3 IPad Apps to Boost Your Office Productivity

Thinking of buying the recently announced iPad Mini tablet? Or perhaps you already own an iPad, and you’re looking for ways to use it effectively at work. Either way, you’ll appreciate these three iPad apps and how they can help make you more productive at the office.

IPad Apps for Better Productivity

SugarSync

SugarSync is an online service that lets you synchronize files across multiple computers and mobile devices. Unlike Dropbox and Google Drive though, SugarSync is ideal for work as it allows you to backup any folder on the computer. Support for various platforms such as the iOS (and Android) means that you can handily browse to and access Word documents or Excel spreadsheets directly from your iPad whether you’re in the conference room or at a customer’s office.

I have been a paying SuguarSync customer for years now, and there have been at least a couple of occasions when I accidentally deleted crucial folders and files – I didn’t even notice one of the files was one gone until a month after the fact. Fortunately, I recovered all of them thanks to the way SugarSync automatically saves multiple revisions of all files.

SlideShark

SlideShark is a mobile app that allows you to view and share PowerPoint presentations on the iPad with a level of fidelity similar to what you would expect from the desktop application. This includes animations, fonts, colors and graphics. The app lets you advance animations and slides by either tapping or swiping the screen.

PowerPoint files (PPT, PPTX) must first be uploaded to the service from a Web browser, where they are downloaded into the iPad app. No internet connection is required when presenting and viewing from your iPad though, which can be transmitted to a projector using a VGA/HDMI adapter or Apple AirPlay. All iPad models are supported, as well as iPhone 4 and later.

Simplenote

If you need to store text notes from your computer and various mobile devices, you can do so with the Simplenote online service. It’s perfect for quickly jotting down a thought, contact number or email address, which is then immediately and transparently synced to the cloud. Being text-only means that it is searchable and very fast; the capability to tag notes also makes it possible to organize large number of notes in a coherent fashion.

Ultimately, its strength lies in the healthy number of third-party apps and platforms that work with it. These range from Windows to Mac computers, and mobile platforms such as Android, iOS, Windows Phone and even Symbian and WebOS. Other developers have also put together support for Linux, as well as browser extensions for Firefox and Chrome. Check out the full list of software that works with Simplenote.

Do you have any iPad productivity apps to recommend? Do feel free to talk us about them in the comment section below.

Paul Mah covers technology for SMBs for Small Business Computing and for IT Business Edge. He also shares his passion for and knowledge of everything from networking to operating systems as an instructor at Republic Polytechnic in Singapore, and is a contributor to a number of tech sites, including Ars Technica and TechRepublic.