Share iWork files using the iPad

iPad tips - Import, export, and share iWork files

What exactly good is all the work if you can't share your files with the people who need to see them? And what else could you, as an industrious iPad user, do with your fancy iWork suite if you can't view, open, and edit files that people send you - especially if your correspondents don't have iWork and cling to old Microsoft 'office' for all their business productivity software needs? No problem. Here's why:

All of the programs in the iWork suite can import, open, and edit files created in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. All the programs in the iWork suite can export files as PDF documents. Alternatively, iWork apps can export files in their native iWork formats in case you will find the desktop version of iWork and wish to do some more editing on your MacBook or iMac.

The one bummer here's that although Pages can export towards the native Microsoft Word .doc format, Numbers and Keynote can't export their contents as Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint files. Yet, anyway. You can move files on and off your iPad multiple ways - by email, by iTunes, or with a document-sharing site of Apple's called iWork.com.

iWork by email

How do you normally get most of the files people send you? If the answer is email, you're in luck. If you get a connected Word, Excel, PowerPoint, .csv file, or a Numbers, Pages, or Keynote file, you can save it in the corresponding iWork for iPad program. Just press and contain the file attachment icon in the message until the "Open in Numbers" option pops up. Just tapping once opens the attachment as a Quick Look preview for reading, but not editing, although the Quick Look preview does provide you with a button to open the file in the appropriate app.

Likewise, you can export iWork files by email in the iPad. Just choose the file and tap the icon to determine the menu to the right, then tap the Send via Mail button. In Numbers and Keynote, you can send a file as a PDF document, or like a native Numbers or Keynote file for the Mac desktop editions of iWork. In the case from the more versatile Pages, though, you get a third option: a Word .doc file. Tap your choice to convert and attach the iWork file to an outgoing message.

iWork by iTunes sync

File too big to email? You can also employ the File Sharing option included in iTunes and sync files back and forth between your computer and iPad. To import a file to the tablet, connect the iPad, click its icon in the iTunes window, and click the Apps tab. Scroll towards the file transfer settings area at the end of the screen.

In the Apps column, click the program whose file you want to share, click the Add button, and navigate to the file you want to transfer. Once you select it, sync the iPad to copy the file over. On the iPad, tap the small folder in the upper-right corner of the My Documents /Spreadsheets/Presentations screen. In the box tap open the transferred file to import it into your chosen iWork app. To export a file from the iPad to iTunes, tap the icon and choose Export.

Then tap a format for the exported file. Connect the iPad to your computer, select it in iTunes, and then click on the Apps tab. Once the iPad and iTunes sync up, the file appears in the shared files list. Select it and click the "Save to..." button to copy it to a folder on your computer, where you can open it in Word or whatnot.

iWork

To share a file so others can easily see it on Apple's work-in-progress site, you need an Apple ID. If you select the Share via iWork.com option after tapping the iPad's icon, the file uploads towards the Web and you can send email invitations for colleagues to visit look and comment on it from their web browsers.

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