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iPad at Work by David Sparks is 323 colored pages chock full of apps, tips, and workflows for using your iPad at work. David Sparks is an attorney as well as an advocate for a paperless law office. So it should come as no surprise that he uses his iPad regularly. But will iPad at Work make it worthwhile for you to use an iPad regularly?
What I Like About iPad at Work
Screenshots, screenshots, and more screenshots. Practically every page in this book shows you what an app looks like, or how a menu on the iPad functions. This is terrific, especially for apps I’ve never heard of or tried out. A huge drawback with Apple’s platform is that you can’t demo a lot of the software out there. The App Store can show you the screenshots provided by the publisher, but that’s about it. Sparks shows off the apps and does some nice comparisons when appropriate.
But really the best part about this book is that it appeals to all levels of iPad mastery. From the person who is opening their first tablet or Apple product to the die hard Cupertino junkie, this book can provide helpful information to everyone. Of course, the former can get a lot more mileage out of this book than the latter. Even as a former Apple employee, there were numerous apps in here I had never heard of that I have or will download thanks to Sparks’ book. I also enjoyed the app comparison. For example, I hadn’t decided which word processing app to buy. They’re all somewhat expensive (for an app), but iPad at Work went through the positives and negatives about each to help me make a decision.
What I Didn’t Like about iPad at Work
The very nature of this book lends itself to the Kindle/iBook format. Unfortunately I was reading it in print form. I think the only way to read this book is in digital format.
David Sparks, the author, is an attorney. With that background, I had hoped for more of a focus on the iPad in a law office. That is not this book. iPad at Work is a broad discussion about the iPad in almost any office environment. There is an appendix dealing with specific professions (including lawyers) but that is the extent of the specificity.
Summary
iPad at Work
Reviewed by Josh Camson on .
Summary: iPad at Work provides a nice introduction to the iPad and discusses a wide range of apps for any business. But the book works best in digital, not print, format.
Overall score: 4.5 (out of 5)
Josh Camson is a criminal defense attorney with CamsonRigby, LLC. He blogs about opening his own law firm here at Lawyerist. In his spare time, Josh lifts heavy things up and puts them down again.
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I agree that the only way to read the book is in its digital format. That is what I did and I found it to be most informative and helpful. I also agree that for those of us that are lawyers more of a focus on using an iPad in a law office would have made it a slightly more useful book for us.
That point aside, however, this is a really great book that covers its subject very well.
That is a very interesting article, I think the iPad has become an important tool in business.
Personally, I have my iPad all the time with my productivity tools such as Evernote. Recently on the Evernote Trunk I discovered Beesy, which reinforces my productivity at work thanks to the quick note taking but also the import and export of Microsoft docs on my iPad.