Printing from Ipad

Chapter 1 : Managing Files and Printing

In This Chapter ✓ Understanding how iPad stores files ✓ Sharing files by e-mailing, AirDrop, or through the cloud ✓ Setting up Home Sharing ✓ Printing wirelessly from iPad ✓ Using third-party printing services

kay, I’ m going to be very upfront about this: Apple has not used a tra- Oditional paradigm for moving files to and from your iPad or managing files on the device. In essence, this is partially a chapter about the following:

✓ What iPad does differently from how traditional file management is handled by OS interfaces such as OS X’ s Finder or Windows Explorer (Windows Version 7 and earlier) or File Explorer (Windows 8). (For brevity, I just refer to this feature using the Windows 8 nomenclature, File Explorer, in the rest of this chapter.) ✓ How you can get things in and out of the device with- out a USB port or DVD drive.

One exciting development that arrived with iOS 5 is iCloud, which allows you to back up and store content online, and I discuss that in this chapter as well as in Book I , Chapter 5 . In addition, with iOS 7, you can now share content with somebody in close proximityCOPYRIGHTED by using the AirDrop technology. MATERIAL The other topic in this chapter is printing, and there are two options here: Use iPad’ s native printing capability with a compatible wireless printer or use a third-party printing app.

Finding Your Files iPad stores files locally by app, or if you use iCloud, iPad automatically stores and shares files among iOS devices and with your Mac or PC. Here ’s how this works.

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How iPad stores fi les Though there’ s no Mac Finder or Windows File Explorer on iPad where you can view all your stored files in one place, iPad does store files. Open the Photos app, for example, and you see lots of photos, each one contained in a separate file. The Music app contains audio files, Videos contains movie files, iBooks contains e-book files, and if you own Pages, it contains word- processing documents (as shown in Figure 1-1 ), and so on.

Figure 1-1 : Documents stored by Pages.

Though there’ s no Windows File Explorer feature on iPad, when you connect iPad to a PC, you can use the Windows File Explorer feature on your computer to move files around on iPad.

How did those files get there? You may have created them in iPad (as with the Notes or Numbers apps); you may have downloaded them from the Internet, as with music or video purchases from iTunes; or you may have synced them from your computer or had them pushed to all your iOS devices from iCloud, as with music files or photos. Perhaps you grabbed a document from a website or from an online storage service such as Dropbox.

Depending on the app you open, you may see a Documents button to display thumbnails of documents, as shown in Figure 1-1; libraries of photos as in Photos; albums of music or individual song files as in Music (see Figure 1-2 ); or bookshelves or lists of e-books as in iBooks. Each app offers a slightly different way to find whatever you’ ve created on, downloaded to, or synced to your iPad.

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Book V Chapter 1 Managing Files Managing Files and Printing

Figure 1-2 : Music shows you files by album, song, composer, artist, and more.

If you go to iTunes on your computer with your iPad connected, you can see your iPad file structure organized by app. But however the files got in there and however you find them when you open an app, getting them out of your iPad is the focus of this chapter.

See Book II , Chapter 1 , for information about buying and downloading content and Book I , Chapter 5 , for information about syncing to your computer and buying apps. Book 12 , Chapter IV , gives some details about moving files around for use with iWork products.

Going with iCloud iCloud isn’ t so much a place as it is a storage service. If you choose to back up or share files by using iCloud, you can’ t go to a website and organize those files. Rather, they’ re automatically backed up from your devices, and new files created or downloaded to one device are automatically pushed to your other devices. In essence, this process is invisible to you. You still access these files by opening the associated app.

Note that Apple came out with a version of iWork called iWork in the Cloud that allows you to use the iWork apps online (rather than downloading the individual apps), and any documents you create can automatically be stored both on iCloud and your iOS devices.

The one thing you can do at iCloud (www.icloud.com ) is use the Find My iPad feature, which allows you to send a sound or message to your lost device, remotely lock it, or wipe data from it. See Book I , Chapter 9 , for more about this feature.

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Sharing Files As mentioned in the previous section, iPad doesn’ t let you get at files the way your computer does with a series of folders and files. You open files in individual apps, such as Photos and Videos. You can’ t save files to a storage medium, such as a flash drive that you can remove and place in another computing device. Therefore, managing and sharing your files with other devices or other people works a bit differently on your iPad.

