There will be those who sigh heavily when they see yet another topic on text in workflows - what's it got to do with outliners, eh? - but they may change their minds (especially if they're iOS device owners) after reading the excellent review of the iOS app Editorial at http://www.macstories.net/stories/editorial-for-ipad-review/

For those who decide to investigate Editorial in more detail (and ConnectedText aficionados would be well-advised to do so, because the workflows you can create with Editorial are truly astonishing), the same author has also written a (very good) book with much more detailed information on Editorial. It's titled 'Writing on the iPad: Text Automation with Editorial'.

Mobile apps are redefining the outliner, in fact, because so many note-taking apps are effectively two-pane outliners (even when the navigation pane only pops up when required). There has been an amazing proliferation of interesting text editors, with apps like As Noted, NoteSuite, Notebooks and many others all using a mixture of two-pane and single-pane outlining, as well as other models (As Noted and Editorial both use side-swiping screens to very good effect).

Ultimately, it's all about efficiency and workflow. Which is why I'm looking forward to seeing Scrivener on iOS (yes, it's in process, but may not appear till next year). And where workflow is concerned, Editorial is king!

If I understand things correctly, this is nothing less than amazing; it does for writing what Zoot does for personal databases...

...and for $4.99.

MadaboutDana wrote:

- but they
may change their minds (especially if they're iOS device owners) after
reading the excellent review of the iOS app Editorial at
http://www.macstories.net/stories/editorial-for-ipad-review/

I'm a bit sceptical about the claim made in the article (which I only managed to read half-way through) that with Editorial now you can do all your work on the iPad. Why? Because, ironically, both Safari and Chrome crashed on my iPad 1 when I tried to read that very article. At this point I'm unable to read it, unless I power up my old and trusted Asus netbook running XP.

Another case in point: when I bought my iPad, I also bought an Apple Wireless Keyboard, thinking, I will use it to become more productive with my iPad. Instead, I use that keyboard with my desktop PC and I even take it on trips to use it with my... netbook, but never with my iPad. The fact is that my netbook can run pretty much all my productivity software that I use on the desktop. The iPad is very far from providing all that functionality.

Which is not to say that I'm not intrigued with Editorial and this overall trend towards more sophisticated iOS apps. But it might suit certain professions (journalists, bloggers etc.) more than others.

Or I'll just have to buy a newer iPad...

Dr Andus wrote:

Or I'll just have to buy a newer iPad...

I've only just noticed that Editorial, Drafts and all the other fancy editors with automation require iOS v.6, while my iPad 1 is terminal with iOS v.5. Yet another reason to upgrade to a newer iPad...

That, alas, is how Apple makes all that lovely money - the mayfly-like lifespan of their products nowadays! Actually, that's not fair to their notebooks and desktops, but iPads are notoriously short-lived - a whole bunch of features in iOS 7 will be unavailable to those with iPad 2s, like me. And as my daughter - and now you - have found, iOS 6 is entirely unavailable on iPad 1s. Having said that, I do a lot of serious work on my iPad. This usually involves compromises - I am, for example, currently sitting in Starbucks typing a translation in GetInfo, which allows me to load a PDF file into one window and type text into another, smaller window - but it's not exactly state-of-the-art, especially compared to a netbook. On the other hand, I have complete Internet access, I am able to consult various online reference sources, at any time I can copy and paste my text draft into a more serious application and synchronise the resulting Word document with my office systems (which run on Soonr.com, a business-oriented version of Dropbox and also available as an iOS app). So from a slightly different perspective, I have as much as I need. And before you ask - no, I don't have and wouldn't buy a 3G-enabled iPad. I use a MiFi instead, which supports multiple computers/devices simultaneously and also plays nicely with my micro-NAS, a 32GB SanDisk Connect WiFi Flash Drive, which in turn plays nicely with my colleagues' - andy my various other - iPads and mobile devices. Rather than using an Apple keyboard (large, clunky, not very portable), I use one of Logitech's little numbers, which also acts as a case for the iPad.

