cheekypaul

Q: can multiple documents be opened in pages ios/ipad?

I think the answer is no.

I don't use Pages iOS, but a friend, non technical, does. I loaded Pages on to my iPad and couldn't find a way to do it.

His question was, can't I have 2 documents open at the same time so I can compare/contrast/etc...?

iPad Air, iOS 9.2.1, iOS Documents Multiple

Posted on Jan 27, 2016 3:15 AM

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Q: can multiple documents be opened in pages ios/ipad?

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  • by SGIII,

    SGIII SGIII Feb 13, 2016 4:45 PM in response to cheekypaul
    Level 6 (10,681 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 13, 2016 4:45 PM in response to cheekypaul

    If you have an iPad running iOS9 that can handle split-screen multitasking then you could have one document open in Pages and export the other to a format that can be opened in another application that supports split-screen, then run the two applications at the same time.

     

    SG

  • by cheekypaul,

    cheekypaul cheekypaul Feb 14, 2016 5:24 AM in response to SGIII
    Level 2 (228 points)
    iTunes
    Feb 14, 2016 5:24 AM in response to SGIII

    Yes, it's possible to do that, but that's not going to help my friend, who's non-technical, and bought into the Apple 'ease of use' selling point.

    When he's at work and the 17 year old temporary workers are on 20 year old PC's running some ancient versions of Windows and Word on CRT monitors can do it, be he can't on his iPad Air 2 running iOS 9 (one of the most advanced operating systems in world), he calls me to ask why...

  • by SGIII,

    SGIII SGIII Feb 14, 2016 9:25 AM in response to cheekypaul
    Level 6 (10,681 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 14, 2016 9:25 AM in response to cheekypaul

    cheekypaul wrote:

     

    Yes, it's possible to do that, but that's not going to help my friend, who's non-technical, and bought into the Apple 'ease of use' selling point.

    When he's at work and the 17 year old temporary workers are on 20 year old PC's running some ancient versions of Windows and Word on CRT monitors can do it, be he can't on his iPad Air 2 running iOS 9 (one of the most advanced operating systems in world), he calls me to ask why...

     

    Yes, I understand it takes a tremendous amount of technical knowledge to just open a document in a separate app and then swipe left from the right edge to have that separate app share the display with Pages.

     

    Wonder how well those "20 year old PCs" do with the many other things that apps running under iOS can do so easily with a tap or two ...

     

    SG

  • by cheekypaul,

    cheekypaul cheekypaul Feb 14, 2016 9:37 AM in response to SGIII
    Level 2 (228 points)
    iTunes
    Feb 14, 2016 9:37 AM in response to SGIII

    Ha!

    Well, it's interesting. Since I've asked this question I've discovered, for my friend, that Pages can only have one doc open at a time. Seems like a limitation to me, but I don't use Pages. There's plenty of power in an iPad, so it's not a case of them not being powerful enough to open more than one.

    There are workarounds, I've learnt a few, but they're not practical for a non technical person. For your suggestion, that would be incredibly frustrating in terms of formatting I would imagine. Still, I don't think he's being unreasonable asking in the first place.

    As for the 20 year old PC setup in their office, they aren't in need for much else that the ipad does, just more than 1 doc open at once will do!

     

    I've told him to buy a macbook.

  • by SGIII,

    SGIII SGIII Feb 14, 2016 9:45 AM in response to cheekypaul
    Level 6 (10,681 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 14, 2016 9:45 AM in response to cheekypaul

    I would guess being able to open more than one document at a time in a particular is a more popular request, now that many machines running iOS probably have far greater processing power than aging PCs, and split-screen capability has been built into the OS for some of the machines.  Feedback/feature requests to Apple could be given at:

     

    http://www.apple.com/feedback/pages_ios.html

     

    Meanwhile, the workaround described can work perhaps more easily than perhaps thought, if one of the documents open is for reference only (i.e., as you point out, if it required editing/formatting then it wouldn't be workable.)

     

    SG