Tag: iwork

The iPad is without a doubt offering up increased productivity for the traveling professional.  It’s no surprise that Apple would capitalize on this by offering mobile versions of their own iWork applications.  What is a shocker, is that Microsoft is late to the party, presuming they are working on a version of Office for iPad.  Given the scale and ease of use Apple has given the iWork apps, Microsoft would be stupid not to attempt to cash in as well.  Enough of that, on with the review!

Pages sets the bar for mobile document creation on the iPad.  Stock, it comes with a wide array of templates ranging from stylish letters to professional resumes and reports.  Much like it’s desktop counterpart, Pages is clean and minimalistic, leaving the clutter of icons and tools behind.  Don’t let this fool you, Pages has plenty of muscle for on the go documenting.

In portrait orientation, Pages shows a pretty standard window including a ruler for tab markers and the like.  Along the top sits shortcuts to My Documents, an Undo button, object information button (much like an Inspector window), and more.  Adding an image, chart or tables is easily accomplished by taping the Media icon, similar to many desktop Apple applications.  Typical word processing buttons are found just below including Style, bold, italics and alignment options.

The My Documents button had many people on the Internet including myself curious as to how files would be managed on the iPad.  Unfortunately, Apple has still maintained the sandbox practice for applications.  This was a bit of a bummer for me, seeing how even older iPods are able to operate as mountable drives allowing for drag and drop and other file maintenance on a users desktop/laptop.  Not only that, but if you wanted to send an attachment in mid conversation, then you would have to quit Mail, launch Pages, and send the document from there, loosing the email chain information.  Aside from this, the interface of My Documents is quite nice actually.  You have the option to import and export, email, and send to iWork.com.  Using the import/export function is done via iTunes, and it’s not likely to be a favorable process by many.  I won’t go into specifics, but rest assured, it’s a lot of clicking and tapping on both machines.  A detailed step by step process can be found in the help file available in the tools menu (the little wrench icon).

One of the coolest features I felt was the styling of images that you insert.  Much like iWeb or other apps offered by Apple, you can select from stylish enhancements including borders, frames, and reflections.  All of which breathe life into that boring ol’ book report for class – effortlessly and at the touch of your finger.

While the portrait mode offers the standard editing functions, the landscape mode is where most of your typing is likely to be done.  I have been using Pages to compose each RazorianFly article and the landscape keyboard is completely effortless.  I actually prefer typing now on my iPad over my laptop since I am not bothered with sharp palm rests.  My one complaint is that there is no way to access the editing buttons while in landscape.  I think Apple could later implement a long hold or multitouch command that could call up the editing menu like that found in the portrait orientation.

Some other areas of confusion is editing the font options.  While in portrait, you need to tap the information button, scroll the menu to the bottom and select Font to access the font menu.  This could have been added to the ruler area along with the style and alignment buttons especially since there is ample room for a simple drop down menu.  The list of available fonts are decent and true to the standard that most word processors offer.  I just wish it was easier to get to.

Performance wise, Pages is snappy and I was happy to see almost no lag in typing or browsing large files.  There are some  reports of formatting not translating well to a .doc file when opened on Word.  I think for the most part, this is something that can be fixed via a patch update but also something that comes with the migration of files from one program to another.

Pages offers up one of the best experiences in mobile document creation available on the iPad currently.  It’s amazingly simple yet powerful tools are far above those offered on the iPhone options.  Given the current hurdles of file management Apple has given us, it’s a decent start but a lot of work still needs to be done if they have the users interest in mind.  The file export/import process needs to be simplified soon or people will resort to emailing everything.  This isn’t news nor is it disheartening for this writer.  In my opinion, Pages has set the bar that others will undoubtedly challenge.  Let the productivity race begin!

Buy this app on iTunes for $9.99 (US Only).