"The iPad as a fast, precise tool for creativity"

Posted by Amontillado
Dec 7, 2018 at 05:46 PM

Consistency between IOS and MacOS is my biggest complaint. I carry my iPad and an Apple Bluetooth keyboard everywhere. The Otterbox shell I’ve got for the iPad includes a kickstand arrangement in the lid.

At a restaurant or a roadside park, my iPad is like a laptop, just a little braindead. If I want to pull off to the side of the road and work, a short length of paracord turns the steering wheel into an iPad stand. Never while driving, only while parked, of course. When I write in my pickup, I prefer to be stirred by the power of prose, not shaken by force of impact.

Ulysses is pretty consistent between IOS and MacOS versions, but I would like a bit more power. Scrivener is the obvious answer, but I get bugged by non-orthogonality. The functional difference between main editors, copy holders, and quick reference windows nags at me, as does the odd adoption of styles along with a no-style default “style.” My failing. Scrivener is great.

Apple Pages doesn’t work well for me, if for no other reason than lack of navigation via header styles. Nisus does everything I want, but styles seem to always get clobbered when I edit a Nisus file (RTF native format) in a lesser RTF editor.

The points the article makes about copy-and-paste are valid, but I find I select text and copy/paste on the iPad via Bluetooth keyboard shortcuts, not with traditional long press options.

I’ve never written anything longer than a five word forum post on the virtual keyboard.

Life revolves around compromise as surely as flat-earthers revolve around central misconceptions. There are lots of improvements I’d like to make in the iPad phases of my workflow, but I’m not sure how I’ll work that out.

In the meantime, I prevail, even if reduced to primary pencil and Big Chief tablet.