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Pages for iPad: Have you found it worth the $10?

BJB Productions

BJB Productions

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 10, 2008
1,314
136
...How do you like the Pages app?

I take a lot of notes on my iPad, and while the notes app is nice, I think it would be nice to have a better way to keep notes, papers, etc.

Pros/cons/reviews?

Thanks!
 
I have just recently purchased an iPad2 and am tempted to buy Pages in order to accomplish more on the machine. I read not long ago that iCloud may include Pages in the service so I've put it off for now. It looks like iCloud may go live in a month and I may just wait to see.
 
BJB Productions said:
...How do you like the Pages app?

I take a lot of notes on my iPad, and while the notes app is nice, I think it would be nice to have a better way to keep notes, papers, etc.

Pros/cons/reviews?
Click to expand...

The most intriguing option on the iPad are the note-taking apps like AudioNote or Pear Note that record the audio of a meeting/lecture and mark the notes you've written with a timestamp from the audio recording. Later, you can click on a note to hear the audio associated with a particular note.

I recommend using the iPad to capture everything in real-time and then using your laptop or desktop computers to structure the notes as you see fit. Finally, you can publish the notes as PDF files and put them back on your iPad.

If you're doing library research, you may have more time to structure your notes as you go -- including footnotes, etc. In that case, I'd recommend using multimarkdown in your note-writing software and expanding the structure when you get back to your laptop or desktop.

Consider Scrivener as a tool for organizing your stuff on a Mac. It's a very nice way to organize, storyboard, and polish all sorts of projects. There's a very nice structure to keep track of all the little particles associated with a project and to flesh out your writing in nice small segments.

HTH.
 
Pages is an app, much like Microsoft Word, that is well-suited for producting some kind of document that you intend to show to other people. If that is what you want, then I think it is worth the 10 dollars, even though it lacks basic features like footnote support.

If you are looking for notetaking apps, I would second everything FloatingBones said. I uese Elements to take notes and write papers on the iPad, those notes (in plain text form) are stored in Dropbox, and I use Scrivener on my Macbook to organize things. I am sure there are lots of other possibilities, and there certainly are a lot of notetaking apps available. I think the point is that if you work in plain text (using markdown) then you will be playing to the iPad's strengths and get a lot more out of it.
 
palpatine said:
If you are looking for notetaking apps, I would second everything FloatingBones said. I uese Elements to take notes and write papers on the iPad, those notes (in plain text form) are stored in Dropbox, and I use Scrivener on my Macbook to organize things. I am sure there are lots of other possibilities, and there certainly are a lot of notetaking apps available. I think the point is that if you work in plain text (using markdown) then you will be playing to the iPad's strengths and get a lot more out of it.
Click to expand...

Cool. While lots of people are have gotten in the habit of downloading and storing PDF files from other businesses, many haven't learned the value of also taking their own documents and bouncing them back as a reference/archive on the iPad as PDF documents.

With the number of different machines in the process, designing a good workflow is as important as anything else -- even for taking notes!
 
Pages and Numbers both work great, for what they are intended for.

I used them both while I had my iPad but found myself wanting a keyboard when I was using both of those apps. My note taking would sometimes evolve into a bit more and the iPad would get funky trying to type in some situations. My solution, sell it and get an Air. I did the first part but have yet to pick up the Air.

I think the iPad is great all around and good for notes but anything longer and the wrists start to hurt. Atleast that is my experience. :D
 
Pages is actually really helpful. If I ever had to type a serious school document I would just use my iMac. Not because it is in anyway more convenient, it is just faster to type on a physical keyboard for me. Whenever I'm writing a small paper or notes for something I always use pages then just email them or print them. Very worth the $10 for me.
 
the thing I like best in Pages is that it has something not available in any other iPad app - including Apple apps. I've missed the ability to arrow over to something without having to delete it or use that annoying magnifying glass. In Pages, you can swipe right or left essentially mimicking a left or right arrow. In my mind this puts it over any other note taking app.
 
if you take a lot of notes, i'd get the apple wireless keyboard. why?

1. ipad + keyboard = about the weight and bulk of an 11" mba--no appreciable difference.

2. costs a little more than 1/2 the price of an 11" mba.

3. battery is twice that of the 11" mba.

4. ipad doubles as an e-reader.

obviously, there are lots of benefits to having a full featured computer like the mba, but if you are just writing and reading (most of my day), then the ipad is perfect.
 
I use it, but the lack of arrow keys is a frustration. I ended up getting a fiction writing app that includes them.
 
