iPad 2 as a serious writing machine

[FloatingBones]

See also: Harry McCracken’s similar piece from a week or so ago.

I’m starting to feel like an old fogey, using a Mac for all my writing.

I also appreciated Gruber's blog entry. This was an excellent little discussion to start on MR.

There have been some recent threads implying that someone must have some sort of mental deficiency to be using an iPad instead of a laptop. The truth is that very few of us have actually done the due diligence to explore the suitability of an iPad as a full-time content-creation device.

Palpatine: the creator of Scrivener started a thread on his forums: Scrivener for iOS: What Would You Want. This should be an interesting discussion. You might have some good stuff to suggest there. Unfortunately, I suspect a product will be too late to help you with your dissertation. For those unfamiliar, Scrivener is a top-notch tool for researching and writing papers on the Mac; many of us think it's a vastly superior tool to Pages or Word.

I'm wondering if any developers are making apps designed to run simultaneously on iOS devices.

 

[Carouser]

And that's why I use my iPad in a very limited way for content creation. Its portability is extremely useful. But I'd hardly claim that the fact that I can view only one app (and one page) at a time is a "benefit." It's a PITA that I put up with.

This is one time when 'that's your opinion, man' is warranted. Some people find it a positive consequence of writing on their iPad. You don't. Cool your jets, or don't, whatever.

 

[palpatine]

I also appreciated Gruber's blog entry. This was an excellent little discussion to start on MR.

There have been some recent threads implying that someone must have some sort of mental deficiency to be using an iPad instead of a laptop. The truth is that very few of us have actually done the due diligence to explore the suitability of an iPad as a full-time content-creation device.

Palpatine: the creator of Scrivener started a thread on his forums: Scrivener for iOS: What Would You Want. This should be an interesting discussion. You might have some good stuff to suggest there. Unfortunately, I suspect a product will be too late to help you with your dissertation. For those unfamiliar, Scrivener is a top-notch tool for researching and writing papers on the Mac; many of us think it's a vastly superior tool to Pages or Word.

I'm wondering if any developers are making apps designed to run simultaneously on iOS devices.

Holy cow. Wouldn't that be great. I thought the developer had sworn off iOS apps. Right now I am having a lot of success with a combination of Elements (iOS) and Scrivener (OSX). If I could avoid having to fire up the Macbook and Scrivener, I'd be all set! But, like you said, it will be too late for my current project

 

[FloatingBones]

And Woody Allen has written every screenplay over the last 40 years on a manual portable typewriter. I still fail to see much advantage of an iPad's limited design over Woody Allen's approach. But perhaps Allen is not alone in not knowing how to turn off the "distractions" of more fully featured devices.

You are right: it's a fact that most of us have difficulty imagining using an iPad as our primary content creation computer. It would be impossible to imagine without bloggers like Harry sharing about their experience.

I write a lot. It's how I make a living. For me, accessing research results, previous drafts, and the contributions of others (including editors) is a huge advantage over the days of typing a draft on a typewriter, cutting and pasting with scissors and scotch tape, and comparing drafts on a big table.

One aside: perhaps one of the reasons Woody can get by on a typewriter is that he doesn't have to answer to editors.

MS has annotative redlining in word; it will be very interesting to see if they enable that feature in their Win8 tablet "metro mode" and iOS versions of Word.

But I'd hardly claim that the fact that I can view only one app (and one page) at a time is a "benefit." It's a PITA that I put up with.

Mac users that have an iPhone can run a second app -- on that second device. A way to easily paste from the iPhone into a document open on the iPad could prove to be extremely valuable. This is exactly the kind of game-changing extension that Apple likes to throw into the game.

This is the kind of thinking that we'll have to do to understand and dream in this new paradigm.

------

Holy cow. Wouldn't that be great. I thought the developer had sworn off iOS apps. Right now I am having a lot of success with a combination of Elements (iOS) and Scrivener (OSX). If I could avoid having to fire up the Macbook and Scrivener, I'd be all set! But, like you said, it will be too late for my current project

There is now a version of Scrivener for Windows. While the developer wasn't involved first-hand in porting the Mac app, I'm sure that taxed the resources of his company to do that.

