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All iPads What's on your iPad for productivity?
- Thread starter Jasmynp
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The word 'productivity' is obviously open to personal interpretation.
In my case productivity means drawing pictures and high end brochure work. The ipad is purely impossible for this task. But, it certainly aides in client correspondence. Billing. Portfolio work. Emailing. Websites etc etc. admin in other words.
I use the standard email and safari apps. Words and Numbers. Pinterest and Planner (for appointments and diary). Filebrowser, drop box and photo manager pro for other bits and bobs. Together with my airprint enabled laser printer i have all i need.
For me, the admin side of my business is 100% covered by my ipp.
I'd love mouse control and desktop apps. This would really be a game changer, professionally speaking.
Down time, my wife and i love sharing quality ipad time in bed on a sunday morning internet shopping, watching movie trailers, listening to 'the Archers' , browsing facebook etc etc.
In my case productivity means drawing pictures and high end brochure work. The ipad is purely impossible for this task. But, it certainly aides in client correspondence. Billing. Portfolio work. Emailing. Websites etc etc. admin in other words.
I use the standard email and safari apps. Words and Numbers. Pinterest and Planner (for appointments and diary). Filebrowser, drop box and photo manager pro for other bits and bobs. Together with my airprint enabled laser printer i have all i need.
For me, the admin side of my business is 100% covered by my ipp.
I'd love mouse control and desktop apps. This would really be a game changer, professionally speaking.
Down time, my wife and i love sharing quality ipad time in bed on a sunday morning internet shopping, watching movie trailers, listening to 'the Archers' , browsing facebook etc etc.
Quickplan Pro for Gaant Charts and project planning
OmniFocus for Personal Task Management
Fantastical for Calendar/Appointment planning
Outlook for email and quick view of office documents
Dropbox for file storage and handling/Documents for offline storage of the same
Vizable for graph creation on the move and 'useful' interaction with graphical views
Printer Pro to let me print on the rare occasions I have to (submission forms to labs normally)
Splashtop for remote access (Just taken over from TeamViewer)
The Calculator for quick calculations
Excel/Word for office document creation and editing
OneNote for note taking - but if the January update doesn't make it slicker I'll move to GoodNotes or Notability, I just like the screen layout on OneNote.
95% of my workflow is now iOS based and for a lot of the workflow, it's better than the Mac was where I pinned myself into using Excel for too much rather than apps designed for jobs.
OmniFocus for Personal Task Management
Fantastical for Calendar/Appointment planning
Outlook for email and quick view of office documents
Dropbox for file storage and handling/Documents for offline storage of the same
Vizable for graph creation on the move and 'useful' interaction with graphical views
Printer Pro to let me print on the rare occasions I have to (submission forms to labs normally)
Splashtop for remote access (Just taken over from TeamViewer)
The Calculator for quick calculations
Excel/Word for office document creation and editing
OneNote for note taking - but if the January update doesn't make it slicker I'll move to GoodNotes or Notability, I just like the screen layout on OneNote.
95% of my workflow is now iOS based and for a lot of the workflow, it's better than the Mac was where I pinned myself into using Excel for too much rather than apps designed for jobs.
I use mail and Safari of course. I also have MS Office and all the Apple "Office" apps. I use Evernote on all my devices. DropBox is invaluable to me and is also on all my devices.
I have an IPP and using Excel and Word (I don't do much in Word mind you) is just great now. I really enjoy working on Excel.
I have some drawing apps but I am no artist but it's fun trying.
Calculators, various search type apps, maps, shopping. It's all quite useful.
I have an IPP and using Excel and Word (I don't do much in Word mind you) is just great now. I really enjoy working on Excel.
I have some drawing apps but I am no artist but it's fun trying.
Calculators, various search type apps, maps, shopping. It's all quite useful.
Several Adobe apps like PS Express, Sketch, Slate, and Lightroom. I also have Paper by 53 and Procreate which I use with my 53 Pencil. I also have the office apps that Apple offers like Pages, Keynote, etc. that I use for school. GarageBand is another big one; sometimes I perfer to use it over the Mac version because using the digital pedals with my guitar on a touchscreen device is a lot friendlier than trying to poke at the trackpad or use a mouse. Still hoping that one day we see Logic Pro on the iPad, but GarageBand gets the job done. Oh, and TeamViewer gets some love every now and then too.
Astropad is what makes the iPad Pro so interesting for me. Normal sketch apps like Adobe Sketch or Procreate or on there too, I have yet to decide which of the four or five I like the most.
That's what I need in this month's update...
Handwritten or typed text needs to be movable.
FileBrowser is basically a file system for iOS. Have that app and you'd stop wishing for a file system, because you'd have one.
Yes, but we'll still all complain
My experience of filing systems in ios has come to a head i think - just grin and get on with it. To me the lack of an overall filing system says more about the app's individual files and eco systems than it does about Apple's reluctance to throw one in.
i find most apps are individual. Use their own systems. Are generally only compatible with themselves. Hense no need for a general filing system as the individual app sorts itself and it's own resources out for you.
those files and file types that are common and cross-app interchangable are also generally well catered for within apps without a filesystem.
But some file browsers, like the one i use, are great. Just makes life a tad easier and more collective as it sees all my network hard drives and shares everything from a single console.
What else do people actually really need a general filesystem for? There are apps out there that more or less do it for you.
