![]() ![]() While Microsoft Word for Mac remains a buggy and frustrating mess, Microsoft Word for iOS is an absolute joy to use. Very occasionally a syncing error can erase or corrupt a document, but thanks to a combination of Dropbox’s online version history and my own robust OS X backup routine, I have never been unable to recover a file. With iOS 9’s document picker and deep in-app linking, you can work with Dropbox files from pretty much anywhere. I have been a Dropbox user since the service first launched, and have depended upon its reliability for many years now. My iPad homescreen Dropboxĭropbox is the glue that binds everything together. We need to talk about software, because for many years iPads were rejected as serious work tools due to crippling limitations in this department. Even if you primarily work from a desk, this is incredibly liberating. After a while it starts to feel like a page, freed from the limitations of computer hardware. An iPad is just a screen that contains your work. A laptop is not only difficult to use on your lap for long periods, it can’t be used in other situations where an iPad excels, for example held upright like a paperback book, or lounged back on a sofa. What about the actual hardware? iPads have the advantages of portability and adaptability. But if I need to refer to another document or a web page, iOS is now capable of showing a second window on the screen. It’s just a page of text in front of me, and if I feel like procrastinating there is nowhere to hide. I’ve found that working with full-screen apps is a huge advantage for the kind of work I do, because the iPad becomes my work there are no other screen elements vying for my attention, and the system gently encourages me to focus on what I’m doing instead of letting me do everything at once. The iPad has a fundamentally different approach to window management: programs are either presented full-screen, or (optionally) two apps at once. I happen to think about 9-10 inches is a good size for focused work with text, and even when I use a large desktop monitor on my Mac, text windows tend to be about this size. ![]() The iPad is evocative of those early Macs. Today the Mac is extremely powerful and capable of performing any task, but it is far less intuitive than it was twenty or thirty years ago. But as more and more features piled in, the Mac experience became more complex. I can still fire up my Macintosh Classic from 1989 and marvel at the small but perfectly crisp monitor, the intuitive menu system, the way each application filled the entire screen and let you focus 100% on your work. When the Mac was in its early years, it was a shrine to simplicity and ease of use. I also collaborate with a wide variety of people, manage projects, and do all the other little administrative things freelancers have to do. Photography is a growing part of my work. I primarily deal with text all day long: creating it, editing it both for myself and for my clients, and publishing it in various forms. There is no single all-encompassing definition of real work, so all I can really do is talk about my requirements, which – I believe – overlap with those of many others in my profession. Others design products in CAD suites or code websites. Some people work with massive Excel spreadsheets and Access databases. Obviously, everyone’s definition of real work will be different. Definition of ‘work’īefore we begin, it’s important to define real work, because this is a subject that seems to upset some people when it comes to discussing the iPad and productivity. It doesn’t have to be either/or.įor an overview of the rocky road that led me back to iOS, see The Great Windows Mistake of 2015. This is about how I use iOS to make my work easier. Software is at last catching up with the capabilities of the hardware.īut this article is not an account of how I ‘switched’ to iOS, because I still rely on OS X – trying to offload all of my computing needs to an iPad would be counterproductive. ![]() In 2016, I’m glad to say, the landscape is dramatically different. I used an Android tablet at the time but I also mentioned the iPad. Tablets were very different in those days, but the premise of my article was that tablets aren’t just for web browsing and watching videos with the right apps and workflows, they can be useful supplemental tools for writers. Three years ago, I composed one of the most popular articles on this website: A Tablet Computer as Writer’s Companion. In this article I discuss how iOS 9.x has made my job easier as a freelance editor and writer. In 2016, ‘real work’ on Apple’s iOS platform is not only possible, but in some cases more comfortable than on OS X. I leave this article online for posterity. I’ve come to realise that the Mac is simply a better fit for my needs. 2017 update: I am no longer working with an iPad (in fact, I no longer own an iPad). ![]()
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