Apps for displaying files for public viewing

[Frustrated ipad user]

I'm wondering if someone can help me. I work in a museum and in one of our display rooms we have a steam fire engine that has recently been restored and put on display for public viewing. I have a large amount of Interpretation material that I want to put on an iPad for visitors to access and I need to find an app that can present this information. The information is a mixture of text, videos and photos with the text contained in Word & PDF files. What I need is something like this - a main page showing a picture of the engine with a title and short description of it. Then under that a list of files containing the information about the engine that the visitor can tap on to open the file to look at. Is there an app out there that will do this? Thanks

 

[twerppoet]

I don't own any apps that will do what you want, however a search for Kiosk in the App Store turns up several promising results. Kiosk Pro Lite (free) looks like a good place to start, with the ability to purchase (upgrade) to more capable versions if needed.

It's a place to start, anyway.

Addendum: Searching for 'museum kiosk' gives better results, with some other intriguing possibilities.

 

[giradman]

I'm wondering if someone can help me. I work in a museum and in one of our display rooms we have a steam fire engine that has recently been restored and put on display for public viewing. I have a large amount of Interpretation material that I want to put on an iPad for visitors to access and I need to find an app that can present this information. The information is a mixture of text, videos and photos with the text contained in Word & PDF files. What I need is something like this - a main page showing a picture of the engine with a title and short description of it. Then under that a list of files containing the information about the engine that the visitor can tap on to open the file to look at. Is there an app out there that will do this? Thanks

First, welcome to the forum! Second, I'm taking a 'Devil's Advocate' position here, I don't know who owns the iPad you plan to use (regardless of the app found to work or not), but to leave this exposed in a museum setting (i.e. unattached possibly and 'attacked' by kids) seems like a potential disaster to me - just my feeling, sorry?

Not sure where you are even located nor what budget your museum may have to support some type of AV presentation for your project - and I do not know what level of experience you have in putting together such a demonstration - a LOT of ifs here? NOW, I've been to MANY museums over the years and have used interactive AV devices (you know the screens, menus, white buttons, etc.) often (just visit the new center @ Gettysburg Battlefield which had some wonderful interactive exhibits) - I would strongly suggest that you contact other museums to see what might be some of the better options for you - this may be a budget issue but worth exploring - Dave

 

[twerppoet]

iPads as interactive kiosks in museums are actually becoming fairly common; however they are usually enclosed in special cases and/or stands that prevent theft and access to any of the buttons. They also use guest mode, so the visitors can't use any app but the kiosk app.

I believe the main reason is that a 16 GB iPad is a good deal compared to specialized touch screen kiosk.

 

[Frustrated ipad user]

Thanks for the suggestions.

We have a couple of iPads here already and have been using them without trouble for about 2 years now. They are kept locked down in metal cases so are quite secure.

I don't have any experience with creating presentations like this and am learning as I go along. The problem is there isn't much of a budget for it otherwise we would throw a load of money at somebody to do it for us. Paying for an app to do this isn't an issue as long as it does what I need it to do.

I will look into Kiosk first and if that doesn't deliver the goods I'll ask around other museums to see what they are using.

 

[twerppoet]

Good luck. My impression of the Kiosk Pro app is you could do something simple fairly easily, but more complex presentation would require some web development skills (HTML, CSS, and Javascript).

I'd be interested in what your final solution is, if you don't mind coming back to tell us.

 

[Frustrated ipad user]

Good luck. My impression of the Kiosk Pro app is you could do something simple fairly easily, but more complex presentation would require some web development skills (HTML, CSS, and Javascript).

I'd be interested in what your final solution is, if you don't mind coming back to tell us.

I will keep the thread updated on my developments. I think I'm going to need a bit of guidance on this as it's all alien to me.

I've had a look at Kiosk lite and for the life of me I can't figure out how to create anything on it. It doesn't matter anyway as I need an app that will use offline content and lite doesn't offer this. I believe Kiosk Pro Basic does though. There is no internet connection where the iPad is going to be used so the app will have to link to files stored on the iPad itself. Will Kiosk Pro basic do this?

 

[twerppoet]

The description of Kiosk Pro says it can be used off line. I'm not sure how. I'd go to their web site and check out the plentiful FAQs and other information there, and if that still does not answer your questions there should be a way of contacting them.

http://www.kioskproapp.com

I think I'll browse around it myself. Now that you've presented the questions my curiosity is up.

 

[Frustrated ipad user]

I've just been looking at Powerpoint on PC and there's an option to insert hyperlinks for opening files stored on the computer. This is the type of thing i am looking for. Unfortunately Powerpoint for iPad doesn't have the option of inserting links to files stored on the ipad. Frustrating!

