iPad: The Missing Manual, 6th Edition

Chapter 11. Get Productive with iWork

You’ll learn to:

• Create iWork text files, spreadsheets, and slideshows

• Import, open, edit, and export Microsoft Office files

• Export files as PDFs

• Share iWork files

• Find productivity suite alternatives

WORD PROCESSING, SPREADSHEETS, AND presentations probably aren’t the first things that come to mind when you think of the iPad—unless they’re the first things that come to your mind on any topic. After you’ve used your iPad—Air, Mini, or other model—for longer than two hours, you realize that it’s a great little device for consuming stuff (videos, eBooks, web pages), but not so much for creating stuff, like, well, word-processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

Apple’s iWork suite for the iPad attempts to change that perception. For many years, iWork—which consists of the programs Pages (word processing), Numbers (spreadsheet), and Keynote (presentations)—lived on some Macs in the giant, looming shadow of Microsoft Office. After all, from corporate offices to college campuses, Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are the de facto productivity standards. But iWork plays nice with Office documents, and thanks to iWork for iCloud, you can edit iWork and Office files from anywhere on the Web.

Apple has overhauled iWork and made it free for those with new iPads that have iOS 7 pre-installed, but, for 10 bucks a program, you can use it on older tablets, ...