iWork Apps for the iPad: Access, Create, and Modify Files on the Go
- iWork Apps Offer Simple File Integration with Macs and PCs
- iWork Offers Fully-Featured Apps, Not Simplistic File Viewers
- Pages for iPad
- Numbers for iPad
- Keynote for iPad
- More Features, More Functions Yet to Come
The iPad tablet is a remarkable gadget from a hardware standpoint. But it’s the powerful and innovative apps available for Apple’s tablet device that can transform the iPad into an extremely powerful business tool.
Without a doubt, three of the very best examples of incredibly powerful apps designed exclusively for the iPad (they do not work with the iPhone or iPod Touch) are part of Apple’s iWork for iPad suite: Pages, Keynote and Numbers.
Based faithfully on iWork for the Mac, Pages is a powerful word processor (similar to Microsoft Word). Keynote is a presentation design tool (similar to PowerPoint), and Numbers is a fully functional spreadsheet application that rivals Microsoft Excel.
The iWork for iPad apps are each sold separately for $9.99 through the App Store. Each can be used as a stand-alone application or in conjunction with its Mac counterpart. In fact, Apple, which designed these apps, has gone to great lengths to incorporate seamless file and document compatibility with other apps and software programs. For example, as you’re creating a text-based document with Pages for iPad, you can easily import a photo from the iPad’s Photos app, or include a graph or chart you created using Numbers.
iWork Apps Offer Simple File Integration with Macs and PCs
All three iWork for iPad apps focus on integration with the iWork for Mac apps, as well as with Microsoft Office (for PC and Mac) files and documents. Any Pages, Numbers, or Keynote for Mac document/file or Microsoft Office document/file can be loaded into Pages, Keynote or Numbers for iPad (based on its respective file type), be viewed or modified, and then easily transferred back to a PC or Mac without losing any original formatting.
From the iPad, a document or file created from scratch using Pages, Numbers or Keynote can be emailed, shared via iWork.com, synced with iTunes to a PC or Mac, copied to Apple MobileMe’s iDisk (cloud) online file-sharing service, or copied to WebDAV (another online file-sharing service that’s compatible with Microsoft Office).
iWork.com is a free, online-based file-sharing service operated by Apple that works seamlessly with iWork apps for the Mac as well as the iPad. In addition to offering a conduit for wirelessly transferring iWork documents and files between iMacs, MacBooks, and the iPad, for example, the iWork.com service provides a simple way to share, distribute and/or collaborate on documents and files with other people.
Because the iPad offers wireless web access via 3G or Wi-Fi from virtually anywhere, documents and files can easily be transferred to and from the iWork apps on the iPad to the iWork.com service (or vice versa), so work can be done and files can be shared from any location, thus giving the iPad the same functionality as a laptop computer or netbook when it comes to word processing, managing spreadsheet data, or creating and giving professional-quality presentations.