- Get Started Using Pages, Numbers, and Keynote
- The New Menus and Screen Layouts Featured Within the iWork Apps
- What You Should Know About Syncing iWork Files Using iCloud
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What You Should Know About Syncing iWork Files Using iCloud
In addition to turning on iCloud functionality on your iOS device, it’s also necessary to turn on iCloud syncing functionality for each of the iWork apps separately. This is done from within the Settings app.
Launch Settings, and on the left side of the Settings screen, tap on the Pages, Numbers, or Keynote option. When the app-specific menu appears within Settings (shown in Figure 7 for Pages), turn on the virtual switch associated with the Use iCloud command.
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Figure 7 Be sure to turn on the iCloud sync function for each of the iWork apps within Settings.
When a Pages, Numbers, or Keynote document or file is synced with iCloud, it can be accessed from any computer or device with a web browser by visiting http://www.icloud.com/#iwork. The files or documents will also sync automatically with whichever Macs or other iOS mobile devices are linked to the same iCloud account.
When this syncing process takes place, the files are kept in their original Pages, Numbers, or Keynote format. So, if you create a document on your iPad and want to access and view it on your Mac (after it’s been synced using iCloud), you’ll need to have Pages running on your Mac. Or, if you want to open the document on your iPhone, Pages must also be installed on your iPhone.
However, if you want to import a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint presentation into one of the iWork apps, you’ll need to email the document or file to your iPad, perform an iTunes Sync, or transfer the document or file to/from another cloud-based files sharing service that the iWork apps are compatible with.
Likewise, if you want to export a Pages, Numbers, or Keynote document or file as a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document or file, you’ll need to manually export it from the Library screen of the appropriate app (as shown in Figure 8). Keep in mind that you also have the option of exporting a file from Pages, Numbers, or Keynote in a PDF format, which is easily viewable on almost any computer or mobile device.
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Figure 8 You can export a Pages, Numbers, or Keynote document or file (created or edited on your iOS device) into Word, Excel, or PowerPoint format from the Library screen of each iWork app.
Further Thoughts
In addition to Pages, Numbers and Keynote, other apps and app suites for the iPad (and iPhone) offer Microsoft Office compatibility. Plus, rumors continue to circulate that Microsoft is working on iPad-specific versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint.