I do the very same thing. docs to go and dropbox, and they sync nice to the mac air and I edit the docs on the laptop with parallels running office 2007.
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Is Writing a Thesis on an iPad Do-able?
- Thread starter ejlorge
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I do the very same thing. docs to go and dropbox, and they sync nice to the mac air and I edit the docs on the laptop with parallels running office 2007.
But, DocsToGo doesn't have footnote creation, viewing, and editing, right? I think Pages is the only app with this.
I'm not sure why you would need Parallels for Office. The Mac version of Word and Excel works fine.
In this setup, I think Pages is 9.99 on the iPad and 19.99 on the Mac, for a total of about $30. Microsoft Office + Parallels + Docs to Go is going to cost hundreds of dollars (depending on what you get).
How about using two ipads then. One for writing and one for all other tasks.
Not always. Depends on the sources. If they are books you can only get in paper form you have no issue. If they are movies you are watching in the big screen TV, no real issue.
After just finishing my graduate thesis...absolutely not. I typed mine on an 11" MBA, and that was sometimes limiting because of the screen size. A smaller screen would not do.
I suppose it's POSSIBLE to do it, of course. So is doing a cross-country tour in a go-kart. But why not take a regular car? The only reason for the go-kart is to see if you can actually do it. I'd make the same argument for the iPad.
I suppose it's POSSIBLE to do it, of course. So is doing a cross-country tour in a go-kart. But why not take a regular car? The only reason for the go-kart is to see if you can actually do it. I'd make the same argument for the iPad.
I've just finished my PhD thesis. I used a 15" Windows laptop for most of the work, although I've used a desktop machine sometimes. I used Windows 7 and Microsoft Word 2010 with Endnote all the time. In addition, I used Archivarius and Qiqqa for research. At times, I used my 13" MacBook, with Word 2011 and Endnote as well, but the experience was less than optimal, as the screen real estate (1280x800) didn't allow me to have several windows opened at once.
An iPad would have been dreadful. Full screen apps, with no option of side-by-side apps. Word processors lacking features such as footnotes and cross-references. I know it's possible to insert footnotes with Pages, but it would be a nightmare to insert 1,000 of them. And no reference management software.
No, the iPad is not meant for that. The iPad is meant for simple and intuitive tasks. I could even write a dissertation with it, but the experience would have been even worse than using a crappy netbook...
An iPad would have been dreadful. Full screen apps, with no option of side-by-side apps. Word processors lacking features such as footnotes and cross-references. I know it's possible to insert footnotes with Pages, but it would be a nightmare to insert 1,000 of them. And no reference management software.
No, the iPad is not meant for that. The iPad is meant for simple and intuitive tasks. I could even write a dissertation with it, but the experience would have been even worse than using a crappy netbook...
Most of the faculty with gray hair at universities probably drafted their dissertations on notepads, notecards, and typewriters, and none of them seem emotionally scarred from the experience.
The iPad is more powerful than the computers I started with when I wrote my MA a few years ago. It has plenty of power for a few hundred pages of text, and runs smoother than Word does on the older Macs you can still find on campus. I'm not sure what the distinction is between the iPad and a computer,or why the iPad seems so dreadful to people.
As for footnotes, I don't use bibliographic software, and I only have a few hundred footnotes. I don't know what it would be like to deal with a thousand footnotes, so maybe that use case would not fit the iPad well. I can only speak for my own experience.
Writing my dissertation on the iPad was both possible and a real pleasure.
The iPad is more powerful than the computers I started with when I wrote my MA a few years ago. It has plenty of power for a few hundred pages of text, and runs smoother than Word does on the older Macs you can still find on campus. I'm not sure what the distinction is between the iPad and a computer,or why the iPad seems so dreadful to people.
As for footnotes, I don't use bibliographic software, and I only have a few hundred footnotes. I don't know what it would be like to deal with a thousand footnotes, so maybe that use case would not fit the iPad well. I can only speak for my own experience.
Writing my dissertation on the iPad was both possible and a real pleasure.
LOL. I've talked to a lot of faculty about how they take notes, write, and do research. There are a lot of different methods, and it is fun to hear how the books on my shelves were made.
Some of the top thinkers in my field have stuck with notecards, and are writing out their thoughts on yellow legal pads as often as they are on the computer. I'm known as something of a tech / gadget lover, but to be honest, I consider myself more of a minimalist. I want to have as little as possible between me and my writing, reading, and research.
