When I bought my iPad2 several months ago, I justified the purchase in part by deciding to change my workflow and move away from paper as much as practically possible. I like the idea of reducing paper and going “green” but also finding a better way to organize all the documents I have in email, on my hard drive, in hard copy at work and home.
Based on discussions with other CFOs in my network, we have only begun to see how the iPad can be used in business. Many companies are going exclusively to the iPad for their board meetings. I am bullish on the iPad as productivity device.
I have a few friends that have similar paperless goals and we have benefitted from sharing best practices we have learned along the way. Here are the apps and other gadgets I have found most helpful. What have I yet to discover?
1. Dropbox – using a cloud file service is really the engine that powers your ability to go paperless. A great start to using your iPad for more than playing Angry Birds is to use it as a digital folder in meetings. I have all day monthly staff meetings that cover the gamut. Instead of stacking up a pile of papers, my laptop and a notebook as I did for years, I now walk in with my iPad and nothing else. I use my Fujitsu ScanSnap to scan handouts from others and file them appropriately. Dropbox gives you access to all your files via computer, iPad or phone. You can share files or folders with others easily. There are other cloud filing systems out there (box.net, iCloud, etc.) but Dropbox is the best so far for my purposes.
2. Notability – I know folks that use their iPad for taking notes by typing either directly on the iPad or with an auxiliary keyboard but I don’t feel comfortable doing that. It seems distracting to me. I have used Moleskine journals for notes for awhile and still refer back to them often so thought I should give a stylus and free hand writing app as a substitute. This has become one of the most useful functions of my iPad. I have used at least five different apps including NotesPlus and Notetaker HD. I just recently discovered Notability and it trumps all the others. The digital “ink” is very smooth, it has a very intuitive user interface and an auto sync feature with Dropbox that rules. I use a Kensington Virtuoso Stylus/Pen. I can quickly email notes to my assistant or others if I need to get them out quickly.
3. Quickoffice Pro HD – a good app for accessing your Microsoft documents if you use Word, Excel and PowerPoint in the office. Most “power users” won’t find it or any other apps on the iPad best for creating docs but good for quick access. I use it most for converting docs to PDF and then using Notability to mark them up to share with others. Connections to Dropbox and Google Docs make it easy to access your files.
Other favorites are Evernote for capturing anything and everything that I want to refer to later, Digits calculator with a supercool feature to add notes and email the “tape” and Keynote for making presentations from the iPad.
Let me know your favorites.
