Still baffled by Apple. Or, well, a bit.

[Maynotts]

Oh dear. I really hadn't intended to come back here asking what are very probably the stupidest questions, but, but . . .

During the sales pitch Husband and I listened to from a very nice man at the local Apple store, it was said that the iPad Pro was rather more of a business device than a leisure device. Its capabilities were considerable. (We were comparing the iPad Pro with the iPad Air 2.) We decided that we might, just, need to make business use of the device at some stage so purchased the Pro, even if it turned out that we used it more for recreational purposes than anything else.

Yesterday, having seen a TV travel show which mentioned New England, we decided that as Olde Englanders we ought, perhaps, to go over there and enjoy its obvious delights. Husband, who is still an Android tablet user, did a Google search for the New England tourism authority, found the appropriate website link, and on the NE home page also discovered that a 44Mb brochure was available in pdf form for download. So-oo . . .

He sent the web page link to me and today I went to it. When he used his Android tablet to go to that page, a little button called 'Menu' popped up, with a drop down options menu including PDF download. So. He clicked on that and the file downloaded. Done and dusted. Two minutes flat. Into his tablet's Downloads folder for local storage and immediate access..

I tried the same with my new business-optimized iPad Pro. No such 'menu' popped up on the screen I was looking at. No such download facility appeared to be offered by the website. I did fin d a 'save' button but there was no indication if, when or where the pdf brochure had been saved. And when I looked at my iPad Pro again, there seemed to be no folder marked 'downloads' at all.

Rather than pester people here, I've tried to fathom out just how I can complete the blazingly simple task of downloading a 44Mb pdf file from a website to my 'business-optimized' iPad Pro. The search results baffle me. Basically, it seems I'm being told that the iPad Pro at £500 cannot download any such file to local storage because there is no local storage (i.e., a 'Downloads' folder) that is accessible to the iPad Pro user.

Huh?

I've discounted search results whose time / date means they appeared before iOS 9 came out so have found only one result which seems remotely relevant. This says that no, my iPad Pro cannot do what Husband's three year old Android tablet can do in a couple of minutes flat, and that I must instead upload / download or more likely cross-load the pdf file from the website to a Cloud account of some kind which I need to open to get around Apple's inability to let me download what I want to the device I have.

I'm really not sure if I understand this, so help would be much appreciated. I'm used to Windows and Android. Until last week, I'd never used an Apple product. Still less this allegedly optimized-for-business device which makes me think that if this is Apple's idea of 'optimization', it might like to look at what I used to be able to do with Windows 98. . .

 

[Jupiter7]

You can simply download PDFs documents to appear in the native iBooks App. At the top of such documents, you will see an option to open in iBooks, or,if installed, other storage Apps such as Dropbox.

 

[scifan57]

You can even open downloaded PDFs in the Kindle app, if you have it on your iPad.

 

[J. A.]

There's a limited possibility to load files to apps, and that limit is what makes iDevices devices more secure than those with a different OS. That's the reason why you won't get a virus to your iPad easily (except if your device is jailbroken).

There's no Download folder, as you've noticed. It's easy to get a file to a different app, though, once you know where to look and how it works.

When you open a PDF file in Safari, you might see something like this:

If you don't see "Open in..." at the top of the screen, tap the screen once to show it:

Safari will show you where it's possible to save the file. One of them could be the built in Notes app. Depending on the apps on your iPad, you'll also see others that can open the PDF file:

Scroll left/right to see which apps are available, then tap the app you'd like to use for the file. It will be saved to the app directly, and you'll find it there afterwards.

 

[giradman]

Hi Maynotts - as to whether the iPad Air 2 (which I own) or the iPad Pro was your best choice, either is a great device - not sure if you bought the larger or smaller screen on the Pro? But if you are interested in the differences, simply go to Apple's Website and compare the different devices (the first pic below relates to 'chip' differences but all specs can be seen).

As to getting PDFs onto your iPad from a browser, an easy and multi-choice process as already suggested - but let me offer you a visual explanation in the second image below - there I opened Safari and visited a New England website (may be the same one you mentioned - don't know?) - the PDF booklet was available and shown on the webpage - by simply tapping the 'outgoing arrow' icon in the right upper corner - I was given numerous options, including AirDrop (which I did from my iPad to my MBPro), emailing to myself and/or others, or 'opening' in a number of apps (if I scrolled to the right, Evernote & iBooks would appear) - hope this helps. Dave
.

 

[KevinJS]

@giradman

Now you've done it, Dave. Another victim of Apple upgrades is on the slippery slope. Fancy mentioning MacBookPro to a noob! Visiting New England? Can't imagine doing that without my IPhone for GPS and photographs. Oops! I'm doing it myself.

Anyway, back on topic, iBooks is where I keep all my PDFs. Most of them are on my MBP too.

 

[KevinJS]

BTW, @Jupiter7 , iBooks is not native, although it is free. It needs downloading.

 

[giradman]

@giradman

Now you've done it, Dave. Another victim of Apple upgrades is on the slippery slope. Fancy mentioning MacBookPro to a noob! Visiting New England? Can't imagine doing that without my IPhone for GPS and photographs. Oops! I'm doing it myself.

Anyway, back on topic, iBooks is where I keep all my PDFs. Most of them are on my MBP too.

Hi Kevin - LOL! I do most of my posting from an Apple laptop (have a Pro & Air), so when I did that screen capture on my iPad, AirDrop sent it to my Pro (great when that feature works as advertised!) - but brings back memories of numerous trips Susan & I have made to New England (before I started those travelogues) - our last was to Maine, our favorite state there to visit - believe I probably had lobster rolls daily followed by a lobster dinner every night!

Most of my PDFs are also in iBooks and have a bunch in GoodReader - Dave
.

 

[Jupiter7]

Thanks for the correction Kevin!

 

[Jupiter7]

Actually, Kevin, iBooks IS a native App from IOS 8 onwards!

 

[KevinJS]

Actually, Kevin, iBooks IS a native App from IOS 8 onwards!

Shows how fossilized I am. I think I installed it on ios4.1.3.

 

[Jupiter7]

On an antique iPad ?

 

[KevinJS]

Just checked iBooks on my phone. Interesting. Although my phone is essentially an update of my original iPhone 4, iBooks is behaving as a native app; that's to say, it can't be deleted.

Coming back to @Maynotts original question, and Johanna's advice, when you "Open in…" from an app on an iDevice you are actually making a copy of the data for the second app, so iBooks is not working with the original downloaded PDF, but a copy of it. This behaviour has proven to be quite perplexing to many users who are used to a file based system, but works well when you get used to it.

The reason for it is that, in general, there is no interaction between apps.

 

[KevinJS]

On an antique iPad ?

iPad 2. Still works a treat. It's certainly in better shape than its owner.

 

[Jupiter7]

If you have ElCapitan, you can see your PDF's in iBooks on a Mac as well.