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Managing Your iWork Documents

The data for your iWork documents is stored in files on your iPad, possibly on your Mac or PC, and also sometimes on shared WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning used for collaboration and managing of files on the web) servers, your MobileMe iDisk, and, as you will see, on iWork.com if you choose.

You can store iWork files on a PC, but iWork runs on only iPad and Mac OS X. As you'll see, you can easily convert your iWork files to the comparable Microsoft Office file types so that you can work on them on a PC in that format.

One of the features that makes iWork for iPad so successful is that the iWork team has made it so easy for you to move documents around and work on them in whatever environment you want, from your desktop to a mobile device such as your iPad.

What matters is that you can get to your documents, read and write them, and share them with people. It's also critical that you can get to documents that other people share with you without either one of you having to jump through hoops.

Deep down inside the iPad operating system (iOS), there are files and folders, but most of the time you manipulate them indirectly through apps. When it comes to apps, the files and folders are in a special area reserved just for that app. Some apps such as the iWork apps can read files from servers such as iDisk and WebDAV; if you select one of those files as you'll see later in this section, it will be copied into the appropriate place on your iPad for you to work on it.

The storage areas for files on your iPad are kept separate for each app. If you install Pages and then remove it from your iPad, your Pages documents will disappear along with the Pages app. Before uninstalling any app from your iPad, make certain that you have backed up any files you have created.

Copying a file into an iWork for iPad app

If you have a file on your Mac or on a server (an iDisk or WebDAV server) you can copy it into an iWork app to work on it there. Of course, the document needs to be saved as a compatible file type. That means:

• Numbers: .numbers, .xls, .xlsx
• Keynote: .key, .ppt, .pptx
• Pages: .pages, .doc, .docx

These are the primary document types. You can import other files such as JPEG image files by adding them to your iPhoto library, music files in iTunes, and so forth.

1. From your documents page (My Documents, My Spreadsheets, or My Presentations), tap the Copy From button located in the bottom of the screen.
2. For iDisk or a WebDAV server.
   There is no login for iTunes because your account ID is stored and your iPad is paired with one and only one computer that runs iTunes.
3. Select the file you want.
   You can navigate through folders. Files that are dimmed out are not compatible with the app you are running.
   The only file that can be copied is a Keynote presentation because this is the Keynote for iPad app. The file will be copied into your documents (My Presentations, My Spreadsheets, or My Documents).
4. You will be warned if there are any errors.
   The most common errors are caused by opening a document created in another application or an earlier version of an app; these errors can include missing fonts, resizing of slides in Keynote, and the use of unsupported features. Wherever possible (almost always), the app will work around these issues.
5. Fix up any errors and then get to work.