Typing shortish essays

[eddy20]

Hi guys,

im looking into getting the ipad 2 and just wondering how easy it is to typelonger pieces of work on it, maybe up to a page or more. Is a separate keyboard a must for typing anything this length? are there any decent word processing apps?

Also the notes i use to write from are all on the internet so how easy is it to switch back and forth between safari and word processing apps? will i have to wait for the web page to reload everytime i go back onto safari like with the itouch?

thanks a lot, any help much appreciated

eddy

 

[King.Khoja]

Hey Eddy, welcome to the forum.

I personally find that having a keyboard is easier to type out anything more than a paragraph long. Reason being is sometimes it starts to feel wierd typing on a screen where you cannot feel the keys so I constantly have to look at the keys before pressing. Auto correct helps but sometimes doesnt give me the word I am actually trying to type. I got the following setup which works great. Incase Oragmi Worstation (http://store.apple.com/us/product/H4760ZM/A), Apple Wireless Keyboard (http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC184LL/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY), and of course the iPad 2

In terms of a word app, Pages is probaly the best one ive used. Its easy and it pretty much has the basic Microsoft word type of layout. All the basic functions are there. What I really like about Pages is that its also got templates for professional letters, so if you ever need to send a professional looking letter you can use the templates.

Switching back and forth from apps to safari isnt really a problem since iPad 2 has multi-tasking feature where you just have to double click the home button and a bar comes up where all the apps you have been using are right there, just click on it and it will take you back to the app you choose.

Nick

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

The iPad1, with its limited RAM (volatile memory) did have problems that meant that Safari would need to reload the page every time you switched between web pages. But this seems to have been solved with the iPad2, which has twice the RAM.

In terms of word processing..


One of our members carried out a survey of Office apps for his company; you can see his conclusions in this thread...

http://www.ipadforums.net/new-member-introductions-site-assistance/22431-hi-all.html

The Apple iWorks Office suite for the iPad has a set of useful Help pages that show their capabilities here...

Pages is Word compatible and can read .doc and .docx files and save in .doc and .pdf

Keynote is PowerPoint compatible and can read .ppt and .pptx files and save in .ppt and .pdf

Numbers is Excel compatible and can read .xls and .xlsx files and save in .xls and .pdf

http://help.apple.com/iwork/1.3/mobile/interface/index.html#tan724868a9

Tim