iPad software (upcoming): LiquidText

Posted by MadaboutDana
Jul 4, 2011 at 11:10 AM

Sorry, Ken, just spotted this. Ah, don’t get me started on the iPad, I’ve played with such a lot of stuff, and so much of it is really not very good, or could be really good but just doesn’t quite have what it takes. But I’d be happy to share experiences. First off, before anything else, I’d have to agree with a recent review of the HP TouchPad which describes the iPad as primarily single-task-focused. Yes, it is - switching to and fro from one window to another is not particularly easy on the iPad, and can result in significant frustration if you’re trying to write, do web research and consult multiple documents at the same time. Having said that, there are solutions, although none of them are perfect (which means it’s ideal territory for CRIMPers, who don’t look for “perfect”!). Here are a few of them:

(Just one important note: I’m fascinated by the very different perceptions of apps you’ll encounter both in journalists’ reviews, and in user reviews in the Apps Store. Some of the stuff that’s been praised to the heavens—e.g. sling Note, Student Pad—I’ve found almost unusable. Other stuff—e.g. the two Readdle apps mentioned below—are scarcely mentioned, even though they are actually superior to many more popular apps. You’ve just gotta experiment: in the end, what appeals to you will depend on your preferred modus operandi. And some apps take time to win you over, e.g. Notebooks for iPad, which is now one of my staples).

—-My favourite writing tools:
ThinkBook (text only, but superb outlining capability with bookmarks, tagging and a good search function)
Notebooks for iPad (very, very powerful - bit of a learning curve, but good Markdown support and can also import and store web pages and files. Marred only by lack of bookmarks/shortcuts—which makes it difficult to switch quickly between the various elements in the vast amounts of data it can store)
OmniOutliner for iPad (almost brilliant, marred by lack of search function. Multi-column support in outlines very convenient. I keep hassling them about the search function! They are very nice and responsive, so I suspect it’s only a question of time. Once it’s got a search function, this will be top of the tree)
The full Apple suite (my favourite app still being Numbers)
WordWeb + Chambers Dictionary + Chambers Thesaurus (they all work together in a lovely ballet of interlocking interfaces - much better than they do on PC, in fact)
Documents To Go (alas, shortly to be rendered completely useless since being bought out by RIM; still one of the best for round-trip MS Office file editing)
Essay (very elegant interface, produces nice HTML pages: only flaw is a lack of search function)
Notability (deceptively powerful. Not my favourite, but actually very good and very versatile)
iAnnotate PDF (for annotating PDF files: ReaddleDocs and GoodReader do this, too, but iAnnotate has multiple tabs, so you can read/edit multiple PDFs simultaneously. The range of annotation options is truly awesome, too)

—-Almost but not quite in my list:
Circus Ponies Notebook (very ingenious, but seriously flawed and ultimately very frustrating. Good for viewing stuff side by side, though)
Carbon Outliner (nice, but nowhere near as good as Notebooks for iPad, which also has strong privacy settings and can import Notes from iPhones)

—-Data interchange
ReaddleDocs (by far the best: incorporates DropBox, GoogleDocs, IMAP mail, any WebDAV server, FTP etc., in a much friendlier interface than any other solution; vastly superior to AirShare)
DropBox (but not really required if you’ve got ReaddleDocs)
myPhoneDesktop (allows you to send clippings of text, images and URLs from your PC/Mac straight over to your iPad - neat, convenient)
Soonr (very powerful cross-platform solution with full-text search through a wide variety of file types. I’ve finished my trial, unfortunately, but I’m toying with using this for business exchanges. However, we generally use our own WebDAV servers for that, so I’m a little reluctant. Works beautifully on iPhone, iPad, PC, Mac etc. etc., but does cost you a monthly subscription)

—-Browsing:
Terra (by the guys who make ReaddleDocs: such a good tabbed browser that Apple briefly banned it, because it’s a damn sight too close to the new version of Safari that will appear in iOS 5. I actually wrote to Steve Jobs asking him to reinstate it! They did, but I have no idea if my e-mail had any influence on that decision…)
Opera Mini (also tabbed)
Knowtilus Basic (has split web page/notes option, also tabs: quite neat)
iChromy (basically Chrome for the iPad: tabbed, which is good, but occasionally mixes up web addresses (esp. IP addresses) with Google search requests! I use Chrome on all my PCs)

—-Tasks/To Dos:
Wunderlist (synchronises across all my various machines and has free web server, too)
ActionNotes (not desperately practical, but for some reason I really like it!)
Awesome Note HD (ditto!)

—-Blogging (significant weakness on iPad):
Blogsy

—-Avoid (IMHO):
Documents Free
ACTPrinter
Moleskine (although I confess I use a screenshot of the famous Moleskine cover as the front (locked) screen for my iPad - silly, I know

)
neu.Notes
Nodebook
Simple Outliner
Trunk Notes
Student Pad
Notes Plus (nice, but no search!)
Notekata (nice, but no search!)
Clockwork Notebook
Side by Side Pro (very disappointing)
sling Note Lite (ditto)