Mac platform. Most of the major statistical packages are, but a lot of smaller ones aren't. And it's not worth the hassle to be in boot camp all the time vs. just running a PC.
Exactly. Even people on Macs in businesses and universities are primarily using Office.
It's the most popular office suite and using it makes it easier to still work with colleagues who are on PCs.
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Docx is new. It's not supposed to work on older versions of Word because it didn't exist when they were made.
But again, at least on PC, you can just install a compatibility pack on older versions of office to open and edit docx files.
You can only save them as .doc files though. But that's no problem as those open 100% fine in Office 2007/2010.
Well the entire journalism and communications departments all had macs. In fact the entire labs only were filled with macs.
I already listed those above (advertising/print layout was meant to cover those). Those tend to be Macs for the layout software, photoshop etc. Graphic design departments are on Macs too usually. As well as the video editing focused units etc.
Most everything else--aka the majority of the university--is on PCs.
Mac is dominant in a few fields, but the majority are still PC dominated--the hard sciences, social sciences and other fields that are focused on research rather than creative work like layout, video/sound editing, graphic design etc.
windows 7 on a tablet, no thanks
3 hour battery life, no thanks
it weighs 2.5 lbs, no thanks
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That is very very sad. Not being able to print from an iPad should be the least of your concerns.
Yep, that's the problem with current tablet PCs.
MS needs to nail their Tablet OS they're supposedly working on, including:
-Make it totally designed for touch use, not just a tweaked version of Windows 7 as doing that results in a crappy UI experience.
-Make it use much less power than a full OS so battery life can be in the 8-10 range on a tablet roughly the size of the iPad. Anything less in battery life or much bulkier in form factor will be DOA.
-But they have to have it powerful enough that it can have a file system, run MS Office that does everything the desktop version does and is 100% compatible with the desktop version etc.
If they can do all that, I'll happily switch as I really want a tablet that fits better into my PC workflow. But I'm not willing to use a crummy interface from shoehorning windows 7 onto a touch screen, or to have short battery life etc. They have to get it right, otherwise I'll stick with the iPad as a personal media consumption device and just do all my work on a laptop at home and when traveling like now.
Get it right, and maybe make the tablet have a dock that basically turns it into a laptop, the hopefully I could ditch both my iPad and my laptop and just go with desktops and the tablet/dock combo when traveling etc.
What if apple created smething like that or a macbook air with lion in an ipad form factor and gui/touch andnit ran every desktop mac app perfectly like final cut, iworks, adobe, etc.?
Actually it kind of exists unofficially already:
http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=modbook
Actually it kind of exists unofficially already:
http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=modbook
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Ditto, the content was already pretty crap but that was the final nail in the bookmark ... I mean coffin.
I'd consider it for sure.
But the barrier is again that I'm 100% engrained in a Windows work environment and that's not going to change in my field. I'll be using MS Office my whole career most likely, and again have various specialty statistical analysis programs etc. that are only on Windows that I use regularly.
So I'll never be a Mac guy. I don't switch at home either as I don't really have a personal use only computer. I work at home a ton and mainly just use my work provided laptop (doubt I'll buy another home desktop in the future).
So I'm much more likely to go with a Windows tablet if they finally get the Tablet OS right and they can get form factor, battery life etc. done well too.
What is good about them? I'm not sure how to answer that other than the fact that they are incredibly full featured. I was reponding to this statement made earlier: nothing Microsoft makes is a superior form of anything to Apple and that includes Office.
Seems like quite a statement to make. I just what to know which Apple products are superior to MS Office?
PS: You mentioned Excel being complicated. Which full featured spreadsheet application isn't complicated? Spreadsheets are complicated!
Yet many of the jobs that are spreadsheet related not programming dont pay much, go figure. Also, my main gripe is thst microsoft forces you to use other key commands or memorize shortcuts rather than make it all accessible from the drop down menu for the average person not a excel grrk who memorizes everything.
Adobe is kind of like thst too, why make Photoshop so complicated with these key command combinations with clicking you have to add rather than making a great drop down menu? Look at apple, all their apps are sinle to use and can be done all from the menu.
Someone who hates sitting long periods in front of comuters or memorizing things and watching tutorials is gonna want an ipad and numbers, not a windows laptop prone to malware anytime you visit a site and programs like excel full of confusing key commands and non user friendly at all.