Last edited:
I think it's definitely worth the 10 dollars. I use it for resumes and papers mostly.
 
I've done quite a few uni assignments on Pages, I love it. I often type my draft on my iPad and then format it on my Mac. It just depends how comfortable you are with the on screen keyboard or if you want to carry a keyboard around.

While I am out on prac Pages is my most used app, I keep a journal of notes and can having it looking neat and tidy for whenever my supervisor wants to check it. Furthermore I've used it on prac with my students (I'm a trainee teacher) when we do group essays on the smart board.
 
Defiantly, I used it to write 90% of one of my assignments for uni when I couldn't find my Macbook Pro charger, I used it with the Apple Wireless Keyboard and didn't have a problem. I wish Apple would update it though so it made using the Apple Wireless Keyboard with it easier such as being able to use CMD + B, CMD + U, CMD + I for Bold, Underline & Italics.
 
I bought it but NEVER used anything Ive written on it.

IMO, a trackpad wouldnt be a bad idea for a tablet when it comes to wordprocessing because having to hold-to-select and manually touch around may work for graphics and design, but its a pain with writing documents.

Magic Trackpad support is the obvious solution, but I'd also go for using an iPod Touch/iPhone as a trackpad/mouse.
 
urkel said:
I bought it but NEVER used anything Ive written on it.

IMO, a trackpad wouldnt be a bad idea for a tablet when it comes to wordprocessing because having to hold-to-select and manually touch around may work for graphics and design, but its a pain with writing documents.

Magic Trackpad support is the obvious solution, but I'd also go for using an iPod Touch/iPhone as a trackpad/mouse.
Click to expand...

...What would you use the Magic Trackpad for with the iPad?...there's no mouse.
 
Yes, I have.

I use pages on the pad to edit apartment flyers for my real estate business. It works very well when used with my HP AirPrint enabled office jet 8500A Plus.

It's by no means anything i'd want to sit down a write a multi page report on, but for editing simple documents it does the job just fine.
 
Absolutely worth it! I use it every single day on the train ride home to finish legal documents for court the next day. It seems we're always starting something at 4:30 ;)
 
Pages will make the most impact in the coming months with iOS 5 (as long as you have a Mac).

With iCloud you can type half of your research paper on the iPad and then once you come into contact with Wi-Fi. . . . BOOM your paper is sitting there nice and neat on your Mac, ready for you to finish up. This is where Pages in my opinion will really shine.

iCloud will be amazing.

*Sigh* if I only had a Mac . . . .
 
Useful Yes

I use it quite a lot for saving stuff from the web, archiving invoices etc. Here in the UK it cost me £11.00 it's okay for basic stuff, and yes I wouldnsay it was worth the money.

It's no Word replacement, but I didn't expecc it to be, so happy on the whole with it :)
 
I use it occassionally for work related documents but wish it would import Word documents better. I find that It doesn't always import properly resulting in formatting issues. I'm hoping that future upgrades will help resolve this issue, but overall I like it and I think it's worth the $10.
 
Signor S. said:
Pages will make the most impact in the coming months with iOS 5 (as long as you have a Mac).

With iCloud you can type half of your research paper on the iPad and then once you come into contact with Wi-Fi. . . . BOOM your paper is sitting there nice and neat on your Mac, ready for you to finish up. This is where Pages in my opinion will really shine.

iCloud will be amazing.

*Sigh* if I only had a Mac . . . .
Click to expand...

This doesn't work with Windows (assuming iTunes is open)? way to limit iCloud for 70% of users there.

Many people use an iPhone and iPad with a PC, we are not all uniform zeolots who use macs as well, I need windows for work and gaming so thats me not buying an iPad as a netbook replacement now.
 
Bought it but i havent used it for anything yet. I plan on buying Keynote and Numbers eventually as well and will probably not use them either. I just wanna complete the iWork suite out of pure OCD.
 
BJB Productions said:
...What would you use the Magic Trackpad for with the iPad?...there's no mouse.
Click to expand...

actually, editing documents without the external keyboard is a major pain, and for this reason i couldn't see the ipad as a content creation device for the first few months i had it. the addition of an external keyboard, and learning the keyboard shortcuts changed everything. now i get a lot of work done on it, though i don't use pages a whole lot. nothing wrong with pages, but i just use different apps.
 
shaunymac said:
Pages and Numbers both work great, for what they are intended for.
Click to expand...

I haven't had the same experience with Numbers. I've found it very, very tedious to use. Mainly for things like adding rows (to the middle of your table, not the bottom), etc. will be fantastic with iCloud though.
 
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