Word Processing on iPad2

[ddthld]

Its about time to get my oldest something better to go her school reports and research on. She is currently using an 8 year old Toshiba running Linux, but it is getting way slow (only has 258 meg of RAM). She takes her reports and projects back and forth on a thumbdrive and uses a PC at school.

Is there a way that I can use an iPad for that as a MacBook of any kind is out of the question? Is there a way to directly connect an SD card or Thumbdrive using the camera kit? Or would would Drop Box (or similar) be the best route? My goal is to minimize her use of the family computer.

I ask because I will be slowly converting to Apple over the next several years, starting with iPhone 5 (or 4s?) when it comes out in the fall.

On another note....can an iPad replace a home computer if the home computer only really gets used for the Internet, email, FB and photo and music storage? I realize that a computer is still currently needed for iTunes and network control.

Thanks,
Don

 

[Brickman]

IMVHO, I would use DropBox or GoogleDocs. That is what I use for work with my iPad. I always lose SD cards and TDrives. Not sure if the "Camera" connector will allow you to odrop docs on to an SD card. Someone smarter wil have to answer that.

As far as a Home Compuer replacement, per what you described, I would say yes. Pictures storage will be your only problem. Pictures can eat up a TON of memory! I have an 80 Gig external HD on my iMac just for pictures. I personally will not buy another Laptop. The iPad has become my laptop. Because I takema lot of pictures I will always have some kind of desktop though.

For everything else you described you should be fine. I would just get as much memory as I could to be safe.

 

[Fausty82]

and to be practical, you would almost have to have an external keyboard... imagine trying to write a school paper on that keyboard... no thanks...

 

[Brickman]

and to be practical, you would almost have to have an external keyboard... imagine trying to write a school paper on that keyboard... no thanks...

Exactly! Should have mentioned that. I have an Apple BT keyboard that stays in my Messenger Bag, so that when I have a lot of typing to do, I just whip it out and start up. There are some cases for the iPad that have a built in keyboard that basically turn the iPad into a MacBook Air. I prefer the separate BT keyboard so that the iPad is still in a Tablet form. That's just me though.

 

[osensnolf]

As Brickman said, use Dropbox or SugarSync and then open the files from those backup apps in DocsToGo.

That's what I have been using and it works for me.

Check out the Dropbox vs. SugarSync chart to make sure you get the right fit the first time. While both have free trials, wasting time is no fun.

 

[ddthld]

How well does GoogleDocs work with iOS and Apple in general? Also...would AirSync (when it gets released) possibly solve this problem by automatically pushing the documents to a connected laptop PC so I could just transfer the docs to a thumbdrive that way? BTW thanks for the responses!

 

[ddthld]

Also...can MS Office open Pages documents or would Open Office be a better choice?

 

[Fausty82]

I don't think that MS Office (Word) can open Pages documents saved as Pages documents (Pages can safe files in MS Word format... . and Open Office has the same limitation - it AFAIK, it cannot open Pages documents unless they are saved in the MS Word format... and I am not aware of a version of Open Office that runs on iOS...