Ipad for school, Excel etc

[mbo]

Hello

So i was so unfortunat to drop my laptop to the ground, and the screen went to heaven.

So now im thinking about a replacement and the ipad came to my mind.

So im wondering does numbers, keynotes and pages work almost like microsoft office. Does pages have fonts like Times new roman?


-MBO

 

[peled]

I suggest you read about it in the forum.
That is an on going issue.
Every one agree that iPAD is not a full replacement for a Lap Top, but quite a few
found out that it can serve them fine. It all depends what you are using your lap top for.
If you are used to prepare lots of presentations for say Power Point, you may face a problem. Same goes for complicated Excel spread Sheet.
If you surf the net. Read and writ mail, it can be O.K

Go to an apple store play with it, ask questions and decide upon your needs.

 

[theipadstudent]

I agree with peled's advice of going to an Apple store to play with it before you make your final decision to get an iPad. They should have the whole iWork suite installed on all their iPads so you can try them out to your heart's content.

Keynote and Numbers received updates in the past months that allows them to export to microsoft .ppt and .xls files from within the apps, which was a much called for feature when they were initially released.

Also, to answer your question, yes Pages has Times New Roman as well as 39 other fonts to choose from.

I'm trying to use the iPad for at least a school year at college and I'm halfway there. I've written papers, reports, etc. using Pages with the on-screen keyboard and find it surprisingly easy to type on. There have been some slight formatting issues when exporting to Word docs from time to time, so I would try writing some things on an iPad in the store and emailing them to yourself at home as a word document to see how the formatting looks for whatever you want to write. Also I've seen similar small formatting issues when importing Word documents into Pages like sometimes removing paragraph formatting on import, but the app does a good job for the most part in resolving most formatting issues.

I've heard of issues with Numbers either not reading certain excel files or displaying the files wrong, but those complaining about it were use very large spreadsheet files (thousands of entries/cells). I doubt you would encounter this type of situation in a school type of setting.

What exactly are you thinking about doing with your iPad in school? If it mostly involves writing papers and doing research in the web, and you're also looking for a device to watch videos or play games, then I wouldn't rule out the iPad as a valid alternative to a laptop. It all comes down to what you're looking to do with it.

 

[chowdown]

Hello


So im wondering does numbers, keynotes and pages work almost like microsoft office.
-MBO

The short answer is no. You should do some very careful research before spending your money.

 

[mbo]

I agree with peled's advice of going to an Apple store to play with it before you make your final decision to get an iPad. They should have the whole iWork suite installed on all their iPads so you can try them out to your heart's content.

Keynote and Numbers received updates in the past months that allows them to export to microsoft .ppt and .xls files from within the apps, which was a much called for feature when they were initially released.

Also, to answer your question, yes Pages has Times New Roman as well as 39 other fonts to choose from.

I'm trying to use the iPad for at least a school year at college and I'm halfway there. I've written papers, reports, etc. using Pages with the on-screen keyboard and find it surprisingly easy to type on. There have been some slight formatting issues when exporting to Word docs from time to time, so I would try writing some things on an iPad in the store and emailing them to yourself at home as a word document to see how the formatting looks for whatever you want to write. Also I've seen similar small formatting issues when importing Word documents into Pages like sometimes removing paragraph formatting on import, but the app does a good job for the most part in resolving most formatting issues.

I've heard of issues with Numbers either not reading certain excel files or displaying the files wrong, but those complaining about it were use very large spreadsheet files (thousands of entries/cells). I doubt you would encounter this type of situation in a school type of setting.

What exactly are you thinking about doing with your iPad in school? If it mostly involves writing papers and doing research in the web, and you're also looking for a device to watch videos or play games, then I wouldn't rule out the iPad as a valid alternative to a laptop. It all comes down to what you're looking to do with it.

Nice reply, thanks alot

Well the main thing it will be used for is, writing, making "power points"(Medium quality ones) and some basic excel budget spreadsheets. our teacher gives us the "form" and we fill inn the numbers.
And of course some minor research.

When i present a "power point" i kinda need a quick way to transfer my documents to another pc so i can present them on a canon.

 

[graywolf]

There is no quick way to transfer docs from keynote to a pc but if you get the dock connector to via adapter you can hook up to the projector and present!

 

[theipadstudent]

Nice reply, thanks alot

Well the main thing it will be used for is, writing, making "power points"(Medium quality ones) and some basic excel budget spreadsheets. our teacher gives us the "form" and we fill inn the numbers.
And of course some minor resources.

When i present a "power point" i kinda need a quick way to transfer my documents to another pc so i can present them on a canon.

You can use your Apple ID to sign up to Apple's iWork.com beta and "transfer" your power points through that. It's really quick and easy to sign up for. You just need to verify your Apple ID login and email address tied to it and you'll get 1GB of online storage to share your documents through. In the Pages, Keynote, or Numbers you can share via iWork.com from your iPad, go to whatever computer you need to use and log in to iWork.com using your Apple ID and viola! You can download your presentations, spreadsheets, etc. from the site.

 

[mbo]

But lets say i dont need any "super" excel clone(Since i only need economy this year and my economy is just basic economy). but my only need is, opening xlc files and put in numbers and formulas then exporting it in the same format to email or something, then numbers are good enough? and lets say pages is good enough for small essays etc. and does keynote save in power point format?

at my school we use something called its learning, its like a portal for homework and stuff. sometimes we need to delivere our work by replaying to the message and uploading files to the web. can i use Ipad? or do i need to manually send it from my mail?

And lets say someone elses in my class wants a document ive created. whats the absolute fastes way to give it to him? offline and online


Thanks alot for the help guys.

 

[jkhonea]

There is no quick way to transfer docs from keynote to a pc but if you get the dock connector to via adapter you can hook up to the projector and present!

Emailing out the files to yourself actually works really well. I do that and use Dropbox. My two preferred methods most of the time.

 

[BrennB]

probably wouldn't be able to upload the files in that portal because there is no file browser type thing on the ipad so attaching/uploading in native web format doesn't work. However some apps allow this and of course you'd be able to email them and/or upload to dropbox, access from another pc to upload if it has to be done that way.

 

[Rlarson_mn]

I use my iPad as a 90% replacement for my net book. I use 'dropbox' to hold all of my files for excel and word documents. I also use 'documents to go' for read, edit and create my office documents on my iPad as well as my droid phone. The only thing I do not use my iPad for is accounting work. I still use my desktop, notebook or net book for those tasks.

 

[Firewall]

Its important to mention that the iPad isn't really meant to be stand alone, you need access to a full computer so you can sync to iTunes. So if your dead laptop was your only computing device I wouldn't replace it with an iPad.

I don't do much with presentations but for notes I really like Office2 HD and its integration with DropBox which makes the notes accessible from my phone (Android) work PC (Ubuntu) and laptop (XP).

Something you might want to consider is if any of your future courses might require you to install specific software. I had this frequently in my courses but I was a Information Systems major so that may not be true for other majors.

 

[Wolfpuppies3]

iPads are great tools but they decidedly are not

lap tops. Put an iPad on your wish list right after you purchase a new laptop.

 

[Heaviside]

Office HD has light versions of both Word and Excel, and its cheap.

Note Taker HD is a very nice utility for taking notes with a stylus.

I am a retired professor of EE, still interested in research---and I wouldn't be without my iPad for reading papers in .pdf format (Good Reader is very nice, allowing annotations).

 

[mbo]

Thanks alot for the help guys

I have a desktop pc, so thats no problem.
But one thing ive been thinking about... can u install flash on it? or do u have to jailbreak it first? :/