Writing on the iPad

All day long at work I sit at my desk looking at my computer.  When I come home from work the last thing I want to do is go into my office and sit at my desk at my computer.  However, I do want to write, and the best way to do that is by sitting in front of some sort of computing device. Since I've had my iPad it has been great for sitting on the couch and reading or browsing the internet.  Recently it has become my main writing computer as well.

When I first bought the iPad I got an Apple bluetooth keyboard to go along with it.  That is a must if you are going to do any substantial writing.  The onscreen keyboard is okay for tapping out a short email, but anything more than that would drive me insane.  There are a few keyboard cases out there that have been highly rated by users but I haven't tried any of them. These integrated cases would be more convenient than the separate Apple keyboard, but they are also smaller. I don't like to be cramped up. I think the keyboards on the integrated cases would be too small for me. The Apple keyboard is just about right. I think it is the same one you would get if you bought a new iMac. It is Apple so it is a little pricey, but it is nice.  

The iPad with the built in smart cover stand and the bluetooth keyboard was really nice, but you pretty much had to be sitting at a table to make it work.  It was usable with a lap desk, but not ideal. Because of this I ended up not using it nearly as much as I thought I would.  This, in combination with the crappiness of the blogger editor in mobile safari made me sad. I don't have a laptop and I bought the iPad to serve as a laptop replacement and it wasn't working.  Then I found the Incase origami workstation.  It is specifically made for the Apple BT keyboard. It is essentially a case for the keyboard that you can open up and fold back, which creates a stand for the iPad. It makes it 100% easier to use on your lap, or any other configuration you might be able to find. It was fairly inexpensive and did exactly what I needed.

My hardware setup was pretty much complete, but the software still stunk. There was no good way to blog on the iPad.  I tried blogging by using the email client, then either posting by mail or copying and pasting into the website.  That didn't work so great.  I got a couple different dedicated text editing apps. Those were better to write in, but you still had to copy and paste into the browser.  There was no picture adding, or any formatting, so that all had to be done on the desktop anyway.  Then I found the Blogsy app and all my problems were solved.  There were still a lot of quirks when I first started using the app. I usually had to save it as a draft and then fix formatting on another machine.  The folks at Blogsy continue to roll out fixes and new features, and it is all I use now. It is way more enjoyable to use than the normal blogger web interface. I find myself wishing Blogsy had a desktop app for windows.  

I also use Evernote to do a fair amount of writing. Evernote auto saves to the cloud and then my content is available on any computer, my iPad, or my iPhone.  I'm finding different ways to use Evernote all the time. As far as other apps that make the iPad awesome... Reeder and Flipboard are great for reading content. I use Instapaper all the time to save articles so I can refer back to them later, or even read them on the kindle.  I really enjoy listening to podcasts and Instacast is a wonderful app. They recently came out with Instacast HD for the iPad and it is even better. Best feature of Instacast is that they use iCloud to keep your subscriptions and even position in sync across devices.  Now I can listen to pretty much any web content as I work on the iPad, and the keyboard has all the audio controls right there on the top row.  iOS5 added lots of nice gestures to quickly switch between open apps, though you still can't do an alt+tab, which would be nice. 

There are a couple tech writers who have written about how they've converted over to using the iPad as their primary device.  Here is a quote from James Kendrick at ZDNet... 

What makes the iPad 2 and keyboard combo so effective for my writing is the “one app at a time” nature of the tablet. The running app takes up the entire screen, and thus my focus. There are no distractions presented while writing, just inputting words on the screen."

I obviously don't write for a living, or write nearly as much as James here does, but I do appreciate the simplicity of writing on the iPad. It is nice to have just a text editor open and nothing else to steal your attention. Harry McCracken also has an article about how he pretty much replaced his laptop with the iPad 2.

When all I want to do is read or browse the web the iPad is perfect to hold in portrait orientation right there in front of you. If I am going to send emails, or write a blog post I turn the keyboard on and set it landscape in the holder. It works great. You don't have to use the keyboard case in landscape mode, but that is how it makes the most sense.  For me, the system works really well.

The rumors are already rolling in about the iPad 3 that is supposed to come out in February. I've owned my iPad 2 since it was released and over those months I've seen the progression of the apps that are coming out. There are some new robust apps that are a lot of fun to use and take true advantage of the touch interface, and they are only going to get better. If the new iPad has a retina display I am definitely going to be tempted to get one, but I'm sure my iPad 2 can at least keep me happy until the "4" comes out.