Which app would you use for writing the dissertation?
Pages is not capable of handling references etc. well.
I don't know how powerful MS Word is on iOS + you must rent the software and use their ****ing cloud.
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Is Writing a Thesis on an iPad Do-able?
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Which app would you use for writing the dissertation?
Pages is not capable of handling references etc. well.
I don't know how powerful MS Word is on iOS + you must rent the software and use their ****ing cloud.
The issue is not Word or Pages for iOS. The issue is that digital text entry is an artificial tool whilst gestures and touching are natural tools. Because they don't precisely belong together the editing process feels awkward and time consuming. That's what holds back many people who find cursor control quicker and more compatible with digital text entry or anything that requires pixel precision.
It's bad enough that making comments here with my iPhone requires me to fix so many autotype errors.
It's bad enough that making comments here with my iPhone requires me to fix so many autotype errors.
If the thesis is requiring some statistical analysis I would be to leaning to not possibly ideal to use the IPP. This just based on how I do workflows with R (not thesis level, personal data analysis and class project work in from MOOC classes). Not saying R has to be used, want to pay for say SAS or other pay to use commercial offerings, have at it.
But as stuff like graphs goes from exploratory data analysis phase (quick and easy graphs just to see what is going on in the data, being trends, seeing data problems to give you a baseline to better guide how the analysis will go on from there you may be bouncing a lot from stat application to cloud to IPP import to write. Writing and analysis on the same system its all right there if a more laptop based option.
But as stuff like graphs goes from exploratory data analysis phase (quick and easy graphs just to see what is going on in the data, being trends, seeing data problems to give you a baseline to better guide how the analysis will go on from there you may be bouncing a lot from stat application to cloud to IPP import to write. Writing and analysis on the same system its all right there if a more laptop based option.
Ok, that would be very special use case. Basically for any ordinary scientific paper Excel or even Numbers would be adequate for statistics.
I think JMP's stats implementation on the iPad is quiet strong - I haven't used it but looks powerful.
No need to use OneDrive with MS Office - I link it to Dropbox which is my choice of cloud server.
There are benefits to using the iPad That many of us overlook - I had to write and sign a letter last week. On my MacBook that means writing it, printing, signing, scanning and then emailing.
On iPad I write the letter and email it - for some jobs it is simpler.
I also find graphs with Vizable and its interface more intuitive than PivotCharts although it's not as powerful (yet?)
No need to use OneDrive with MS Office - I link it to Dropbox which is my choice of cloud server.
There are benefits to using the iPad That many of us overlook - I had to write and sign a letter last week. On my MacBook that means writing it, printing, signing, scanning and then emailing.
On iPad I write the letter and email it - for some jobs it is simpler.
I also find graphs with Vizable and its interface more intuitive than PivotCharts although it's not as powerful (yet?)
Might want to check this out -- haven't personally used it but appears to be a full latex editor/compiler.
http://www.texwriterapp.com
I love the iPad concept.
Apple, please allow torrent clients in the app store. Google allows it, why can't you?
Apple, please allow torrent clients in the app store. Google allows it, why can't you?
Anything is possible. I have a friend who wrote her thesis in the Unix text editor vi. Was it a sub-optimal experience? Yup. But art comes from limitations.
I wrote a lot in notesy synced with Scrivener on my MBA / MBPr. I think it was easiest in the beginning, but got more cumbersome in the end when I had to move everything into Pages for formatting. Pages got worse with updates, and it's just an annoyingly limited app overall (iPad and Mac). I finished my dissertation with Pages. I wouldn't recommend anyone use that. Word is simply better, in my experience. Sure, you have to rent it, but you get what you pay for -- Pages is free and works kind of like you would expect something free to work. Writing as a historian, most of my dissertation was text, so I could get away with doing more on the iPad than someone in another discipline might.
After countless hours writing on the iPad, that hasn't been my experience, especially when using the BT keyboard (remember, you have keyboard commands with the keyboard that make editing a breeze). Writing on the iPad (without a keyboard) is infinitely more pleasant than with the iPhone (without a keyboard). I turn automated features off (auto-correct, auto-capitalization, etc.) because it is a crutch that hurts more than it helps.
Before we had multi-tasking on the iPad, I used to pair my BT keyboard with the iPhone and write in notesy while reading PDFs and other materials on my iPad. It was actually a pretty nice combination.
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So you admit that the iPad is great for research -- well, for some people, doing research is a huge part of their job.
As for why get an iPad over a MacBook, I was just posting this in another thread, but I find that typing with an iPad plus a Bluetooth keyboard is much more comfortable than typing on a MacBook, because I can position the iPad and the keyboard separately. After spending the last week typing this way, I'd hate to go back to typing on any keyboard attached to a screen.
Looks like you are the one resurrected this thread. I think your specific question has already been answered as YES, and it is doable.
However, for the general (title) question of whether one should write a thesis with a iPad...
If my student came asking me this question, my answer would be...
LOL, true enough. But I think there are other people who are wondering the same thing. Plus, the answer might be very different today than it was 5 years ago, given how much iOS and apps have developed in that time.