Documents by Readdle: iPad File Mgmt at Last

Frankly, I have mostly not considered my iPad as a tool for accessing files from anywhere other than the web or occasionally a pdf or two from Dropbox to read on the plane.

Apple apparently does not think this crucial need for road warriors is essential enough to provide such a tool in the built-in apps list. 

So the prospects of finding, opening, editing, saving and later retrieving any given text, rich text, pdf or html page on my iPad has just not been practical. Until now.

My tablet has just become far more useful, especially with the Kensington keyboard attached, since I found Documents. It is a file manager but not just.

Documents is from a product line generated by an outfit from the Ukraine called Readdle. I was aware of them having downloaded and enjoyed using Scanner Pro some months ago. They are poised to move into the business-apps realm, and I’d expect their efforts to succeed, based on the quality of their software.

Since techie-type posts are largely yawned at here, I’ll just suggest in the remote possibility you are interested, that you read about it here at AppStorm, where the writer reaches the same conclusion I did:

So pardon me for saying this so bluntly, but it’s an indicator of how necessary I think Documents is: Apple should buy it.

They should pick up the phone, call Readdle and make them an offer they can’t refuse. I’d make the argument that if Apple wants to become the de facto leader in corporate environments, they need a solution like this that makes sharing and managing files painless – even between multiple users.

Thanks to the way that Documents integrates with the cloud, it’s easy to use it for both personal and group situations.

A few other computer tools I’ve appreciated over the years and still use daily:

Workflowy An instantaneous and intuitive outliner with tremendous potential for ordering your thoughts, making lists, brainstorming.

Growly Notes (now via the App Store)  A click-anywhere document creation tool with some features I miss from OneNote.

Evernote  I was among the first 25k users for this “replacement brain” and have something like 1100 notes, including one I use to store ideas for and to write blog posts.