I’m no scripting fiend (Sal Soghoian’s Applescript 1-2-3 has been pressing bookbinding into my flatbed scanner for a year, does that count?) so I’ll defer to the masses to see if there is a solution for this. There’s no two ways about it: Apple’s Pages for iPad has no decent workflow for going between iPad and desktop. But there are some workarounds one can use. Until Hog Bay updates WriteRoom for iPad (which is coming) it’s the best option I have. Of course, I need to get my documents there.
The best way I have found for getting anything onto the iPad has been to save the current file from Scrivener as a .docx (.doc didn’t work, for some reason) and e-mail it to myself. Then, in the iPad Mail, you can send it straight into Pages. It retains a decent amount of formatting, surprisingly (though not all of course). I do what I need to do on the subway, then e-mail it again and retrieve it. It reminds me a lot of my 2003 workflow, but whatever, something better will come along, eventually.
Point being: anyone know of a script that will allow me to save out the current document straight to an e-mail? Anyway to automat this process? Any help is much appreciated. Also, anyone have a better workflow for now?
Just the current document? In that case you might try selecting all (Cmd-A) and then using the Mail service to send a rich text e-mail. Then you’ll have to see if Pages can open it from there. If that works for you, this service can be assigned a shortcut in system preferences. Alternatively, if you use LaunchBar or QuickSilver, there are even easier ways of doing this.
Otherwise, it sounds like what you are doing isn’t much better than what anyone else has discovered, yet. One person came up with this humorous flow chart for moving documents between iPad and your computer:
It’s even more fun for the people who haven’t forked over for desktop iWork.
Right after I posted that, Goodreader for iPad updated adding hooks into other iPad apps. Goodreader can connect to practically any webserver and download most readable file types into it. The best part is that it can connect to dropbox. So now I can just save out to dropbox and then grab it in Goodreader. From there I can open the file in pages. Bing bang boom. Workflow sucks right now. But I wear my early adopter sash proudly!
I thought some new tab in iTunes was set up as the go-between for Pages (and other) docs going to/from the iPad. And is there no way to either have a script speak to iTunes about moving things in/out of there or, alternatively, simply manipulate whatever folder on the hard drive is represented by that tab.
Just sort of wondering why the blesséd way is not the good way.
On my last synch of the iPad, I saw a tab that listed apps that exchange files with your main computer. To my surprise, one of them was Stanza.
@poritsky: another way to share documents with iPad is via the iWork.com interface.
From home computer, you may upload in Pages 08 or 09, Word, or PDF.
Doesn’t specify what version of Word; in my experience, Pages reads both .doc and .docx
This method is useful if you want others to comment on your files.
From what I have heard, the “blessed way” is in reality no less work than e-mailing documents to yourself. The new document will appear in an import menu on the iPad, so getting it there probably involves the same number of steps. Getting it back out is still difficult because iPad’s Pages format is not the Mac’s Pages format. I could be wrong on that, as I’m just going by hearsay, but this is what I’ve heard.
It’s more a matter of making comments online. On iWork.com, other readers of the file may enter Document Notes in a separate column, but the notes don’t point to a location in the text. In Google Docs, you Insert Comment in the same manner as Word. Apple has ignored many requests to improve the online comment/note function.