I think i'll contact Kiosk.

 

[twerppoet]

OK, here is what it says about local storage: http://support.kioskproapp.com/knowledgebase/articles/302181

Looks like content is a website, though you can zip and store that site's contents locally. So developing your presentation means creating a website, but you would not need to actually place that site on the internet. It could be entirely local.

There are lots of tools available for creating websites. Most of them are fairly easy to use, though there is always some learning involved. I'm guessing that what web creation tool you use, and how to use it is going to be a harder decision than finding a kiosk app.

Every app of the type you want that I've seen (so far) has been based on web content. It would be nice if there was an all-in-one app that included both the creation and presentation parts of the solution. I'm thinking not, because the creation side is a lot harder, and has already been solved in a general way; but it would certainly be worth asking your fellow museums.

 

[twerppoet]

I've just been looking at Powerpoint on PC and there's an option to insert hyperlinks for opening files stored on the computer. This is the type of thing i am looking for. Unfortunately Powerpoint for iPad doesn't have the option of inserting links to files stored on the ipad. Frustrating!

I think i'll contact Kiosk.

Keynote has similar functionality, and similar limitations. The reason I did not suggest it is because you seemed to want more flexibility than that. As you say, you want to open files as if they were being opened in a viewing app, and neither Keynote or Power Point can do that on an iPad.

Not that you couldn't do a very nice presentation using Keynote (or Power Point). But you would need to reformat your content so that it was visible on a single slide, or a series of slides, and be limited to things like PDF, images, video, and audio files.

Note: Once upon a time including anything but images in Keynote was a bit of a dance, but with iCloud Drive including PDF's (single page only), videos (that are not in the Photos app) and audio files is easier. I'm not sure what other file types there may be. Those are the only ones I had in my iCloud Drive folders that worked.

 

[Frustrated ipad user]

Keynote has similar functionality, and similar limitations. The reason I did not suggest it is because you seemed to want more flexibility than that. As you say, you want to open files as if they were being opened in a viewing app, and neither Keynote or Power Point can do that on an iPad.

Not that you couldn't do a very nice presentation using Keynote (or Power Point). But you would need to reformat your content so that it was visible on a single slide, or a series of slides, and be limited to things like PDF, images, video, and audio files.

Note: Once upon a time including anything but images in Keynote was a bit of a dance, but with iCloud Drive including PDF's (single page only), videos (that are not in the Photos app) and audio files is easier. I'm not sure what other file types there may be. Those are the only ones I had in my iCloud Drive folders that worked.

Creating a website would probably be the ideal solution I guess. I think it would look better than a Powerpoint type presentation. I could then store it locally and present it through a Kiosk type app.

I will look into creating a website for it. Sounds like it could be fun. I like being creative. Hopefully it won't be too difficult and time consuming. Do you have any suggestions for where I should start?

 

[twerppoet]

Creating a website would probably be the ideal solution I guess. I think it would look better than a Powerpoint type presentation. I could then store it locally and present it through a Kiosk type app.

I will look into creating a website for it. Sounds like it could be fun. I like being creative. Hopefully it won't be too difficult and time consuming. Do you have any suggestions for where I should start?

Nothing free, I'm afraid. I've used Sandvox in the past. It's an upgrade/downgrade of Apple's old iWeb app. More powerful in some ways, less flexible in others.

It's a fairly good mid-range web design tool with a very drag and drop sort of interface. The problem is that many of the features you want are rather advanced, like displaying a document in a reader within the webpage. I don't think Sandvox can support that directly, though it does have the ability to add-on widgets.

They do have a free Demo you can play around with.

There are other tools of varying complexity, power, and price; but I'm not familiar enough with them to make a recommendation.

All of them require a computer, of course. There aren't any powerful solutions on the iPad itself.

 

[DocPhyz]

Before giving up, take a look at the Explain Everything app. I've used it as a narrated slide show with images, text, saved as MP4 movie files. You can insert images, video, draw on the slides, etc. — very flexible, with lots of processing, storage options. Has good editing capability also. I store the movies in Google Drive, and can play them from there on the iPad. But you can also have GD store files locally on the iPad, so that might work in your internet-free zone.

As TP asks, do keep this thread posted with your solution, please. Fun project.

 

[DocPhyz]

Oops! While EE is great for creating linear tutorials, I see no way to branch to desired content in it. Could it be used in conjunction with a kiosk app, all on the iPad — don't know. That may be possible with the newer iOS versions.

Good luck.