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- Numbers on the iPad: Doesn't Add Up
Numbers for the iPad is an outstanding standalone application. The creation of basic spreadsheets is uniquely optimized for the iPad layout. However, Numbers does not share well with others, and if you use Excel at all, you should probably just move along to another app. Numbers is “fun” but not terribly functional.When first opening the Numbers app, a “welcome” spreadsheet walks you through the very basics. A spreadsheet on making spreadsheets! Once you do the walkthrough you can either create a new blank spreadsheet or use one of the 15 provided templates including a Mortgage Calculator, Auto Log, Travel planner and more.
Usage
Navigation within the spreadsheets is very similar to the desktop version of Numbers. Tap on a cell to change the contents and a specialized calculator shows up at the bottom of your screen. From there you can tap out your info or use the side pad to switch to functions (250 are included), standard input keyboard, date/time functions and logic. One difference between desktop and iPad versions is the use of tabs. The iPad version has stylish tabs at the top to move between sheets, while the desktop version puts sheet navigation on the side.
Similar to desktop Numbers, the Inspector includes the ability to insert Photos, Tables, Charts, and Shapes. Items naturally flow around existing data and editing a chart is simply a tap and drag. Instead of being a palette, the inspector is a drop menu in the upper right hand corner of the iPad. As with other applications, undo can be accessed from a button or by simply shaking the iPad. Even if you aren’t familiar with Numbers (Excel fan here!), it was extremely easy and intuitive to understand.
Getting help on the iPad version of the iWork suite requires a connection to the internet. When you choose Help from the Tools menu, Safari opens to a custom Apple webpage. This significantly limits Help’s usefulness, especially in situations such as an airplane when internet access is unavailable or cost prohibitive.
Importing Limits
If you want your spreadsheets to live their lives from creation to deletion inside the iPad ecosystem, this review would be over. Awesome product well worth the $9.99. However, the process of importing and exporting documents complicates things significantly. Mark Crump’s and Chris Ryan’s observations of the obfuscation are similar to mine.
To get spreadsheet information into the iPad, you have a three basic choices. The most obvious one, using your iDisk, is not supported! That’s a game-ending flaw in my opinion. Before using Numbers, I used Quickoffice to edit files on my iDisk. Unfortunately, as of this writing Quickoffice has not been recompiled for the iPad and looks ugly. Whichever method you choose, it’s important to note the changes are not synced directly. The iPad makes a copy and changes you make are saved to internally to the iPad.
So how do you get an existing spreadsheet into Numbers on the iPad? First, you can access it via an email attachment either through the iPad Mail app, or via Gmail’s web interface. Safari was smart enough to allow me to open an Excel attachment from Gmail into Numbers. That was a welcome surprise.
Second, you can access it via the iWork website. Open up a spreadsheet there and the iPad will offer to open it within Numbers.
Finally, you can use the iTunes file sharing function. Plan in advance though, because you can only do this via a direct iTunes USB sync with your desktop.
Exporting Problems
After completing your work, your options for getting your spreadsheets off of your iPad are extremely limited.
Unlike the importing of a spreadsheet, Numbers does not allow exporting from the iPad into Excel format. Windows users can just sit this one out, since Numbers is not made for Windows. You can export to .pdf so the file can be read in Windows, but not edited.
Similar to the import function, you can email a copy of the spreadsheet in Numbers format or PDF via the Mail app or place it on iWork.com. If you want to re-edit that same file, you’ve got to import the spreadsheet again which unfortunately leaves you with multiple copies of the same spreadsheet on your iPad. The export function is designed for a final product and “sharing” isn’t really supported. Worst of all a 500K Excel converted spreadsheet was considered a “large file” and took over a minute to compile for mailing.
Using the iTunes File sharing function will prevent multiple copies of the same file, but it requires you to do a sync in order to access it. This is a cumbersome function for a mobile device and downright stupid for purchasers of MobileMe who rarely if ever sync to their desktop.
For spreadsheet novices, Numbers might be a great way to store and calculate information while on the go. If you want to actually share the spreadsheet with your desktop computer, Excel, or Windows users, wait for Quickoffice to be optimized for the iPad or another product that supports richer import and export functions.
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Переслать - Pimp Your iPad Safari With Quix
Quix lets you create and manage bookmarklets for doing all sorts of cool things from within the browser. Want to find text within the current page, send the current page to services like Pinboard or Tumblr, search the current domain with Google, load Firebug lite to peek at a sites markup, shorten an URL with Bitly, or do anything else you can imagine? Quix is the answer.
I first heard about Quix a few months back when Merlin Mann was talking about some clever stuff he was doing with it. I remember having a look, but at the time it didn’t make much sense to me. Partly because when I’m on my Mac I already have established systems for quickly activating the type of functions Quix would be useful for. Add to that the fact that my main use of mobile Safari on the iPhone was pretty much limited to sending pages to Instapaper for later use and the whole notion of Quix left me unimpressed.
Now that I’ve got the iPad though, it’s making a lot more sense. At the moment it’s more iPhone than it is Mac, but that won’t stop folks from trying to push it towards the more fully functional Mac side of things. Quix is a good step in that direction, giving you access to the same type of in-browser functionality that you’re used to having on your desktop.
Quix works through the use of a “meta bookmarklet” which when activated launches a command prompt allowing you to initiate any other commands stored in the quix.txt file. The easiest way to get started is to just add the bookmarklet to the Safari Bookmarks bar on your Mac and then sync it to your iPad. Tweak the settings for mobile Safari to display the bookmarks bar, and now Quix will always just be a tap away. With almost 100 commands included by default, you’re well on your way to being able to do just about anything you want from within mobile Safari.
No need to stop there though, you can also host your own quix.txt file and fill it up with your own set of cool commands. The syntax is pretty straight forward, each line being made up of a command, the executable, and a short description. For some inspiration have a look at Merlin’s custom list to see the kind of tricks he’s come up with. If you have some of your own custom bookmarklets please share them in the comments.
Переслать - Quick Tip: Unresponsive Data Networks
Sometimes, the cellular data network just doesn't want to play ball with your iPhone. It may not be immediately apparent, but you’ll find out when you try to load a page in Safari, for instance, and the progress bar will get stuck in one place.
To sort this out, you need to try the old, clichéd “turn it off and turn it back on again” approach. Navigate to the Settings app on your phone and turn on Airplane mode (the orange switch at the top of the first settings page). This deactivates everything — the data network, Wi-Fi, GPS, etc. Leave Airplane mode on for around 15-30 seconds and then turn it back off again. This should fix the problem, and get your iPhone back on the Internet again.If not — you know exactly what I’m going to say now — turn off the iPhone entirely and turn it on again. If, even after doing that, your phone still won’t connect to the Internet, I’d recommend contacting your network provider and asking them if they know what the problem might be.
As a side note, this works just as well with unresponsive Wi-Fi networks. If it’s happening with Wi-Fi, however, you can turn Wi-Fi off by itself by going to Settings > Wi-Fi and turning the switch to off. If that doesn't work you can try turning the router off and on (if it’s yours), or telling your iPhone to forget the network by tapping the blue arrow in a circle next to the network name and tapping “Forget this network.”
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