best word processing for iPad?

I'm a writer looking for excellent word-processing software. I want to be able to save documents and send them to my Macbook Pro easily.

Microsoft Office for iOS (the iPad) is the best. If your iPad is new, you can download the Apple iWork apps for free which include Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.

To buy Microsoft Office Word for the iPad, open your iTunes app and click on the App store and type in "Microsoft Office for the iPad" in the search box. You can buy Word for the iPad direct that way.

Alternatives

Another popular alternative with Professional Journalists is "Scrivner".

Take a look at the product page and also as many reviews as you can find.
Literature and Latte - Scrivener Writing Software | Mac OS X | Windows

Sorry I gave you the link for Mac OS X Mavericks. There is an upcoming version for iPad scheduled for this year. Check out this link
http://www.creativeshed.com/2014/01/scrivener-ipad-2014/

It is just another alternative that I know is highly respected by Professionals.

DavidH

Lcorinash said:

I'm a writer looking for excellent word-processing software. I want to be able to save documents and send them to my Macbook Pro easily.

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As stated above Scrivener would be an excellent choice as it's designed for writers, however, it is not presently available for iOS. In the meantime you have your choice of MS Office Word for iOS or Apple's iWork Pages for iOS. Of the two, I definitely would choose Word.

chscag said:

Of the two, I definitely would choose Word.

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As long as one has a 365 account, this is by far the best word processor available for the iPad. If you don't have a 365 account, Pages is a fine backup.

If you're looking for a free alternative, Google Drive works really well. I use it on my iphone all the time, so I imagine it would work just as well on an ipad. It's not as fully featured as Word, but for basic note taking or writing articles, it's fine, and it will let you save a document and work on it offline. It does require you to have a Google account, though (which you already have if you use Gmail, a Youtube account or any other Google service).

As an actual Professional Journalist, I use SimpleNote on my iPad more than anything else. It's ridiculously basic -- one font! No bolding or italics! -- but seamlessly syncs continuously with iCloud so that the Simplenote client on the iPhone or the Mac have the text within seconds of me writing it, and it has a "time machine" like ability to go back to earlier revisions if desired. It's also free.

I also like iA Writer, which has a more "typewriter" feel and I like for doing screenplays, plays and other fiction writing. Likewise it will sync with the $20 Mac client through iCloud, but with both of these what I like is the simple, distraction-free writing environment. I haven't tried everything out there, but I do also own Pages. I use it more for layout than writing.

chas_m said:

but seamlessly syncs continuously with iCloud so that the Simplenote client on the iPhone or the Mac have the text within seconds of me writing it, and it has a "time machine" like ability to go back to earlier revisions if desired.

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Just a note for anyone else - it doesn't have to sync across iCloud and can sync using it's own service which makes it truly cross platform. I use it here with their syncing service and it works wonderfully.

Good point, thanks!

Scrivener is the ducks guts, when it comes to writing tools. And as stated it isn't on iOS yet, but will be by end of year. I bought it 1 month ago, for $15 in a Special, and as someone that hated writing at school, has found I am a writer sort of writing my life story lol but its a awesome App, and when it comes to iPad, WOW !!!

If you are looking for Minimalistic then I use Plain Text 2 on my iPad Mini. It has settings to set font, once and forget, you can change line height, and syncs via iCloud or Dropbox, has a good Folder structure, has a Extended Keyboard, (so you don't have to keep going into other characters), supports Fleksy Keyboard and has word and character count. It also supports, plain txt, Markdown, .html and more.

If you are looking for something a little more robust and something where you need formatting, then there is as stated above Word, but nothing beats Pages from Apple, and with the integration thats coming with iOS 8 in the Fall, then Pages is your best bet. You will be able to start a document on your iPad, then when you are within range of your Mac, Pages will be ready to continue from you last keystroke you did on your iPad, and this will be seamless.

If you want a 3rd Party App, ill say 1 word . . . . . NOTABILITY

EDIT: And OneNote from Microsoft is pretty good as well, and is well worth the look

I use Pages for work and find it excellent an all regards.

TattooedMac said:

Scrivener is the ducks guts

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Well, that's a new one. I've never heard that before.

vansmith said:

Well, that's a new one. I've never heard that before.

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Urban Dictionary | Duck Guts We are w funny bunch down here

I use Office2 Pro for my university word. It works well and it supports multiple cloud storage options. I'm really happy with it. I haven't made a document that doesn't open or formats incorrectly.


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