You have a few options for getting files out of your iPad:

✓ Sync them via iCloud, which automatically pushes them to other iOS devices. ✓ E-mail them. ✓ Sync with a computer to share things like calendar events, contact records, music, or photos, which is covered in Book I , Chapter 5 . ✓ Share them over a network. ✓ Share them with somebody in close proximity using AirDrop. ✓ Use the Safari browser and a third-party service, such as Dropbox, to upload and view files in the cloud (collectively, the places on the Internet where data or apps can be stored and accessed using a browser).

Also consider using wireless devices from manufacturers such as Kingston and Maxell for external storage, or use third-party apps such as PhoneView that allow you to move and manage files.

Relying on good old e-mail You can use tools in individual applications to e-mail files to yourself or others. E-mailing files to yourself can be useful if you’ ve worked on a document on your iPad and then want to get a copy of it on your computer. You can’ t exactly save a copy because (remember) no removable storage medium exists on your iPad, so you e-mail the file and save the e-mail attachment to your computer hard drive or other storage.

Here ’s an example of e-mailing from an app; in this case, Photos:

1 . Open Photos and locate a picture you want to e-mail. 2 . Tap the picture to open it and then tap the Share button to display the Sharing menu shown in Figure 1-3 .

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Figure 1-3 : View the several options for sharing.

3 . Tap Mail. The e-mail form shown in Figure 1-4 appears.

Figure 1-4 : The e-mail form and onscreen keyboard appear together.

4 . Fill out the e-mail form and tap Send to get the e-mail on its way to yourself or somebody else.

Getting up close with AirDrop To use the AirDrop feature that’ s new with iOS 7, you need to be near another AirDrop–enabled device (I’ m talking within a few feet). Then, as in the previous e-mail example, you can use the Share menu from within the app. (Refer to Figure 1-3 .) Tap on AirDrop in that menu and any eligible

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devices in your vicinity appear. Tap the device you want to share with, and the content appears on the other device when they accept it.

That ’s it!

Going through the cloud iCloud is a storage and sharing service from Apple that allows you 5GB of free storage or additional purchased storage for your content. This storage allow- ance doesn’ t include apps, content shared via Photo Stream, any content shared via iTunes Match, or content you’ ve purchased from the iTunes Store. However, you should know that backing up files to iCloud is an all-or-nothing proposition: You don’ t have the ability to pick and choose what you store there. Book I , Chapter 5 , provides details on setting up an iCloud account and making settings to choose what to back up and share via iCloud.

You have, in addition to iCloud, other cloud-based options for sharing files. Apps such as Dropbox and FileFly — Easy Wi-Fi Sharing and Viewing (a wireless file-sharing app) allow you to upload files to an online site and, using an app you download to your iPad, access and view those files. Some of these options provide more flexibility for managing your files than iCloud does.

Take a look at how this works with Dropbox, which is a good, free file- sharing app that provides one of the easiest ways to get any and all files to and from your iPad to any and all other computers and devices.

Dropbox is a cloud-based service that allows you to store your files on its servers and access them on any device that’ s connected to the Internet. (Figure 1-5 shows you what the Dropbox interface looks like if you surf there using Safari.) It directly supports (in the form of dedicated software) OS X, Windows, Linux, Android, BlackBerry, and of course, iOS.

When you’ re on a computer, Dropbox works like any other folder on your hard drive. When you open it with your browser, you have instant access to all your files. When you drop something into your folder, it’ s copied to the company’ s servers, and then pushed out to anywhere you’ ve set up with your Dropbox account, including your iPad or others you’ re sharing folders with.

After you download the Dropbox app, you can open a file on iPad and print or view it, but not edit it, unless you choose the option of opening the document with an app you have on your iPad that would be a logical fit. Figure 1-6 shows the Share button, and iPad suggests two e-reader apps to use to open this PDF document. A third possible option is to share the document via AirDrop.

Dropbox folders can be selectively shared with other Dropbox users, making it a great tool for any sort of collaborative project.

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Figure 1-5 : Accessing Dropbox through Safari.

Figure 1-6 : Choosing an app to open your document in.

In addition to the Dropbox app, iOS app developers can add Dropbox functionality directly to their apps, just as the QuickOffice folks did. This functionality makes working with your files in those apps easier.

Setting Up Home Sharing With Home Sharing, you can stream content from any Mac or PC to your iPad directly. You simply set up Home Sharing on your iPad, turn on the feature in iTunes on your computer, and you’ re good to go.

Here are the steps for setting up Home Sharing when you’ re connected to a Wi-Fi network:

1 . On your computer, open iTunes.

