Birthday iPad

[breakinglight11]

So upon arriving home I found a lovely birthday present from my parents waiting for me, the shiny new iPad upon which I type this now. Though I stand by my previously made statement that it is basically a novelty, an oversized iPhone that doesn't make calls, I am actually really enjoying it and think it will serve my computing purposes well. I'm sure that only reveals just how technologically unsophisticated I really am, but no matter, I am happy. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for the lovely and generous gift (even though you probably should have considered my gift paying to get my car fixed.)

Can anyone recommend a good word processing application for it? I plan to primary use this thing for Internet and for some light writing on the go, and since none of the word processors for iPad I've seen are free, I would like to know which is good before I purchase. I would like it to be compatible with the .docx format so that I can import any files generated here into MS Word on my desktop. Any other app recommendations are welcome as well.

Comments

[natbudin.livejournal.com]

I know Pages can do Word formats, both doc and docx. I haven't used it myself (not having an iPad), but it's gotten pretty consistently good reviews from the sites I read. And it's a first-party app, which from Apple is usually a good sign.

Silly app recommendation: Infinity Blade is a fantastic game, and probably even moreso on a large screen. Even if you don't like fighting games, it's worth it for the awesome graphics in this one.

[laurion]

Infinity Blade is -very- pretty. I picked it up on one of the (not infrequent) sales it goes on for a buck. Happy to show what it looks like on the big screen.

[electric-d-monk.livejournal.com]

I can second the Pages recommendation.

Works quite well for editing word processing style documents, does a fair job at importing back and forth from MS Word formats.

I have encountered some odd peculiarities when dealing with 20+ entry unordered lists with individual entries that are hundred+ word paragraphs, and how it handles them when converting from/to Word format, but aside from that everything has been great. Did a good third of this batch of League updates with it.

Definitely recommend grabbing some form of keyboard, though to be honest I'm uncertain what the best option for that would be. Bluetooth keyboards do make a noticeable difference in battery life (it's not dreadful running with the wireless keyboard... more like taking battery life from great to merely okay). Direct connection ones can have issues connecting if you've got the iPad in a sleeve, though tend to have the advantage of standing it up on its own (which is what you'll want when using it in 'writing mode' so to speak).


While the built in PDF reader is good, GoodReader is an improvement that I've found worth the cost.

There are plenty of text editors available, I've found SimpleNote useful but not particularly stand out.

I somehow doubt you're in the need for an SSH terminal...

[laurion]

+1 on the bluetooth keyboard, if you plan on doing any real writing on it. I just picked one up last weekend so I could take notes at the ConCom meeting, and it quickly proved to be worth the cost. Touchscreens just haven't the haptics for real typing. Fine for twitter and quick email, terrible for any lengthy stuff.

[laurion]

Small World!

I use QuickOffice, which does a nice job, and integrates with my Google Docs, unlike Pages.