So a request...send google some feedback on their apps.
As to excel, I think you would have to look into a surface pro, if you want a tablet, but still have script functionality.
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iPad Pro Returning my iPad Pro due to bad Google apps
- Thread starter daedalus3
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So a request...send google some feedback on their apps.
As to excel, I think you would have to look into a surface pro, if you want a tablet, but still have script functionality.
If he's tied to Google products, a Chromebook or Pixel C would be better than a Windows machine.
Yup, it is. Maybe people need to email Google about updates to their apps, then he can be happy on an iPad.
That is why Google won't do it. Google has no incentive to update their apps for iOS. Google and Apple are not friendly anymore.
Their incentive should be convincing iOS users that Google is a reliable brand that makes and supports user-friendly rock-solid web tools and apps.
I think currently they would have a tough time making that argument. They seem to abandon projects and software left and right. Their hardware effort also seems like a beta project.
The are already doing that with Google Docs on other platforms. Google doesn't need iOS to accomplish that. Android, OSX, Chromebooks, and Windows are sufficient to make that happen. The unification of Chromebooks and Android (apps) is big and will only get bigger.
I'm not saying that I am happy about the situation, I'd love to see high quality iOS apps for Google services, but I understand where they're coming from.
They aren't abandoning the software that is the gateway to greater revenue. Some of the previous project churn was due to them buying out the little guys, taking the one or two specific technologies, and discarding the rest.
If Google apps worked well on iPad, they would almost immediately surrender the Education Chromebook market. Chromebooks are successful because schools are so tied into GAFE. The ipad's limitations in schools are intertwined with lousy IOS apps.
Thanks for all the responses, everyone. As someone noted above, there was really no way to test out my workflow except by picking up an iPad and giving it a go. It's not just the lacking Google Apps support, it's a bunch of other smaller things that are impossible or a big hassle that make the Pro impractical as a laptop replacement for me.
For example, this morning I needed to convert a Pages document stored in Dropbox into a Word doc to send to someone, but Pages can't open files stored in Dropbox. I'm sure there is some way to get the task done, but the path of least resistance was to do it on my Mac, which took about 30 seconds.
I love Apple devices and the ecosystem, so I don't really want an Android tablet or a Chromebook or whatever. Hopefully iOS will evolve to play better with other platforms and services.
For example, this morning I needed to convert a Pages document stored in Dropbox into a Word doc to send to someone, but Pages can't open files stored in Dropbox. I'm sure there is some way to get the task done, but the path of least resistance was to do it on my Mac, which took about 30 seconds.
I love Apple devices and the ecosystem, so I don't really want an Android tablet or a Chromebook or whatever. Hopefully iOS will evolve to play better with other platforms and services.
I'm not going to install Pages just to test this, but I find that impossible to believe.
No, this is basically correct. There are work-arounds, but nothing that "just works" with default installations of Pages for iOS and DropBox for iOS.
See the following article for more info:
http://techinch.com/blog/integrate-dropbox-with-pages-keynote-and-numbers-on-ipad
See the following article for more info:
http://techinch.com/blog/integrate-dropbox-with-pages-keynote-and-numbers-on-ipad
What the OP means, probably, is that in order to open the file, you open Dropbox first, then you have to use the Share Sheet to Open in Pages, and then the file automatically saves in Pages sandboxes iCloud folder.That article is from Feb 2011.
But actually it isn't hard to do.
- Open Dropbox, browse to file
- Open in Pages
- Open as in Another App
- Choose Dropbox and .docx format (browse to folder location desired)
- Done
On a Mac
- Browse to .pages file location in Finder
- Double click to Open
- Export as .docx document (browse to folder location desired)
- Open Mail.app
- Compose mail with attachment
It's not a matter of not being hard to do. It's an annoyance and not as direct as it is with iCloud. It doesn't "just work" as it should. Then try to save that modified file back to dropbox. It's a mess.
When I switched from my MBA/Air 2 to a 12.9 iPP I had to switch from dropbox (my cloud storage provider of choice) to iCloud simply to have a more streamlined workflow.
Not disagreeing with you, at all. Just saying it is the same number of steps. All cloud services should be treated equally. Ironically (or not??) it is Microsoft that has shown how cloud service integration should work in their iOS Office apps. Their implementation is seamless. If only Word could open a .pages file....
Switching from Dropbox isn't a choice for me. All my clients use it, sharing folders between us has become an intertwined web of symbiosis. If iCloud had the functionality and approach that Dropbox had, however...now that I think of it, every single one of my clients but one operates in primarily Apple hardware environments...
Unless you want to save your Office files in iCloud. Then it's anything but seamless.
Fair statement, and you're right, it does work both ways. BUT, I think that even if iOS Office supported iCloud, it couldn't do it the same way it does for Dropbox and is due more the way Apple's iCloud API's work. Office isn't allowed to read and write directly from iCloud, it has to export it in, and it immediately saves to another location. Then the only way to get it into iCloud Drive that I can find is to open it in Pages, Numbers, or Keynote from Dropbox, and then you've lost the file format...unacceptable, really.
In this case it sounds like the app refuses to play, not the OS. Dropbox (and other services) integrates nicely with Word.
Apples 'office suite' was great back when MS Office was expensive and annoying, but MS has really picked up their Office game in the last 3 years, while Apple seems to have relegated their office apps to demo apps (to show off Continuity or other things they want developers to focus on.
@M. Gustave is spot on. If you are wedded to Google's apps, a Chromebook is far and away the best value.
I use multiple apps - Office, Google and Keynote etc. And I like Apple devices, Continuity, iMessage etc. I'll get a new MacBook Pro when they come out.
Actually, you can save to (and open from) iCloud Drive from the MS Office apps.
Export the document, then when the file browser pops up, select "... More" and if you've turned it on then the iCloud Drive file browser pops up.
No need to open in iWork and re-save that way.
Sorry, but I have to disagree with your assessment of Google as a company. Really, they should be considered one of 2 ways: either an advertising company or as a services/ big data company.
In either case, their objective ought to be to have their services used by as many people as possible, and by extension, on as many platforms as possible, including Apple's. other Google products are available on iOS, and some of them are pretty good, so I don't think it's political.
Instead, I think it's a case of Hanlon's razor: "never attribute to malice that which can be explained by neglect or misunderstanding". It could be that it's just not a high priority for the team or there could be some underlying technical reason (like being forced to use the built-in rendering engine..
This particular mess is due to Dropbox, not Apple. For some reason, Dropbox decided to not support the function that lets you open iWorks documents stored in cloud locations. I can store a pages document in iCloud, OneDrive, or Google Drive, and they all can be opened and edited from inside Pages on the iPad. But store a pages file in Dropbox, and you have to use the "open in" function from the Dropbox app to send a copy to Pages.