Keith has noted that iOS currently lacks an RTF API. Perhaps developers have been notified that this will be part of iOS 6, or perhaps he's just anticipating that expansion.

 

[musika]

I love this post.

When iCloud came out, I was disappointed in the OSX implementation of document syncing with iWork. iOS, however, has a beautiful (sandboxed) implementation. So I decided to begin an experiment: All of my extensive writing takes place on my iPad. School essays, music papers, all the long stuff. Challenge #2: Only using the on-screen keyboard. I've learned to adapt to the on-screen keyboard as my primary input method and, I love it.

Since then I've been using all sorts of apps such as iA Writer, Pages, etc.

It's been good!

Still need OSX for Logic Pro. Also, I tend to do all my browsing heavily on the Mac (probably because I'm a huge tab whore).

Try writing on iPad. It's distraction free.

Sent from my iPad 2

 

[sand_man]

I don't know if you read the Harry McCracken piece, but it's not just the keyboard piece (which is optional to carry around with an iPad .. meaning he can take just the iPad with him when he's spending an entire day walking the floor of a tech show, and then when he's back in his hotel room and needs to bang out a 1,000 word article, he can use the keyboard). He's never found a laptop/netbook that comes close to the iPads battery life (which for him is important, as he can't stop 6 hours into a trade show and let his stuff recharge for an hour), and he's found the built-in 3G of the iPad to often be far faster than the complimentary Wi-Fi in hotels.

IMO, they're both journalists, which makes their use cases a bit different from most. Still thought they were cool stories, though.

I didn't read the piece no

I just personally feel attaching a plethora of peripherals to an iPad is desecration and defeats the purpose of its creation.

But at the same time I can appreciate the shear versatility of the product and how in more and more facets of life people are using iPads to add to and improve their productivity.

 

[allmIne]

I think if you're honest with yourself you're probably accepting certain compromises to allow you to use the iPad more. Which is no bad thing.

But to evangelise it as a better alternative to Mac based writing? Probably a stretch, IMO.

 

[wyneken]

And Woody Allen has written every screenplay over the last 40 years on a manual portable typewriter. I still fail to see much advantage of an iPad's limited design over Woody Allen's approach.

I loved this tidbit, since I started off as a writer, 30+ years ago, with a little Remington manual with a snap-on case. So I dig your point here. But you seem to contradict it almost immediately:

I write a lot. It's how I make a living. For me, accessing research results, previous drafts, and the contributions of others (including editors) is a huge advantage over the days of typing a draft on a typewriter, cutting and pasting with scissors and scotch tape, and comparing drafts on a big table.

Surely these ARE benefits of the iPad over my old Remington. Allen may not need them, but I do. I think your point is that things like this are, perhaps, better managed on a traditional computer: no argument here. But the iPad is infinitely better than the Remington, while still being tiny and cool and comfortable for me. It fits nicely in the middle.

Palpatine: the creator of Scrivener started a thread on his forums: Scrivener for iOS: What Would You Want. This should be an interesting discussion...

I'm wondering if any developers are making apps designed to run simultaneously on iOS devices.

You might look at the Storify app, which syncs with its desktop counterpart and also, somehow, allows for composing and exporting in RTF, so you can have basic formatting (italics, page headers, and the like) within a minimal word processor. Like the iPad it seems to fill a comfortable middle space -- in this case, between Pages and IA Writer. This might be the app some of us have been waiting for.

I don't see there being two "sides" here, as arguably there were when some writers embraced computers in the 80s while others steadfastly refused. We're down now to finer choices and individual preferences and degrees of immersion.

I'm pretty much all-iPad, no-keyboard these days. But I don't go as far as plain-text-only. So I work with Pages and Storify.

 

[Benbikeman]

As with most things, it depends on the circumstances.

Scrivener is absolutely fantastic as a primary writing environment. To my mind, that means a big screen. However, a large screen laptop also has disadvantages.

