PDF Reviews on iPad?

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
I was hoping the Appleinsider community could step up to the plate for this question. So far no one on the internet has touched this subject.

Can you use any of the features of the PDF review process (view or make comments) on an iPad. What happens when you send a shared email review? can it be viewed? do the comments show up? Anyway i'll be getting an iPad next week, and if i don't hear from you i'll post what i find out then. Has anyone had ANY experiences with this subject. Thanks, your consideration is very much appreciated.

Peace & Sweetness

-G

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    dr millmossdr millmoss Posts: 5,403member
    Apple did not include any freestanding method for viewing PDFs on the iPad, so no, you can't comment a PDF on the iPad. The method most of us are using to partly make up for this shortcoming is the app GoodReader, which at least provides a method of viewing PDFs outside of Mail or Safari. Not sure what happens to a commented PDF when viewed this way on the iPad.
  • Reply 2 of 12
    areseearesee Posts: 776member
    Dr., are you saying that the iPad will not display PDFs?



    I ask because my Touch can display PDFs that I access using the iDisk app. If I have a PDF I want to read on my Touch I upload the PDF onto my Mobile.me iDisk. On my Touch I use the free iDisk app to access the PDF. When I tap on the PDF file the file is downloaded onto my Touch and the Touch displays the PDF. Are you saying that the iPad can't do what the Touch can?
  • Reply 3 of 12
    dr millmossdr millmoss Posts: 5,403member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by aresee View Post


    Dr., are you saying that the iPad will not display PDFs?



    I ask because my Touch can display PDFs that I access using the iDisk app. If I have a PDF I want to read on my Touch I upload the PDF onto my Mobile.me iDisk. On my Touch I use the free iDisk app to access the PDF. When I tap on the PDF file the file is downloaded onto my Touch and the Touch displays the PDF. Are you saying that the iPad can't do what the Touch can?



    Good question. Apple hasn't released a version of the iDisk app for iPad, but presumably the one for iPhone/touch will work, though I have not tried it yet. The iPhoneOS has the built-in capability to read a number of file formats, including PDF, which allows these formats to be read by apps that use the service (including Mail and Safari). What Apple has not done (yet?) is release a freestanding document reader, which is why a lot of us are buying GoodReader. I will have to give the iDisk app a try. Maybe I could have saved myself a buck.



    Either way, I don't think you'll get any PDF markup capabilities though perhaps you can see documents with included markups. Haven't tried that yet either, but it's on the list.
  • Reply 4 of 12
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by aresee View Post


    Dr., are you saying that the iPad will not display PDFs?



    I ask because my Touch can display PDFs that I access using the iDisk app. If I have a PDF I want to read on my Touch I upload the PDF onto my Mobile.me iDisk. On my Touch I use the free iDisk app to access the PDF. When I tap on the PDF file the file is downloaded onto my Touch and the Touch displays the PDF. Are you saying that the iPad can't do what the Touch can?



    No, the iPad CAN display pdf's that way.



    But that's ALL it can do... display them.



    There are a couple Apps as well that do a better job of filing and displaying pdf's. But what the original poster was looking for was a FULLY functional pdf app... one that lets you edit/markup pdf's and then save them with those markups. I don't know of any apps that will allow that (though there may be.)
  • Reply 5 of 12
    dr millmossdr millmoss Posts: 5,403member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by KingOfSomewhereHot View Post


    No, the iPad CAN display pdf's that way.



    But that's ALL it can do... display them.



    Poorly, on the iPad. I just downloaded and tried using the iDisk app for iPhone for viewing a PDF. It has to be pixel-doubled, so the results looks lousy. Also, the iDisk app does not save files locally on the iPad, so you have to be in wifi range to use it.



    Interesting, but of all the reviews I've read so far, nobody has picked up on the glaring little things that Apple has so far left undone on the iPad. An obvious one is a document reader. The other is an iPad version of the iDisk app. They also haven't released an iPad version of Remote, another obvious omission.
  • Reply 6 of 12
    Apple hasn't done it... but there ARE some good 3rd party apps that do pdf's and other documents very well.



    The big issue seems to be... someone sends me a pdf attachment in email...

    I like to use the default "Mail" app for email... and it will view the pdf... but I'd rather view/save the pdf in "GoodReader". There's no way to transfer the pdf between apps... I've got to configure GoodReader's mail client to access my email account, then download it within that app... That works, but it's a bit of a "Rube Goldberg" way of accomplishing the task.



    I really don't mind the lack of a full-blown "Finder" ... but... a little inter-App cooperation like that would be nice. Maybe some sort of "Clipboard" for documents/files to hold one (or more) complete files that you could then cut-and-paste between Apps.
  • Reply 7 of 12
    dr millmossdr millmoss Posts: 5,403member
    Maybe some of this will be addressed in 4.0.



    I like the iPad a lot, but the little rough edges are becoming more apparent after a week of use.
  • Reply 8 of 12
    areseearesee Posts: 776member
    Thanks Doc and King. I knew that the iDisk app was limited to just displaying the PDF but that met my needs. It's nice to know that neither iDisk or Remote have been rewritten for the iPad. I use both on my Touch and was looking forward to using them on the 3G iPad I intend to get.
  • Reply 9 of 12
    Do any of the third party apps have the ability to comment? I've seen a lot of readers w/ expanded functionality vs. what the iPad can do on its own, but none w/ creation/editing features.
  • Reply 10 of 12
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by karlhungus View Post


    Do any of the third party apps have the ability to comment? I've seen a lot of readers w/ expanded functionality vs. what the iPad can do on its own, but none w/ creation/editing features.



    Read the thread... It's been answered.



    So far, nobody has found one with a full set of authoring tools. (Or even partial authoring/editing functionality.)
  • Reply 11 of 12
    Actually, there IS an iPad app that lets you make notes in a PDF file... I download the file to my iDisk account and then use iAnnotate to download the file into the app and then make notes.



    Its the only way I have discovered to do this so far...
  • Reply 12 of 12
    I needed the same functionality so i created an application for it. Its now on the iTunes store and it is called PdfReview. I hope this app is helpful for you.



    Kind regards, Sander
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