HOWTO sync your iWork Documents to iCloud & iOS5 iwork without (!) browser
*Please forward this also to seeking Numbers and Keynote Users. I know that all over Apple's support board the same questions are spread.*
Like so many of iwork09 v9.1 users on Lion I learned that there is virtually none syncing to icloud possible, but only a manual down- and upload to a Mac using a Browser at www.icloud.com.
I fiddled all night long based on observations from users of this support forum ( respect whomever, I don't remember but I also do not want to get famous .. don't worry ) that found hidden directories on the Lion user library , and have come to a usebale solution that might not be perfect, but at least makes the AUTO-UPLOAD from MAC iwork to the icloud and your iOS5 iwork a reality WITHOUT needing the clumsy Browser "drag and drop" or Up-and download solution.
To make use of the following workaround and enable automatic syncing you need :
- for the Mac : LION 10.7.2 and iCloud enabled "documents and data" in the iCloud preference pane under Systempreferences.
- iWork v9.1 or if you purchased individual apps using MacAppStore the individual latest apps with a .1 release version ( pages in this case would be v4.1 )
- for the Mobile Part iOS5 on your iPod/iPad/iPhone and have of course the ( at least iOS pages for this here ) iWork for iOS apps installed on them ( versions 1.5 ). Versions 1.4 are NOT iCloud enabled but must be updated using the AppStore's update feature. The update to 1.5 is free.
- You also need to have of course icloud enabled both for the iOS5 as well as for the individual mobile apps ( see the app's Settings ).
The solution is very simply - we need to save Pages documents to a specific folder, no longer in "some" place, but to a specific one. Rule is : Everything that lands there, will go up to the cloud and thus be visible on both www.icloud.com and also in your mobile pages.app's document manager.
First you must understand that in Lion there is no access to a users's library folder. Apple decided to hide it. We could unhide it, but that is not needed, because we only need one subfolder visible in the Finder's save to dialog.
-- On Lion 10.7.2 use Finder's "go to folder" menu and point it to ~/Library ( that's short for /users/YOURACCOUNTNAME/Library )
You are now inside your own personal Library that stores settings and data; You will find a Folder "mobile documents" . DRAG IT TO Finder's Sidebar to create a permanent reference to this folder ( this or other folders does not need to be unhidden )
(depending what iCloud enabled apps you have installed on your iDevice, you will see for each app a folder, as for me I have keynote,numbers,pages and Sketchbook on my iPod - and these are all iCloud syncing apps ).
Notice : All the subfolders here ( coloured ) are representing the app on the iPod.
Each of these coloured folders contains a "Documents" subfolder. Only that is our important folder and the ones we need to save/export/manually put our docs into .( the other folders in the apps contain miniatures and versions, but they are not of interest for the initial sync process. The other folders will fill themselves with needed infos over time when the file is opened and re-synced from the iOS device , so do not care about )
Our files MUST go there to sync across the cloud immediately , no further intervention needed. You Export/save your files in to the "Documents" folder underneath these apps-folder and they will be in the cloud instantly ( ok, few seconds maybe, depending on network speed ).
Why ? Basically we need to use this "mobile documents" folder as a starting point to save our Desktop App's files in to the individual subfolders to make them appear also on our iOS apps . Because the App's Name is included in the com-apple- naming scheme, we can easily figure out which folder belongs to what file-extensions.
You do not want to save a .numbers or .xls file in the Document's folder of "com-apple-Keynote" because keynote can't open spreadsheets, so we would use the "com-apple-Numbers/Documents" place to save such. For Pages we can put docx/ doc / rtf .
Sounds complicated, it is not :
So now you would create a pages file, empty or from template as usually on your Mac , do as you wish, and then EXPORT to the "Documents" folder within the "Pages" folder . We Use the Sidebar's "Mobile Documents" as our navigator help to find the folder we need :
it ends up then this ( notice that "SyncMePlease.doc" has not yet a surrounding folder -- this will later come automatically once this is opened in your iDevice's app ) :
Now, let's fire up Safari only to look if "SyncMePlease.doc" gone up in the iCloud, it is. It is a generic icon but it is there :
And now a look at iPod's pages :
iPod touch, iOS 4.3.3, 09/2011 ipod touch 4G
