One of the apps that have slowly creeped their way into my life is GoodReader for iPad. GoodReader is an app that allows you to read, manage, organize, access, and annotate just about any file that you would want to. It was released as primarily a PDF reader / “annotater” at first, but now hos taken on a life of its own with ways to download files, sync with Dropbox, create, edit, and manage annotations on PDFs, and much more. Here are a few ways that I use GoodReader to get things done.
Syncing documents with Dropbox
I have an extensive collection of technical PDFs that I use for reference as well as to learn new languages and technologies that I keep synced between a Dropbox folders and GoodReader on my iPad. I can then make annotations, create new bookmarks, and search these documents on iPad. Any changes I make can be easily synced back to Dropbox.
Better (paperless) meetings and discussions
Instead of printing out email and agendas for meetings I can create a PDF copy, upload it to Dropbox, email it to myself, or even sync it manually through iTunes. I can then open all documents that I need for the meeting or discussion and use GoodReader’s tabbed interface to view each document when I need it. And, of course, I can make a new annotated copy or annotate the document directly and sync it back Dropbox. I can see this process is going to save paper (and headaches from missing notes) this year.
Signatures
Showing things off
The first rule of doing any type of freelance work is too assume that everything will go wrong. I remember about a year ago I was going to show off an interface design to someone and how it would work. I asked them beforehand if they WiFi there I could use. “Of course they did.” As I got there, took out my laptop, and then quickly realized that there was no WiFi connection, I was out of luck and couldn’t show anything. Of course, no one that knows the freelancing game would do this; they would always have a backup. When I am showing off a design or interface to someone I am working with, I take images of them on my Mac or PC, create PDFs, load them to Dropbox, and bring them down to GoodReader. I even go as far as including hyperlinks on interface buttons in the PDFs that will link to the next screen of the interface to show off the flow of the system.
Accessing Documents from (almost) anywhere
One of the things I love to do with GoodReader is access my Gmail account and see the entire list of attachements that have an @Action or Read/Review label. I can then quickly go through my list of attachements that need attention on my comfortable chair, leaned back, like Steve Jobs. Perfect.
I also offload most of my photos to box.net, mostly because of my huge, free 50GB account. I can then access these photos from GoodReader and through email or Apple’s Document Interchange, do just about anything with them.
Conclusion
As you can see, GoodReader for iPad is in my “top iPad app list” and made its way to my list of best productivity apps for iPad. With its outrageously small price tag of $4.99, you may be slightly insane for not using it for all of your document reading and handling needs on iPad.