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2 . Click the File menu and choose Turn On Home Sharing. The Home Sharing dialog appears. 3 . Enter your Apple ID and password and then click Create Home Share. A message appears, telling you to use the same account you just signed in to on devices you want to share with. 4 . Click Done. 5 . On your iPad, tap Settings and then tap Music. 6 . In the Home Sharing section, shown in Figure 1-7 , enter your Apple ID and, beneath the ID, enter a password for the same account you used in iTunes on your computer.

Figure 1-7 : The Home Sharing settings for Music.

7 . Tap the Home button and then tap Music. Music opens, displaying a Library button. 8 . Tap More and then Shared, and then tap a shared library to display a catalog of what’ s available in it. You can now play any content in that folder from your iPad. To view shared videos, open the Videos app.

Printing from iPad If you need to print from your iPad, you can use its built-in wireless printing capability or a third-party app, which is likely to give you a few more printing controls.

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Native printing from iPad Book V Chapter 1 Native printing capability is part of iPad’ s bag of tricks. This capability requires a wireless-enabled printer that supports the AirPrint protocol. All Managing Files Managing Files

the major printer manufacturers offer AirPrint–compatible printers, includ- and Printing ing HP, Epson, Canon, Brother, and Lexmark. The only control you have over your printing is to set the number of copies to be printed (though no doubt Apple will add more robust features to this in future iOS releases). You can also use an app such as Printopia or AirPrint Activator 2 to print from iPad to shared and networked printers, whether wireless or wired.

You can print photos, notes, e-mail messages, web pages, and documents from iWork apps such as Pages. Tap the Share icon with an arrow on it (available in the Safari, Mail, Notes, and Photos apps) to display a menu including the Print command. When you tap that command, you see the Printer Options dialog. Follow these steps to print:

1 . In the Printer Options dialog, shown in Figure 1-8 (if you haven’ t yet used this feature with your printer), tap Select Printer. iPad searches for any available wireless printers.

Figure 1-8 : Choose your printer and the number of copies and print away!

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2 . Tap your printer to select it. 3 . Tap Printer Options to return to the Printer Options dialog and tap the + or – button in the Copies field to adjust the number of copies. 4 . Tap Print. Your document or photo prints.

When you have print jobs going to your printer, you can access a Print Summary dialog that shows the name of the document that’ s printing, the printer it’ s printing to, the number of copies, when the print job started, and its status (for example, Printing 1 of 3). You access this summary by double- tapping the Home button and scrolling in the list of apps to locate the Print Center app. Tap it, and the summary displays.

Printing with third-party apps You can choose from several third-party apps: PrintCentral, Print n Share, Print n Share Pro, and PrintBureau, to name a few.

One of the best of these is PrintCentral Pro for iPad, available for $7.99. This app has a file browser and an e-mail reader that allows you to access any- thing on your iPad, and it also allows you to print to a network printer across your Wi-Fi network. If you install a free print server called WePrint, provided by EuroSmartz, on your Mac or PC, you can even print to your printer remotely through a 3G or 4G connection on an iPad model that includes Wi-Fi and 3G or 4G. (I recommend installing the print server anyway because it gives you more printing options.)

The Printopia and handyPrint (on a Mac) apps make any shared or network printer on your home network visible to your iPad. Printopia has more features but is expensive, whereas handyPrint is free.

After you purchase and download PrintCentral to your iPad, follow these steps to print:

1 . Download WePrint to your computer. Both Mac and Windows versions are available at http:// mobile.eurosmartz.com/print/download.html. 2 . Plug the Lightning end of your Lightning to USB Cable into your iPad and the USB end into one of your computer’ s USB ports. For third-generation and earlier iPads, plug the Dock Connector end of your Dock Connector to USB Cable into your iPad and the USB end into one of your computer’ s USB ports. 3 . Open WePrint. You see your server address, as shown in Figure 1-9 .

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Figure 1-9 : The WePrint app on your computer.

4 . Open PrintCentral on iPad. 5 . Tap the Getting Started file listed there to test your printer. 6 . Tap the Print icon in the top-right corner. The Print dialog shown in Figure 1-10 appears.

Figure 1-10 : PrintCentral ’ s Print dialog.

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7 . Tap the Choose button and enter the server address you found in WePrint into the dialog that appears. PrintCentral connects and displays all possible printers (see Figure 1-11 ).

Figure 1-11 : PrintCentral ’ s possible printers dialog.

8 . Tap the printer you want to use and then tap the Print button in the Print dialog. The test document prints.

After you have PrintCentral working, you can use the Share icon from within apps to open a document in PrintCentral and print it. In other apps, you can make a copy of a file that places the copy on your Clipboard and then open the Clip archive in PrintCentral, choose the file you want to print, and print the file.

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