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iPad as document viewer for work

IamDave

IamDave

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 10, 2015
176
78
United Kingdom
Ok so as the title suggests I'm looking into possibly getting a 2nd iPad (most likely the 1st Air or a mini) to use at work.

The idea is I can have all my pathways and assessment tool documents on the iPad as opposed to a paper file.

The thing I wanted to ask though is how would this work? Files wouldn't need to be editable necessarily (could use PDF) but I would need them to be organised in some shape or form and be available offline (signal varies where I work).

Does iCloud Drive do this suitably or does it need a constant connection?
If it needs a constant connection is there another way of organising PDF's into categories/order

Hope that makes sense
Cheers
Dave
 
I wondered the same thing. If the files are small enough (and I don't know the exact size limit) they should be available offline automatically. Only the larger files you'd need to download first, and will then be available offline.

I keep all my pdfs on iCloud Drive, and to test, I turned my wifi off, and see what was available. The only files that weren't available offline were large textbooks 100MB+, except the ones that I did download prior.

But before iOS 9, I used iBooks.
 
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Good reader seems to be the choice. I too thought this as well, but for me and my workflow the advantages of the iPad never materialized.
 
GoodReader and Documents/PDF Expert are quite similar. Documents/PDF Expert fully support iOS9 and its nifty features (e.g. split screen) plus the iPad Pro. GoodReader doesn't (neither iOS9 nor iPad Pro; it's stuck at iOS8). If you only have PDF files then even iBooks is good enough, if you have more than Documents comes to mind (it's free). If you need advanced PDF support in Documents then you have to purchase PDF Expert. I'd say GoodReader is a nice alternative.
 
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I've switched from GoodReader to Documents because of the lack of iOS 9 and iPad Pro support from the GoodReader people. It's too bad because it was a great app. But feels like abandon-ware to me.
 
PDF Expert. It seems Goodreader was abandoned. It hasn't seen any updates since March and wasn't updated for split view or 3D Touch.

Also I wouldn't get a mini for a document viewer. A full size iPad will have a document much nearer to an actual sheet of paper. The mini will be too small a display IMO.
 
Another vote in favor of Documents and or PDF Expert. I find the UI much more intuitive, as in Goodreader there are loads of buttons, and I always end up hunting for the right one. Another plus is that PDF viewing in Documents is really fast on a newer device, and continuous scrolling works really well - you can fly through pages. I still keep Goodreader around, as I find its WiFi server occasionally useful, but no longer use it for regular tasks.
 
Everyone is giving you similar suggestions, but here's what you need to know: GoodReader costs money, whereas Documents is free. PDF Expert is an app in itself that also unlocks some more features in Documents; I have PDF Expert and Documents, but never use PDF Expert. I don't see the point, given that Documents basically has its same feature set once you purchase PDF Expert.

I started out with GoodReader initially, but it had some major bugs and incompatibilities with iOS 7 that took too long to fix. I switched over to Documents and haven't looked back. It seems the GoodReader team is still a bit sluggish when it comes to updates and new features; Readdle (the company behind Documents) is extremely fast. I think they already had updates supporting split view a day or two after iOS 9 was released.

Documents can be used offline completely. If you're not into airdropping files between your computer and your iPad, Documents allows you to mount your iPad as a wireless drive that can be seen by computers on the same network. From there you can manage it through the Finder, making new folders, adding, moving, and deleting files... just eject it when you're done and you're good to go. I use it at work to contain some text books, journal articles, and document scans (schedules and the like).

How viable it'll be really depends on what you're trying to do and on your particular workflow. When it comes to apps, I'd start with Documents. It's free, and I'd be surprised if you need anything else. Should you decide that you want greater editing control, then buying PDF Expert will unlock advanced editing features in Documents and save you the effort of having to migrate all of your files over to another app.
 
Readdle actually says that once you have unlocked the additional PDF features in Documents you no longer need to have PDF Expert installed. With this combination Documents is able to do more than PDF Expert.

Feature wise GoodReader and Documents don't differ that much (especially when you have unlocked the additional PDF functionality in Documents). They both have a wifi server, both allow for searching documents (even in documents!), iOS security (incl. Touch ID), can view and edit PDF files, connect to various services (OneDrive, iCloud, Webdav, SMB and so on) as well as sync via iTunes (thus local sync). The only thing that sets Documents really apart is full support for iOS 9 and the iPad Pro. It is much easier to sent stuff to Documents from other apps because it is on the share sheet. That and the fact Documents is free makes it a very good starting place indeed.
 
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dyn said:
Feature wise GoodReader and Documents don't differ that much
Click to expand...

Does Documents zip/unzip files, and act as a download manager? That's what I use GoodReader for -- to download zip files and unzip them, and also to download larger files, like videos.
 
I like both Documents and GoodReader but use FileBrowser quite a bit. With FileBrowser, if you open a cloud-based file (e.g., Dropbox, Google Drive) it does not automatically download and keep a local copy. It's easy enough to delete elsewhere but sometimes I just want a quick look through an offline document.
 
sparksd said:
I like both Documents and GoodReader but use FileBrowser quite a bit. With FileBrowser, if you open a cloud-based file (e.g., Dropbox, Google Drive) it does not automatically download and keep a local copy. It's easy enough to delete elsewhere but sometimes I just want a quick look through an offline document.
Click to expand...

If you just want a quick look at a document stored in the cloud, why not just do it through the respective app, like Dropbox, one drive, etc? I mean, I like FileBrowser, it's a powerful app that I use often when I need to take files from one location/service and copy them to another, but quick look at documents isn't what I use it for.
 
Night Spring said:
If you just want a quick look at a document stored in the cloud, why not just do it through the respective app, like Dropbox, one drive, etc? I mean, I like FileBrowser, it's a powerful app that I use often when I need to take files from one location/service and copy them to another, but quick look at documents isn't what I use it for.
Click to expand...

Because it's a nice one-stop app supporting a lot of different connections and formats.
 
Night Spring said:
Does Documents zip/unzip files, and act as a download manager? That's what I use GoodReader for -- to download zip files and unzip them, and also to download larger files, like videos.
Click to expand...
Yes it does. Last week I was messing about with a zip file that had a password on it and Documents was able to successfully extract it where GoodReader failed to do so. Downloading large video files from an SMB share works fine and is rather quick (having 802.11ac also helps).

sparksd said:
With FileBrowser, if you open a cloud-based file (e.g., Dropbox, Google Drive) it does not automatically download and keep a local copy. It's easy enough to delete elsewhere but sometimes I just want a quick look through an offline document.
Click to expand...
That might be useful for those with the 16GB model. Can it do the same for SMB shares?
 
dyn said:
Yes it does. Last week I was messing about with a zip file that had a password on it and Documents was able to successfully extract it where GoodReader failed to do so.

That might be useful for those with the 16GB model. Can it do the same for SMB shares?
Click to expand...

Good to know that about Documents, thanks. As for FileBrowser, yes it does SMB shares. It's great at accessing shared folders on your local network. In fact, I found it faster than Windows and Mac PCs at opening shared folders on our work network.
 
GoodReader and Documents can do that too but when you click a file it will download it. Does FileBrowser download it as well or does it not do that?
 
dyn said:
GoodReader and Documents can do that too but when you click a file it will download it. Does FileBrowser download it as well or does it not do that?
Click to expand...

You CAN download a file with FileBrowser to have it offline if you want, but you don't have to download a file in order to take a quick look.
 
Ah, that's a welcome addition if you are looking for a file on an SMB drive from work :) I wonder if the peek & pop feature in Documents (which requires 6s/6s+) also works for files on those cloud drives.
 
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