The iPad is a piece of glass that carries around thousands of books, notes, and all of my research. I don't know of a better combination of minimal and powerful. I'm not so different from my advisors and mentors, except that I am a bit more mobile. That makes all the difference for me.
There is nothing wrong with an MBP or MBA, but the iPad fits my workflow a little better, and I actually see it as a more enjoyable way to write. I don't need twenty windows open or hundreds of dollars of software to put my thoughts on (digital) paper.
In the end, my dissertation was the main text, footnotes, and a few images/maps/tables. The iPad does a fine job of this.
The main distinction is actual multitasking and being able to view multiple windows at the same time.
I have an iPad, with a BT keyboard, and Pages is excellent on it. I have no problems sitting down and writing a few pages on it. Something like a thesis, however, I would write mainly on my Mac. For one thing, I've got two screens there, so it makes things a bit easier to work with. I can put my research on one screen and my paper on another. I'll even do all my work out of iCloud so I can switch back and forth, but in the end I'd do most of the research and beginning writing on my Mac.
That isn't to say I'd find writing a thesis-length paper on my iPad dreadful, but it would be a bit more tedious than on my Mac, that's for sure.
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But isn't a thesis more than simply your thoughts? There's research and notes, quotations, etc. Copy/paste between two apps on an iPad is much more cumbersome than between two windows on a computer. That's the aspect I think many people have an issue with.
Yes. If you use iWorks, then anything you write on your iPad will show up your computer if you use iCloud. You could use other apps like documents to go and place them in Dropbox then grab them on your computer and edit and vice versa.
Good points. Thanks for laying that out clearly. It ought to help people figure out what works best for them.
In my case, when I am reading, I take notes on what I read, or highlight and then have my annotations emailed to me (more accurate for quotations). To be honest, though, I don't quote much. I have a lot of citations from when I paraphrase the work of others, or engage with a debate of some kind in my arguments, but rarely do I need to quote directly from the text. The exception would be translations, but then again, I have already translated and put those in my notes.
When I am writing, I write from my notes. Swiping between my notes and my dissertation is no big deal for me, because I don't need to look at my notes while I write. That's just the way I work, I guess. If you are someone who needs a lot of windows open multitasking or whatever, then that will be one of the biggest drawbacks to using the iPad.
Yes, you are correct, that the documents to go program doesn't allow footnote editing. to be honest, I only use it to insert and edit text. I mainly use it for Excel, where it shines.
I would not do anything without a computer, and having the computer always with me being an air, I use the iPad when i need to read part of a document quick or take short notes. any serious editing, such as a thesis, I would most certainly have to have a computer backing me up. Say you get a really
say you get a really good idea and want to insert it into your outline, but you only have your phone. I would be able to access the outline file, as well as the whole thesis in progress, and insert the thought or whatever by dictation. then when I wanted to work on it, I would use the computer.
I simply think doing a thesis without a computer is creating more work than necessary.
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so true! if they made a mistake with the old typewriters, even a minor typo, they had to start that entire page over!!!
Why use the computer, when it is already available on your iPhone / iPad if you use Pages? Insert the thought directly into your dissertation if you'd like, or put it into your notes to be inserted later. Either way, the computer is unnecessary.
I don't know, because I have only done my dissertation once (thank goodness). I wrote my MA thesis on a computer in Windows using Word. That was fine, and I don't remember having any particular issues. Of course, using a computer is the most obvious path to completion.
I wrote my PhD dissertation almost entirely on the iPad (final revisions definitely benefitted from having a computer handy). I felt like I was pretty productive with the iPad. In fact, I remember many times waking up in the morning, having a thought, and opening up the file to edit it right there in bed before I got up to walk the dog, get ready for the day, and forget what I was thinking.
Today I proofread an article on my iPad (using PDF Expert), and I enjoyed that a lot more than Adobe Acrobat Pro on the computer. I guess it doesn't feel like work if you are having a good time
Anyhow, I think using a computer is great and you ought to use whatever works for you! My point in this thread (and an infinite variety of similar ones) is to speak against this mistaken idea that an iPad ought to only be used for content consumption. You CAN use it that way, of course, but I think it is silly (and rather narrow-minded) to insist that you MUST use it that way (not that you are, but many posters do).
After all, this is a forum where people come to learn about what they can do with the iPad, and we shouldn't let the voices telling them what they can't do go unchallenged if we have had a different experience.
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This is why white out was invented, so you didn't have to. You just white out the offending character, wait for it to dry, roll it back, and type over it.