If I'm making a short commuter train journey of a couple of stops, it's not very practical to get out my MacBook Pro, resume from hibernation, do bit of writing, hibernate again and put it away. In that situation, the iPad is perfect. Instant-on, instant-off, auto-save and no need to think about battery life.

I don't personally find it a problem that I can only have one app on the screen at a time, it takes a second or two to switch between Pages and Atomic Web Browser. Where the iPad becomes impractical is when you need to switch back and forth between different parts of the text, which is where Scrivener comes into its own.

 

[MusicEnthusiast]

LTD, what kind of writing do you do on the iPad? I haven't looked too much into this thread, but did you mention you use an external keyboard or do you use the on-screen virtual keyboard?

I enjoyed creative writing in high school quite a few years ago, but have put a hold on it due to my busy schedule in college (too much math and physics!!). There is an epic story destined to be finished, but only time will tell...

 

[jojoba]

I use my iPad quite a lot for note taking and extensively for annotating pdf-s. I find it great for both, and I love being able to annotate and write with a stylus as well as a keyboard. I also love not having to worry about battery life or internet connection (I have 3G) when I'm out and about/ on work trips. I've got one of those LogiTech keyboards which are really light and fit to the iPad just like a cover, so on the days I bring my keyboard I just leave my smart cover at home. For more 'serious' and longer stretches of writing work, though, I definitely prefer a laptop or my stationary work pc.

 

[jb1280]

There is a basic tension about using the iPad as a serious writing machine.

On one hand, the iPad has the aspirations of being a fully-fledged computer. The ambitious applications that have been made for iOS are a testament to this aspiration. On the other hand, the iPad has the aspirations of removing copious amounts of paper from our bags, through ebooks and managing PDFs.

While serious writing does not mean only googling things, it does mean having easy access to other written material.

 

[Bernard SG]

Apple's recent moves, software-wise, are sending a subtle message: multi-tasking sucks.
It's a notion I've had for quite a while, so no wonder I feel so 'at home' with Apple's gear.

 

[*LTD*]

LTD, what kind of writing do you do on the iPad?

Academic/scholarly research.

 

[Big D 51]

I returned my first iPad because I looked at it being only a media tool for me. I was flying twice a week at the time, but the flights were only a hour long; therefore, I didn't feel like I needed an iPad full of movies and etc. to keep me entertained.

Now after reading threads on here and the help of palpatine, I am now fixing to purchase a new iPad. The reason is to hopefully go fully digital and for note taking which will contribute to going full digital. I use a MBA for my full time machine, and I never thought I needed an iPad. I use to think if I needed to buy an iPad and keyboard that it seemed crazy if I already had a MBA. I am starting to jump ships again to give it another try due to threads like this one.

 

[palpatine]

I returned my first iPad because I looked at it being only a media tool for me. I was flying twice a week at the time, but the flights were only a hour long; therefore, I didn't feel like I needed an iPad full of movies and etc. to keep me entertained.

Now after reading threads on here and the help of palpatine, I am now fixing to purchase a new iPad. The reason is to hopefully go fully digital and for note taking which will contribute to going full digital. I use a MBA for my full time machine, and I never thought I needed an iPad. I use to think if I needed to buy an iPad and keyboard that it seemed crazy if I already had a MBA. I am starting to jump ships again to give it another try due to threads like this one.

just to add to this for anyone who might be afraid / skeptical of the ipad's potential, you can start by going digital with a computer. if you use evernote, the transition to the ipad will be seamless, but even if you just store your scanned / digital material in a folder then you will be well on your way (i recommend a naming system with yymmdd + keywords). the ipad will certainly be able to read everything you have in your digital library, so you can't lose there (consumption), and you might find that an ipad+keyboard fits your workflow well. anyhow, it is good to know about the possibilities, and hopefully Big D will keep us updated on what he learns so that we can all improve our experience!

 

[anthonymoody]

As I write often, my signature pretty much says it all re how I feel about these types of questions. I do all my blogging and other writing on my iPad 2 and you can pry it out of my cold dead hands!

Seriously.