Contemplating an iPad Pro

Scrivener Scrivener for iOS
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Hi,

I currently use Scrivener for Windows on my PC and laptop. It’s time to replace the laptop and I’m thinking of going to an iPad Pro with a keyboard, since I really only use the laptop for Scrivener, web browsing, and email. How much functionality would I lose between the Windows version the iOS version? I assume I can work on the same project on both devices (not at the same time)?

Thanks in advance for any insight.

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I use iOS Scrivener constantly. I find it’s very good for large scale organization – at the level of moving sections around – but less good for sentence/paragraph level editing due to the smaller screen and more limited interface. It’s fine for drafting and notetaking, but when I start moving paragraphs from Section A to Section B I need more space.

You’ll lose the Outline view, some of the metadata, and significant functionality from the Compile command. For me that’s fine – I use my Mac for those tasks – but it would definitely be a consideration if I were thinking of going iPad-only.

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See this thread with the same question. It’s from 2021, but nothing has changed.

Best,
Jim

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Thanks. I really don’t use the Outline view and I would compile on my PC anyway, so loss of those isn’t a big deal. I do use the binder heavily. I don’t know how the Quick Reference would compare. I’m looking at it for more of an on-the-go-let-me-quickly-setup-to-write kind of use. Especially in the tiny airplane seats that are not conducive to a larger laptop.

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I have to say, in your position, I would go for a MacBook Air. Base cost for each (in the UK) is £999 for the 11" iPad Pro and MacBook Air. From what you say you’d use it for, M2/M3/M4 is not really significant… my 2020 M1 Air is more than up to all of that!

With the iPad Pro you’ve got to add in the cost of the keyboard (£299 for the 11" version), and you have the reduced functionality of the iOS version. With the MacBookAir you have the full MacOS version of Scrivener, including fully functioning[1] Scrivenings mode (not available on iOS), corkboard, QR, compiler etc.

If 11" is important to you, then it’s got to be the iPad, but I don’t suppose there’s much of a weight benefit for the iPad Pro 13" plus keyboard (base version £1049 plus £349 for the keyboard) compared with the MacBook Air.

That’s just my take.

:slight_smile:
Mark

[1] On the Mac, Scrivenings works as intended, allowing you to search, highlight etc. across document boundaries, which they haven’t yet managed to implement on Windows.

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You raise a valid point. Maybe I just go with a smaller & lighter Windows laptop (that isn’t 17"!) I’m not a Mac/iOS person, though I do recognize its strengths in certain areas. I plan to get my granddaughter an iPad Pro w/Pro Create and an Apple Pencil because she draws amazingly and I want to foster that. All the teen/twenty-something anime artists I talked to at comic-cons pointed me in that direction. Which is why I thought I might head in that direction for writing.

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I’ve been using an iPad (and later iPadPro) and Scrivener works well on it. But I my main workstation is a Windows desktop with two large monitors and that’s where I do my “heavy lifting” manuscripts. I love the iPad Pro for being able to take work on the go in more of a composition phase of my work, but defer editorial and formatting work at scale with a desktop system. Even with the 12.9" display on the pro, I am not sure I would be happy proofing manuscripts on it, but that may be purely preference. As a non intrusive device the iPad Pro with magic keyboard/case is hard to beat for portability.

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Just a thought or two --after thinking xiamenese has a quite nice point, but if you don’t want the mac…

  • I find an iPad Air 4 just a very nice working tool, in the sense you’ve thought of it. I write in Scrivener for its benefits, but also Craft (craft.do)
  • I’d feel the trick of it is to get the Apple Magic Keyboard. This has truly excellent feel, still so after several years. It will make the weight of the combination probably not far from the Macbook Air, but it’s worth it. The key layout is slightly small, but even with elder hands, I didn’t find trouble adjusting nor switching bad and forth with laptop (full-size and also excellent touch)
  • the track pad on the Magic Keyboard is also very nice
  • an Apple Pencil will let you do all sorts of the nice things; mine is version 2
  • I’m not sure an iPad Pro will get you more usefulness than an Air, unless you are doing something very computationally heavy, like movie editing…
  • …but one thing you will get with an iPad having an M-series processor is the evolving Apple Intelligence, and I suppose a top M-series as the Pro will be all the better when you are using that :slight_smile:
  • you’ll have to figure out whether you want an 11 in or king-size iPad – imagining that really needs visit/s to the Apple Store to work out the choice. I get along fine with Scrivener on the 11in size, but larger might be nicer for a number of things, to be traded off with handling.
  • How well either size works with airline seating is something others may be able to suggest; my many years of travel are attenuated now, save for story imagination :slight_smile:
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In my experience, an 11" screen is about the maximum for an economy-class airline seat. The dimensions of an iPad + external keyboard are not that different from a similarly-sized laptop.

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Thanks everyone for the comments and insights. I decided to go with the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 which should give me the best of both worlds and still have the full Scrivener experience.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081N52BP2?ref=fed_asin_title&th=1

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This is an older thread, but my 2 cents: the 13 inch iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard is a beautiful set up. It’s functionally the same keyboard as a MacBook. It has the extra row of keys and a larger trackpad. I use the iPad in the same way I use the Astrohaus Freewrites: I enter raw text and then transfer that to the MacBook (in the case of the iPad I copy it over via the Notes app). I use the iPad because it is such a beautiful environment. Scrivener iOS is proving a little buggy, but as always, once I identify workarounds for each bug, the writing process becomes seamless.

I get the feeling there are two distinct types of writers when it comes to writing environments: (1) those for whom the aesthetics are essential and (2) those who could care less. Neither is right or wrong, but if you’re of the former type, the iPad is amazing.

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I had an ancient iPad Pro that worked just fine. I just bought a new iPad, not a pro or Air, and it works very well. So don’t bother with the Pro, it’s almost twice as much as the regular iPad.

I wrote a whole book on the iPad before buying my Mac. The one thing I really missed is the global replace, which I always need eventually. Having to go through each file to change or correct a name is a PITA>

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Here’s to hoping you get some actual battery life for portability out of that Dell. My two Dells currently provide 2.5 and 4 hours of battery life. So much for enjoying the ambiance of a coffee shop - or anywhere else - to write. Battery life is only one of the reasons I switched to a Mac after tossing my Apple /// in the trash many decades ago. It’s been Windows since then, until now.