What I use most:
Mail
DropBox
Safari for research and access to Blackboard course management and access to proprietary wiki for research project
ByWord -syncs with nVAlt for all my process notes, logs, research
Keynote for presentations, both creating and delivering
Pages and Word for drafting and editing documents
Numbers
Ulysses for creative writing
Mylio for photo editing and selecting images for art presentations and portfolios
Notability for a visual journal
EverNote for research archives
PDF Expert for reading and annotating PDFs
Attendance 2
Photos for academic lecture assets
Box for student work files
Mobile banking app for local credit union
Lynda and Craftsy for tutorials
DropBox
Safari for research and access to Blackboard course management and access to proprietary wiki for research project
ByWord -syncs with nVAlt for all my process notes, logs, research
Keynote for presentations, both creating and delivering
Pages and Word for drafting and editing documents
Numbers
Ulysses for creative writing
Mylio for photo editing and selecting images for art presentations and portfolios
Notability for a visual journal
EverNote for research archives
PDF Expert for reading and annotating PDFs
Attendance 2
Photos for academic lecture assets
Box for student work files
Mobile banking app for local credit union
Lynda and Craftsy for tutorials
Let me give you an example. For many people, a "project" means a collection of files of different types which will be opened with different applications.
- I need a home folder where I can create subfolders for each project.
- I want any app I work with to be able to open/save files from/to any folder.
- I need an app which allows me to organize my files and folders. Something like Finder. Okay, maybe not as complex as the Finder, but at the very least I want to browse, view info, copy, move, rename, sort and ZIP files and folders.
I tried everything I could to be productive with an iPad but then I saw this Dell Venue 11 Pro, £190 second hand in perfect condition. That the going price for them these days. The damn thing has i5 CPU, 4Gb ram, upgradeable SSD, full USB 3.0, WIFI, 4G Cellular, NFC, motion sensors, an amazing pressure sensitive stylus (get the latest revision) and a full OS without any of Apple restrictions and App Store policies. I had the iPad Pro for a day and gave it back. This two years old Dell Venue absolutely bests it in productivity. Being able to run full versions of Office, Scrivener, Creative Suite, any browser I want, and stream Steam games from the PC is a joy.
My productivity apps:
GoodNotes
PDF Expert, Documents and PDF Converter by Readdle
Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive, OfficeLens)
iWork (Pages, Keynote, Numbers)
Evernote
Dropbox
iCloud Drive
Pixelmator
Built in Calendar, Mail, Notes, Photos, Reminders, Safari
FileBrowser
Scanbot
GoodNotes
PDF Expert, Documents and PDF Converter by Readdle
Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive, OfficeLens)
iWork (Pages, Keynote, Numbers)
Evernote
Dropbox
iCloud Drive
Pixelmator
Built in Calendar, Mail, Notes, Photos, Reminders, Safari
FileBrowser
Scanbot
on my private iPad for productivity I use:
- Office 365 yearly subscription
- OneDrive (related to my Office 365 plan)
- DropBox
- Mail
- Safari
- iBooks
Basically the same apps Im using on my MacBook Pro
- Office 365 yearly subscription
- OneDrive (related to my Office 365 plan)
- DropBox
- Safari
- iBooks
Basically the same apps Im using on my MacBook Pro
This is exactly why access to a file system would make the iPP much more usable for me.
iOS does have a file system, perfectly usable by any app that uses Document Pickers - Office, Pages/Numbers/Keynote, Pixelmator, MindNode, etc.
Sure it has the simplistic file pickers and those are fine for a lot of people - but nothing close to the post I quoted, which limits it's usefulness for other people.
Aside from the stock apps (Safari, Contacts, Calendar etc) my main productivity apps are:
* Editorial: my go-to app for writing (fiction, notes, blog posts, home intranet content)
* Pythonista: for automation
* DropBox and iCloud for shunting files around
* iWork, though I mostly use it for spreadsheets and presentations
* Pixelmator, though I rarely use it
95% of my workflow is achievable in Editorial
* Editorial: my go-to app for writing (fiction, notes, blog posts, home intranet content)
* Pythonista: for automation
* DropBox and iCloud for shunting files around
* iWork, though I mostly use it for spreadsheets and presentations
* Pixelmator, though I rarely use it
95% of my workflow is achievable in Editorial
Sure, it's definitely close.
The quoted post talks about keeping files of different types in folders, that can be opened by different applications. In the "old days" of iOS this wasn't possible, but it's very possible today and easy to do.
"I need a home folder where I can create subfolders for each project." - Yes, you can create sub-folders in iCloud Drive using the iCloud drive app. I have many folders and sub-folders for projects, reference, material, etc. You can use other Document Providers like DropBox, Box, OneDrive, or keep files local using something like Documents, and they all have this feature.
"I want any app I work with to be able to open/save files from/to any folder." - Any app that supports iCloud Drive & Document Pickers can do this. Does every app in iOS support this? No, not yet, the developers need to support it. But the capability is there. Not every app on OS X actually uses File/Open/Save, the developers actually have to build that into their apps as well.
"I need an app which allows me to organize my files and folders. Something like Finder. Okay, maybe not as complex as the Finder, but at the very least I want to browse, view info, copy, move, rename, sort and ZIP files and folders." - yes, iCloud Drive app, the DropBox app, the Box app, the OneDrive app, the Documents app, etc. support this (with the exception of zipping files/folders).
Is the current solution perfect and on parity to OS X? Absolutely not, but I'd say it's finally at a 1.0 state. The Finder took 30 years to get to the point it's at, we've had this on iOS for only a couple years. It'll get better, but it's definitely a viable system to work with.