Yesterday, I spent my lunch hour here at work editing The Gnome. I did this because I knew I wasn’t going to get to do it last night. Because I went to get an iPad! I’m so excited! I have the brand new one with the awesome graphics. I’ve never seen such a crystal clear display. I’ve already downloaded Words with Friends and a Bible app. Oh, and I loaded the iBook app and downloaded samples of my books to check the formatting. They looked great!
Here was one of my biggest concerns. I really wanted to be able to write on the iPad, too, so I could take it instead of my computer when I went out of town. But I didn’t know if I could export from the iPad to a Word document on my PC. I LOVE YouTube! I found a tutorial that showed that I could do just that. So I figure what I’ll do is export to a word document, fix any formatting problems, then copy/paste into my current WIP. What do you guys think? Do any of you work on the iPad sometimes, then on a PC sometimes? This process is probably easier if you have a Mac instead of a PC. 🙂
I hope to finish edits on The Gnome tonight or tomorrow night.
lauralynnelliott.com 
I hope that works! It will certainly be a nice way to write…the only thing I can think of is whether when you copy and paste into a document if that will translate when you upload that document for publishing – you know… put it through the meat grinder…ha. Do you use the mobipocketcreator to format for Amazon and Kindle? Wonder if you could search that out?
I’ve been eyeballing a new device – one that’s portable. heh heh.
The way it looks in the video, you can export directly into MicroSoft Word. If it loses any formatting, you can go ahead and fix it in the Word document. Then, when you copy and paste, it shouldn’t be any different than your original document.
I’m really excited about the iPad. I’ve been using the Bible app on my Droid X phone at church, but now i can see a much bigger screen. There are several of us at church using electronic devices for reading our Bibles. It’s kind of funny since we’re a fairly small rural church. LOL
I used ours for taking notes/brainstorming/outlining. Sometimes for an editing readthrough. If I could wrangle it back from the kids, I would use it more often for writing. 🙂
I would love the new one, but I keep telling myself it can’t be *that* good. So don’t tell me otherwise! 😉
LOL, Claire. The biggest change is the clarity of the display. I think it’s supposed to be a tiny bit faster, but I wouldn’t think it’s enough to matter that much. My friend that went with me could have traded her old one in, and they would have given her $250 credit against the new one. But she didn’t really see a need for buying the new one.
W00T! Congrats on the new toy. Personally I use an app called “My Writing Spot” to write with on my iPad. I just hit sync and then can open it up on the web version on my Mac. My wife makes me use it for shopping lists. We can write the shopping list at home and then have it on my iPad or iPhone when we go shopping. Enjoy!
Is that better than Apple Pages? Do you use iCloud?
I’ve tried using iCloud when it comes to Pages. It does work but it isn’t as instant I guess. But I must say, I do like the UI of Pages much better than that of My Writing Spot.
A good friend of mine rocks his Ipad with a keyboard case. Totally makes my writer fingers twitch (in a pleasant way). I’m fond of my laptop, but if I go tablet, I’m getting one of these. Logitech makes ’em:
http://www.logitech.com/en-us/tablet-accessories/keyboards/devices/keyboard-case-ipad
I’ll probably get a Zagg sometime later, but I didn’t want to spend too much money right off the bat. Those things are expensive on top of already paying for the iPad! I did look at them, though. I didn’t know Logitech made Zaggs. I love Logitech keyboards and mice (mouses?)
The beauty of the whole thing is I paid for the iPad with BOOK MONEY. Squeee!
I’m so jealous of your iPadness right now. I totally want one, but I don’t need it so I just marvel at everyone that has one. I know a couple of people that use theirs to write. I’ll see what they do and let you know if there’s anything interesting!
I bet you’re not jealous of the money I spent! I’m still a little sick about it, but I love my new toy. I don’t need one, either. I have a Droid phone, Kindle, and laptop. It is totally a luxury and I probably shouldn’t have done it. But I love it!
I’m with Lauren – I’m completely jealous of your iPadness too. Can you give me a ballpark figure, I want to start saving… 🙂
Before you berate yourself, I think it rocks that you can write and check all your book formatting on it. Go, you!!!
My boss caught me playing with my iPad yesterday. LOL
Jenny, I got the new 3rd generation iPad with 32 gb, which is the middle one. (They have 16 gb and 64 gb, too.) I got the one with both 4g and WiFi. The iPad was $729. I chose the lowest priced 4g through Verizon (you can pick Verizon or AT&T) which is $20 a month. I chose the lowest because I have WiFi at home and can turn the 4g off so it won’t use data. But when I’m out somewhere I need the 4g to connect when there’s no WiFi. I also bought a case, which was about $30. Eventually, I’m going to get one of the cases that has a built in keyboard, but I didn’t want to spend any more money right now. They are about $100.
Some places may still have the iPad 2, which is a little cheaper now that the new one has come out.
Congrats on being almost finished with the edits. That’s so exciting!
I have an iPad 2. Wi-Fi only. I love it. I do write on it from time to time. Usually more outline stuff. I haven’t tried export anything to my PC though. I could probably just cut and past into the body of an email.
I wanted to work on edits today during lunch, but for some reason, I couldn’t open the edit from the beta reader who sent the manuscript back in an open office file. I opened it fine in Word at home, but I couldn’t here at work. So I’m playing with my iPad at lunch. 🙂
Yeah, you could probably do that with an email. The formatting would probably be really messed up, but you can fix that in Word. Do you use Apple Pages, or something else?
Btw, if I didn’t have the 4g, I couldn’t play Words with Friends here at work. LOL
Excellent! I hope the iPad works out as you intended. When I get desperate and want to write away from home, I do that on my phone. Not easy, but it gets the job done. I downloaded a word doc app which allows me to save the file and email it to myself. Works for now.
Good luck on this weeks goals!
Melanie
Oh my, Melanie, you’re more patient than me. I can’t stand to even answer email on my phone, and it’s the Droid X, which has a pretty big screen. But if it works for you, then it’s a good tool.I have a word doc app on my phone, too, and I have used it to keep notes on things. But I only use it if I have to. LOL
I uses Simplenote on my iPad/PC combination, but only for flash fiction. My WIP is on the PC, on Scrivener. Srivener app for iPad is a WIP too, later this year.
I found that Scrivener had way too many bells and whistles for me. I usually like stuff like that, but for writing fiction, I just prefer a simple word document. 🙂