APRIL 2013 |www.opp-connect.com


TECHNOLOGY YOUR OFFICE IS AN IPAD | 25


Exchange altogether, though this is not likely to happen in a large corporate environment.


Why would you want to go to all this trouble? Because dealing with emails on your iPad is a massive gain in effi ciency. Trying to do this on your iPhone doesn’t really work. The process is too slow and fi ddly for serious use and the screen is too small, especially if you are working with attachments. On the iPad, it is quick and simple - in some ways simpler than in Exchange. Not only does email work, it throws up three huge and unexpected benefi ts. The iPad and the emails open almost instantly – far faster than on a Windows 8 machine and in a completely different league to the performance on Windows 7 and earlier. This turns a 30-second gap in your day into an opportunity to catch up, without feeling rushed or under pressure. This gives huge gains in productivity.


Depending upon the model you


buy, the iPad also updates your emails quietly and in the background, so they are always up-to-date: just like Exchange on your desktop. This is another great time saver.


But the most unexpected and, for me,


greatest benefi t of all is the integration with voice to text. Just click on the microphone key and speak to your iPad. For those who are unfamiliar with voice to text, give it a try. It is astonishing to see the words appear on your screen. It takes a little practice to make the most of it but it is well worth while. I have been using voice to text for 20 years. This is the fi rst application that fi ts seamlessly into your workfl ow. It is the fi rst you use all the time and without thinking. I have spent some time talking about email because, for many of us, it is the tool we use most; but most of what I have said – including the integration of voice to text – applies equally to the word processor, Pages. It is capable of reading Word documents – with some infuriating loss of fi delity - but it is by no means as strong as Word and hopeless if you rely on tables of content, complex footers, producing envelopes or merging data and some of Word’s other powerful features. What is surprising, though, is how easy it is to change your way of working to skirt around these problems. Why would you want to do


this? Again, because the benefi ts – integration with other programmes, instant access and ease of use – can produce big gains in productivity. Spreadsheets? No way. There are major incompatibilities with Excel, particularly when it comes to data validation and fi ltering. The Numbers application is just not up to the job of handling anything but the smallest spreadsheets and the inability to freeze panes, coupled with the small


screen size, makes dealing with even small sheets a pain. If you work a lot with spreadsheets, you can’t run your business from an iPad.


Most of us use PowerPoint, some more than others. The iPad equivalent, Keynote, is different but it works and works well. Again, there are incompatiblities with PowerPoint; to the extent that you will need to check every old PowerPoint presentation before you use it on your iPad and then modify quite a few of them. The same applies to presentations written on your iPad and then displayed via PowerPoint.


But if you are going to produce your presentations on the iPad and then just hook it up to the projector (there are adapters for VGA and HDMI), it works like a dream. Showing a presentation from something that weighs 300 grams and is the size of a thin paperback whilst using your iPhone as a remote controller is – there is only one word for it – cool!


So far so good, but the real benefi t of making the iPad your main work tool is the vast amount of free or low cost Apps available. Many of us are used to Apps on the iPhone but the increased screen size on the iPad takes them to a


“It turns a 30-second gap in your day into an opportunity to catch up, without feeling rushed”


different level. For those new to Apps, how cheap is low cost? If you’re used to Windows or Mac products, where a piece of software is likely to cost hundreds of dollars, they are very cheap – typically free or less than US$10.


So add Evernote, to keep all of your documents in order and allow you to see everything relating to a particular project in the same place. A ‘must-try’ and free.


Use Skype, with a Skype out


account, to make calls – including video calls – free or for a penny a minute. A 60 minute conference call from Brazil to the UK for £0.60, not £120. Again, a free App.


How about preparing a full site plan for a house by just taking a few photos? Try MagicPlan.


Scan business cards and incorporate the information, automatically, into your Contacts database. Keep track of appointments (and keep them synchronised with Outlook or your other calendar). Maintain to-do lists and other reminders. Track the news, watch TV. Browse the Internet. Use Maps – now with full turn-by-turn directions. Download


iPad demoted


Stuart Law would be the first to admit that he likes technology, so it’s no surprise that he rose to the challenge of seeing how an iPad could help his business. He was attracted by it being instantly available and by being able to access the Internet – and so his documents – anywhere.


He finds himself using it less and less. “It’s hard to beat windows for a lot of the things I do. The iPad is hopeless for spreadsheets and loss of fidelity in Word documents is frustrating, though at least you can now track changes.”.


“I find myself using my phone more and more. Basically, the phone is for when I’m running, my laptop – I’ve replaced my monster with a lightweight Sony – is for when I’m at a desk and the iPad is for when I need instant on or super-long battery life. I also use the iPad as a second machine when I am working on the laptop. Despite this, I wouldn’t be without it... but I couldn’t run my business from it!”


Stuart Law - CEO of Assetz www.assetz.co.uk


ebooks. Check out hotels and restaurants with TripAdviser. Find and book fl ights with SkyScanner. These are just a few of the hundreds of thousands of Apps available. The ability to do all this from a very small, very light machine that is always on and accessible, changes the whole way you work.


What about the things you can’t do on your iPad but can do on your desktop? You can login to your desktop and take control of it. Depending upon your needs, look at LogMeIn or iTap. You can then use all your regular programs. Of course, the screen size is a limitation but you can (using an adapter) hook your iPad up to a larger monitor or TV. You wouldn’t want to use remote control all the time but, when you need it, it’s fantastic. Best of all, thanks to the magic of iCloud, Apple’s big (and free) hard disk in the sky, everything you do is automatically backed up to secure storage and, if you wish, also synchronised with your other computers and devices. What you do on your iPad is immediately available on (say) your laptop, desktop and iPhone. You can be working on a report on the train and then continue to work on the same document once you get to the offi ce. That’s the good stuff. What are the problems?


The list is short but some of the missing bits are infuriating.


For example, there is no global undo facility – the equivalent of Control+Z in Windows. Pages and some other applications have a general undo and anything you type can be undone from the keyboard, but if you drag and drop something to the wrong place, it’s back to fi xing it manually.


But by far the worst feature is the totally stupid – just plain stubborn –


No undo | Back to manual fi xing


failure to include a USB port. Want to connect a printer in someone else’s offi ce? Sorry. About 0.01% of the printers in the world are accessible by Apple’s AirPrint but, otherwise, you have to email the document to someone with a printer. Want to copy a fi le and give it to someone else – say a presentation at a conference? Sorry. Email it. What? There’s no email facility or WiFi in the conference hall? Err. Sorry.


The lack of USB is the most likely reason why I would look at an Android tablet and why several of my colleagues have already chosen one instead of an iPad. Apple, take note. Cheaper AND listening to their customers. We will look at Androids in the next article. The bottom line: since I started this experiment I have done over 80% of my work on the iPad and the percentage is growing. I long ago ditched my desktop PC for a small and light (and expensive) laptop. The iPad is a further step in the same direction. It’s just better, smaller, lighter and a lot cheaper. If only I could fi gure out how to use it for spreadsheets, I would be a happy man.


Until then, for me, the answer to our question is that I can’t run my business from my iPad but I still wouldn’t be without it.


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