Productivity Software on Apple Devices

Quick point on what Siobhan said. If you already have them on iPhone, you won't have to buy them again on iPad. The Mac versions are a separate purchase though, which is probably what Siobhan meant now I think of it. Anyway, I find Pages and Keynote really good on my iPad and use them far more than I use my laptop. I am partially sighted though, so I don't know if there's much of a usability difference to a totally blind user. They have been steadily improving though. I'm not as big a fan of the Mac versions, but then arguably I haven't put much time into them either.

Hello Scott, You have posed some excellent questions that I've been researching and thinking through over the past month. As background, I'm a totally blind lawyer and I use Word extremely heavily and Excel on a somewhat regular basis. I am fortunate that my employer supports my technology needs and even allows some technology experimentation. I use a PC with JAWS at the office, an iPad or iPhone on the road and at home and I have an Air (that I'm using to write this response). First, I agree with many other posts on this site that just because the experience with an iPhone is great, that will not necessarily translate directly to use of a Mac with VoiceOver. The systems are different and there is a good bit to learn on the Mac even knowing VoiceOver on the iPhone. Second, I do not find much difference in use of apps on the iPhone versus the iPad; they are the same apps on different size devices. Indeed, I find the iPhone easier in many ways because of the smaller screen and the ease of finding things on the screen. I use a braille display for some work, so I don't do a huge amount of typing on either device. Third, I absolutely love the Air for its size and the extremely rapid boot up. I think Safari is every bit as good as Internet explorer and, likewise, i find Apple mail on the Mac almost as effective as Outlook on the PC. Fourth, and of critical note in response to your specific question, I have Pages on both the iPad and the Air. While I can do very basic work on the iPad using Pages (and send the created text where I need it), I am about 99% certain that I won't be able to use Pages on the Air for the drafting and editing I do for work. In my blunt opinion, Pages for the Mac is just too hard to use for high volume word processing in a professional setting. For this reason alone, I am just about certain that I will put windows on the Air and use VMware Fusion to allow me to toggle between OS and Windows. Sadly, Office for the Mac simply isn't accessible; if it was, I'd desperately try and use that so I wouldn't need Windows at all. I'll be interested to see others' responses and I'd be happy to discuss off line. You can email me if you'd like through the "contact" link; simply click on my name on this post and it will take you to my info page which has the contact link. Good luck. Ray

Hi Scott, dave and Ray. ray I'll start off with you since I just finished your comment. You have said that you pretty much are a word fan, and that while you have pages you don't really use it much on the air, preferring to use the iPad or iPhone versions. Having said this, you also said you didn't think pages could handle a hgih volume of processing that you do in your setting of employment. I have experimented with the formatting options and other things, and while the iPhone and Pad versions aren't as good, there's some real improvements in the Mac version. I disagree with your comment that voice over is harder to learn on the mac hten the phone, you would just be learning a little more complex commands then you have used. It took me a week to learn everything, and i went from windows to Mac cold turkey. To each their own oppinions of course this is for Scott after all. :) Scott there's a podcast where a woman demos some features of pages on her iPhone and there are some templets that aren't accesible on the phone version that are on the Mac. It's caled A Journey through pages, if you'd like to find it. Dave82 My only comment to you was i think one of us is mistaken and it's you. Just kidding, seriously what i was trying to say was I think the iPad versions of pages and things you did have to buy again though the phone ones will owrk on the iPad. Yes the Mac versions you ned to buy separately. All of this to say Scott, dive in, and one of us will pull you in with a rope if you go under. :) keep asking great questions.

Siobhan, You make a number of good points and I strongly agree with your view that Scott should get all the information and perspectives he can. On learning VoiceOver for the Mac, I agree it is both very well done and easy to learn. My point was simply that just because the iPhone works so well (and I believe for all of us) it may not necessarily follow that a Mac will work as effectively for different purposes. On Pages, I'm simply saying that, after working with Pages and listening to the Podcast you reference (and knowing VoiceOver very well) I personally can't come close to doing many of the things in Pages that I can do in Word with JAWS and the things that can be done on both are faster and easier on Word. That said, Voiceover is much younger than JAWS and Apple makes leaps forward with accessibility in each go round on both VoiceOver and its native apps; thus I hope and believe that Pages with VoiceOver will catch up. p.s. I see you are in MA as I am. Would enjoy chatting if you ever have a chance. Ray

Hey Siobhan, haha, to be fair I am often wrong! Nah it was just that I bought them on my iPad and automatically got them on the iPhone too. I rarely actually use them on the iPhone though, it's just too small a screen to use it as a full word processor for my money. The iPad is great though, I did all of my assignments in college last year on Pages for iPad, as well as lesson plans and Keynote (PowerPoint) presentations when teaching. It's been a great purchase. You've made me think I should take another look at the Mac versions again though. I've been known to say that Mac isn't great for productivity on this site, but who knows, maybe I didn't give it a fair go. Scott if you have any specific questions do fire them over. If you can borrow any of the devices you're thinking about to play around with them, I'd say do it.