I'm not actually wittering on about these things in order to impress you with my mobile lifestyle (forced upon me by the fact that my children need constant ferrying to and from the many classes, competitions, events, get-togethers etc. that young people get dragged into); it's simply to demonstrate that a whole new working model is rapidly becoming feasible that has nothing to do with specific software and everything to do with interconnected resources - especially in the preparatory stages. Of course you'll always need specific applications to produce the final, refined output (the final copy for the magazine I'm translating for will eventually go into InCopy, which I use to edit files on a client's server in Germany - there's no way I could do that from an iPad... or at least, not yet!). I loved my netbook, and still occasionally use it. But the iPad is so fast and convenient, has such astonishing battery life, and even in a relatively lowly form (as I said, it's only an iPad 2), is so powerful, that I feel no need to drag slow, balky, short-lived computers around with me any more.

Just as well, really, because I managed to empty a glass of water all over my Windows notebook yesterday, and am currently waiting for it to dry out...

And in reply to Alexander - yes, Editorial is amazing. What's especially impressive is that you can use it as a perfectly standard Markdown-capable text editor if you want to, but if you really want to push the envelope and develop extensive cross-app workflows, it effortlessly obliges. Even better, a huge number of custom-developed macros/scripts/workflows are appearing, many of them enabling sophisticated interaction with other apps and web apps. These are useful in their own right, of course, but even more useful as templates for those who wish to experiment with complex scripts.

Cheers,
Bill

@Bill

Many thanks for the detailed use case scenario - iPad does make sense for that. I'm itching now to try out Editorial, but I'll need to wait until iPad 5 comes out to see what happens to the prices of the others and whether I should get 5.

My mobile scenario is very different - I need to go away for a month at a time, and so I need to have a mini version of my desktop PC with me. But at home or in the office I do use iPad for certain writing tasks, and I could see how Editorial might help. E.g. I stopped blogging on Wordpress because the whole process of preparing a post with all the links etc. is just too longwinded, Wordpress is slow, and I just don't have the time. But if it can be knocked out real quick on Editorial and posted to Wordpress immediately then I might do it more often.

When you say "Getinfo", do you mean this app? It hasn't been updated for over a year and there aren't many reviews, but otherwise it looks interesting:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/get-info/id502509034?ls=1&mt=8

Yes, that's right - it's a bit old now, and in fact as I was writing about it I was reminded of another two-pane app that's actually almost identical, also supports PDF files (and indeed other file types) and a web browser as well. It's called Side by Side, and there's a free version you can try out, as well as an (inexpensive) Pro version. It appears to be regularly updated, which is more than GetInfo is (shame, because according to his roadmap, the GetInfo developer had some nice ideas).

Side by Side can do multiple windows, in fact - four is perfectly feasible - and doesn't take up much space (about 2.5 MB). But on an iPad, I think two panes is plenty!

Editorial has a built-in browser, but doesn't appear to support other file types (and doesn't do a two-pane view in any case).

Another nice two-pane app is Circus Notebooks, which I like very much, but it's hampered by (a) occasional instability and (b) erratic compatibility with files. I keep it on my iPad in the hope that eventually it'll turn into the perfect app, because it does two panes really very well (plus one-pane outlining, in fact, which not everybody is aware of). It's a lot more reliable than that other interesting but infuriating app, Tapose, which pops on and off my iPad like a jack-in-a-box (I reinstall it when an update comes out, then uninstall it in a fit of rage a couple of days later!).

Cheers,
Bill

LOL, I have folders of "maybe someday it will be great" stuff on my iPad -- in fact I keep Circus Ponies on the main screen just in case it becomes useful.

MadaboutDana wrote:

I keep [Circus Ponies] on my iPad in the hope that
eventually it'll turn into the perfect app

Ah, a fellow hopeful. Yup, similar folders on my iPad. I'm just in the process of trying to get rid of dozens of apps I don't actually use, but can hardly bear to part from... Pitiful, really.