There was also correction strip. Basically, a strip of paper with whiteout stuck to one side. You stick it in over the paper, backup, and type the wrong character, and it "typed" the white ink over the wrong character, thereby erasing it.
I'm just so extremely glad to be writing my research electronically... although I'm sure in a couple of generations' time, they'll be looking back thinking 'OMG those people wrote their theses on an iPad
...'For me, the combo Air and iPad bring the best of both worlds. I love Scrivener on my Air and need proper referencing and multitasking as I write, but my iPad also occupies a crucial step in my work flow. Love them both and wouldn't want to be without either. Working in a windows environment where writing collaboration is expected to take place via Word, there's not way I could rely on iPad only - although a lot of apps retain formatting to a great extent, I just don't want to even have to worry about any formatting issues popping up during collaborative writing processes - they're demanding enough without any technical issues added.
Hello all, I have been writing my thesis on an Macbook Air which got dropped and is too expensive to fix. So I am debating between getting a regular MacBook and an iPad as a replacement.
The problem of course isn't the iPad's memory, but the typing function. My question is: How difficult is it to type for one or two hours at a time on the iPad? Is the screen to small for text docs?
Also, I read somewhere that typing on the same plane as the screen feels unnatural. Do you find this to be the case?
Thanks for your advice.
The short answer is NO. After spending a lot of cash on iPad keyboards, docks and cases to facilitate typing I came to the conclusion the iPad is best used for consumption of media, not so much creation. So much so that I carry my macbook everywhere. Sure, some people do it. But it just doesn't cut it for me. It doesn't do formatting correctly, the screen is too small, and if you need other apps to facilitate your writing such as dictionaries, browsers, encyclopedias, and you must constantly be reaching to the iPad screen for app switching, you'll soon realize it's a pain.
Is Writing a Thesis on an iPad Do-able? It's luxury! I wrote my thesis using a Commodore Plus/4 with an 8 inch monitor and printed it on a daisy-wheel printer. It used to take 1/2 hour to load it from tape before I could continue and 1/2 hour at the end to save it. iPad - like i said luxury!
It's funny because there's really no right way to do this sort of thing. I know people that would argue a quadcore xeon with multiple displays, a gaming mouse, and a large mechanical keyboard are the only way to really write a paper.
I also know just as vocal people that would argue that the iPad is the machine for the job, since who needs all that crap anyway, and the best computer is the one you have with you.
Both camps probably see the other with a sense of ridicule.
Frankly, the idea of using a 10" screen to view one thing at a time and have no overlap whatsoever makes my skin crawl. So does carrying around a tablet and a bluetooth keyboard and one of those stupid folding smart covers.
I guess tablet computing isn't for me. At first this used to piss me off, I thought either something was wrong with me being a luddite behind the times, sticking to my grandpa boxes - or something was wrong with the noobs too dumb to use a full computer.
It's probably neither. lol.
If I were in your shoes I'd just use my <3lb macbook air. Shoot, I use that thing for a lot of stuff.
I also know just as vocal people that would argue that the iPad is the machine for the job, since who needs all that crap anyway, and the best computer is the one you have with you.
Both camps probably see the other with a sense of ridicule.
Frankly, the idea of using a 10" screen to view one thing at a time and have no overlap whatsoever makes my skin crawl. So does carrying around a tablet and a bluetooth keyboard and one of those stupid folding smart covers.
I guess tablet computing isn't for me. At first this used to piss me off, I thought either something was wrong with me being a luddite behind the times, sticking to my grandpa boxes - or something was wrong with the noobs too dumb to use a full computer.
It's probably neither. lol.
If I were in your shoes I'd just use my <3lb macbook air. Shoot, I use that thing for a lot of stuff.
I think it should be
But ....
you'd want a bluetooth keyboard. Typing on the screen is only good for short notes.
I think you could structure quite complex docs using Tex Writer
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tex-notebook/id552717222?ls=1
Note this does not constitute a rec for the app as I haven't used it. However if it supports full Tex then you should be able to structure pretty much any academic doc.
But ....
you'd want a bluetooth keyboard. Typing on the screen is only good for short notes.
I think you could structure quite complex docs using Tex Writer
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tex-notebook/id552717222?ls=1
Note this does not constitute a rec for the app as I haven't used it. However if it supports full Tex then you should be able to structure pretty much any academic doc.
I would say no, because you want to have internet sources and books open all around you. With a Mac, multitasking is much easier because you can even fit more than one windows on one screen, and if you cannot, another desktop is just a click away. With the iPad, you have to go through a whole procedure to multitask.
