The iPad and the Workflow from Hell

A frequent question surrounding Apple’s new iPad is whether the device is capable of acting as a laptop replacement. The answer to the question isn’t clear yet. However, initial experiences with the device suggest if you’re planning on doing a lot of “content creation” or plan to work with multiple devices, you’re not going to enjoy the process. The issue here isn’t so much the functionality of the applications (more on that another day) or even the utility of the device itself (which is generally quite good). The problem is the complex and crufty workflow the iPad enforces.
There are two fundamental issues. The first seems counter-productive, but ultimately surmountable. The second may push the effort from painful to untenable.

Problem one – organization and “findability.” Keep in mind that if you’re creating documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and the like, you’re most likely doing it in some form of collaborative environment. Files you create are shared with others for review and approval, and you review and approve other’s documents. Simple documents may be merged to form more complex objects. Different versions are created and tracked. Maintaining order generally requires one of two approaches.

The first, the creation of a hierarchy of folders combined with standard naming conventions representing different projects and document versions, is a perennial favorite. The barrier here is the lack of a folder structure, at least within the native Apple iWork apps (Pages, Keynote, and Numbers). It’s a flat, single-level folder. Depending on the number of documents being maintained, your ability to quickly locate a specific version of a document becomes pretty iffy.

No worries, you say. Keeping track of a complex hierarchy of folders is old school, and the better approach would combine meta data, such as tags, and search. I’d agree with you, but can only offer you good luck in the effort. There is no search or filtering within the document storage area for each of the three iWork apps. You scroll until you find the document you need. In fact, overall search on the device seems a bit incomplete – multiple efforts failed to turn up existing documents, along with individual contacts.
The issue of synchronization is even more painful.

I use multiple machines to work. My office system is a 27” iMac that I use for Aperture, iWork, and a selection of non-Apple apps for different tasks. The system is fast, powerful, and offers a vast amount of real estate on which to work. It’s a great system – but a bit cumbersome to take to a client, use in a meeting, or to setup in a coffee shop or library to get some work done on the go. Those jobs, of course, are meant to be handled by a portable device. In my case, that’s meant an aging MacBook Pro.

The obvious issue is keeping files in sync. How to make sure that documents created or edited on one machine are available on another. The solution I’ve found is Dropbox. I’ve created an archive in Dropbox that’s maintained on each of my machines – Dropbox automatically syncs new and changed files across the system, so the latest version is always available regardless of device. It’s a great solution, in large measure because I don’t have to think about it. As long as I save the files to the local Dropbox folder, everything is taken care of for me.

But things start to fall apart on the iPad. There is no Dropbox folder – indeed, there is no “folder” at all, just each apps’ file storage. The Dropbox iPhone app operates on the iPad, but only lets me view files. I can mail a link to a file, so it’s possible I could mail myself a link, and use email, one of the supported means of getting files on and off the device. If I visit the Dropbox site with Safari, I can download files and open them for edit. Good news, and a start, but there is no way to save the files back to the cloud, so it’s a one way path.

To get the updates back in the mix, I’ll need to export the file – that places it in iTunes on the machine to which I’m syncing. From there, I can save it to the local file system – and thus get in back into synchronization. But that’s multiple steps, and requires access to the machine with iTunes. If I’m traveling, or away from my iMac, it’s just not going to work.

The other options are equally as problematic. I can email the file to someone, introducing the same fiddly workflow and possibilities for errors. Or I can use the fledgling iWork sharing service to post it to Apple’s version of the cloud. That might be acceptable, but so far it also is a one-way trip – there isn’t an easy way of keeping files automatically synchronized across systems.

Now, I can hear some of you ask why bother with Dropbox (or SugarSync, or any of the other cloud-based storage services)? Apple, as part of its MobileMe offering, provides the ability to sync files across multiple machines. It does, but it suffers from a poor reputation. Regardless, it’s not an option – the service is, so far, largely missing in action on the iPad.

Not a lot of answers on this one – it appears that work sessions on the iPad are going to be batch affairs, with lots of manual fiddling and synchronization. I hope the good folks at Dropbox have a solution for this in the offing. I can see lots of headaches ahead.

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