Q: iCloud drive

How do you set iCloud up to operate that way?

Not sure if we aren't at cross purposes here.

How do you set iCloud up to operate that way?

If you mean to not keep a copy on your Mac, turn off iCloud drive in your iCloud settings.

If you mean use iCloud drive without having the documents on your Mac, through your web browser.

Now I am confused

If ICD is on there are 'hidden' copies on the Mac, if off there are not.

In my experience it does not matter how they get there, so long as they are there, and ICD is on there are 'hidden copies' on any Mac connected to the same ICD account.

If iCloud Drive is turned off, there are no copies on your Mac, but you can still access your iCloud documents through a web browser.

I think you are possibly just looking for something more complicated.

How do you set iCloud up to operate that way?

It will only work, if you disable iCloud Drive on the Mac. You can upload and download using the web interface, but you will no longer see iCloud Drive in the File Chooser dialog or the Finder sidebar.  It will be cumbersome to keep your documents in the cloud consistent, because you cannot edit the documents in iCloud. You have to download the latest version, delete the document from iCloud, then upload it again using the Web Interface. You can access cloud documents this way, but the ease of use of iCloud Drive will be gone.

You would only need to up/download non iWork documents and whilst it isn't as convenient as having iCloud Drive in the Finder, it is the only solution for someone who doesn't have enough space and (with the exception of the iWork documents) no different to how you would use dropbox if you didn't want to use the space on your computer.

No thanks. sounds like back in the telegram days.

As I don't commit anything important to iCloud storage I will admit to this being a bit of an academic mission really.  There are storage systems available that do exactly what they should do with minimal fuss. And then there is iCloud (which correctly is in the 'other methods' class)

You would only need to up/download non iWork documents

I thought, it would not be possible to bring back the "Documents in the Cloud" functionality again, if we ever upgraded to iCloud Drive - that it was a road of no return.  Has this changed? Does turning off iCloud Drive on a Mac make it possible again to use iWork with iCloud in the previous way?

No, and frankly that is a good thing. If ever an online storage solution was truly awful, Documents and Data was it, but iCloud Drive is continuing the tradition of making a very simple task rather complex.

Apple are still not much good at online storage and sync solutions (for data files)

Apple are still not much good at online storage and sync solutions (for data files)

I liked my iDisk a lot, but we are not yet back to that great solution.

If ever an online storage solution was truly awful, Documents and Data was it,

I am glad we can now ignore the app-specific folders and build our own folder hierarchy  in iCloud. I like my documents to be stored by tasks and not by applications.

Csound1 wrote:

 

No thanks. sounds like back in the telegram days.

 

....I will admit to this being a bit of an academic mission really....

I think that may well be why you don't quite grasp why those storage systems that "do exactly what they should" are of little use when sharing documents between your Mac and the iPad. Composing a pages document over different devices using iCloud is indeed done with minimal fuss, doing so with dropbox is certainly not.

Working through a web browser wouldn't suit me either, but as I pointed out for someone who hasn't got enough space it's exactly the same as one would do with dropbox.

léonie wrote:

 

You would only need to up/download non iWork documents

I thought, it would not be possible to bring back the "Documents in the Cloud" functionality again, if we ever upgraded to iCloud Drive - that it was a road of no return.  Has this changed? Does turning off iCloud Drive on a Mac make it possible again to use iWork with iCloud in the previous way?

I'm referring to the ability to edit your iWork documents through iCloud.com, are you thinking of iWork.com

One of the drawbacks with using iCloud drive through a browser is having to download and upload your documents to work on them, actually a bigger drawback would be forgetting to upload them again. You don't have to worry about this with iWork because you work on them in the cloud so to speak.

Sorry Winston but the service I use makes all files that are on my Mac accessible on anything else, with no input from me.

If I work on a spreadsheet in Excel on my Mac I can open the iPad file manager (the one that Apple forgot), select the file and carry on working on it.

We had this conversation before and you are still overthinking it. If I save the 'Winnie of the day' file in the Fun folder on my Mac it will be in the Fun folder on my other Macs, that old Dell, my iPad and my iPod, same file, same folder without any intervention at any time by me.

That is what I mean by "do exactly what they should do"

You are correct we did have this conversation before, but you never explained how you put the pages file back into your file system after you had worked on it.

All your files are accessible through the file system on an iPad in iCloud too, the just aren't available in applications that can't open any of the files, but then again no one would want to do that would they.