Move files between your iPad and Mac

So you have the iWork applications and you want to be able to use them alongside your Mac, so you need to be able to move files between your iPad and Mac. I have already mentioned that you can do this with Goodreader and it is only 99cents to buy. You can also use DropBox to move files onto your iPad. DropBox is a brilliant application and should be on all computers, even Windows computers. There are also other applications like DropBox you can use too copy file to iPad.

There is Apple File Sharing and for those applications such as iWork you can use iTunes as a way to get the files moved to your iPad. When your iPad is connected to your Mac and iTunes is open, select your iPad in the iTunes Library and then click on iTunes’ Apps tab. Scroll down to the File Sharing section. (If you have no apps that support File Sharing, this section won’t appear.) You’ll see a list of apps that use File Sharing. Click on one and you’ll see any files you’ve already added to, or created on, the iPad.

You can add documents and delete documents no problem, there are two ways to add docs, Click the Add button, navigate to a document in the Open dialog box that appears, select the document, and then click Open. When you click Sync, the file will copy to your iPad. Pretty easy huh? Or you can drag files into the File sharing list when the right application is selected in the applications list. The files are then copied immediately. To delete the documents it is a simple select and delete.

When you want to work with iWork you will have to get the documents on the iPad and then you will have to import them to be able to view and edit them. You would think that Apple could have made it an easy one step process? In the iWork app Pages you will have to have it open on the iPad and tap the folder icon in the toolbar. From the list of documents in the list choose it by tapping to import it, so it will appear in the My Documents list and be ready for business.

You have to remember that you should avoid using special characters in the titles, so remove them before you try to transfer the files and save yourself some heartache. Even then not all fonts and elements from the document will transfer across to the iPad. There is an Apple support document that you can get more information about these problems.

When you want sync files back to your Mac on your desk you will have to export them first to be able to move them back with iTunes. When you have made changes to a document for example in Pages on the iPad and you choose to save it in the same format, you’ll see a dialog box asking if you want to replace the original. Tap Replace to do this. The app exports the file, and you can now copy it from iTunes back to your Mac.

Syncing files using DropBox on the iPad

DropBox keep on updating there applications and is a brilliant file sharing tool. Tap a file to open it in Dropbox. The program can display a number of file types, including images, music and video files; Microsoft Office files; PDFs; iWork files; and HTML and text files.

Tap the Send icon in the toolbar to choose an application that can open the file. Say you have a Word file, and want to view it in Pages. Tap the file to view it with Dropbox, tap the Send icon in the toolbar, and then tap Pages. Dropbox will transfer the file to Pages, and Pages will import it.

So there you go it is not that difficult to sync files between the Mac and the iPad and don’t forget that GoodReader is there for you also.