Techwalla may earn compensation through affiliate links in this story. Learn more about our affiliate and product review process here.
You can create documents in many common formats using the iPad, including Microsoft Office and Apple iWork compatible documents, PDFs, plain text and rich text files. The iPad's only native document creation app is "Notes," which allows you to create plain text documents that can be exchanged through email. Creating any other document format requires finding the appropriate app and using that app's interface to create your documents. There are often several apps that can create each document type, so check the specifications of each relevant app on the iTunes App Store before you purchase one.
Connect your iPad to the Internet. Wi-Fi connections will be faster than 3-G for browsing the App Store and downloading apps, so connect through Wi-Fi if you can. Manage your wireless connections by tapping "Settings" and selecting "Wi-Fi" or "Cellular data" and choosing your preferred network. Also, make sure the "Airplane" setting is off.
Video of the Day
Press the "Home" button to return from the Settings app, and then tap the "App Store" app.
Browse for an app that will create the type of document you need. Apple's "Pages" app is a full word processing application with the ability to add photos, rich formatting, and work with both Pages and MS Word files, as well as save to PDF. If you need a full suite of MS Office-compatible document creation, Documents To Go and Quickoffice Connect both offer different levels of Word, Excel and PowerPoint document creation. Both feature rich formatting and file sharing support. Quickoffice Connect also supports tables in your documents, which Documents To Go does not. However, the latter features a flexible word count option not found in Quickoffice. For plain text and PDF documents, plenty of options are available. Browse the App Store's "Productivity" category to find the best app for your needs.
