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Using Pencil and iPad to Edit Text

I'm a writer. When a piece of writing seems “done”, I print it out and go over it with a red pen for final polishing. Then I painstakingly enter the changes back into the document (not my favorite part!). How much of this workflow could I replace via Apple Pencil + iPad Pro? E.g. is there any way for my pencil-editing edits to directly affect word processor text?


Even if I can't execute edits via Pencil, that's cool....it would be nice just to be able to see the marked-up version on-screen alongside the original, rather than on a sheet of paper awkwardly located on my desk. This would also save a lot of paper! One concern: I really need to see a page of text at a time while editing. And if I need to compress the text and/or shrink the font to view a page on iPad, that'd leave little white space in the doc for inputting edits with the pencil (I own the 9.7" iPad Pro, not the large one).

MacBook Air, 1.7GHz / Intel Core i7 / 8GB/512GB

Posted on Apr 30, 2016 2:18 PM

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10 replies

Apr 30, 2016 8:12 PM in response to james a Leff

I haven't been able to identify any word processing programs (Word, Pages) that allow Pencil markings.


I use Pages on my iPad Pro 9.7" and my Macbook Pro. In the lower right corner of the iPad version, there is the "paragraph" symbol (on the keyboard, top right). Put the cursor where you need to make a change. Touch the paragraph symbol and go to "Comments." Make a notation of the change on your iPad Pro. It will highlight the word near the change. Open the document on your Mac. The highlighted portion where you need to make the change is there.


I may be able to make this more clear with screenshots. Let me know if you need them!

May 1, 2016 9:54 AM in response to TMHahn

7 hours of research later.....


Yes, the best one can do is mark-up via iPad, and enter edits manually. The Pages functionality you mention is helpful, but not enough for my purposes. Seems like the acknowledged app leaders are "iAnnotate" and "PDF Expert", with Goodnotes, Penultimate, Noteshelf, and Zoomnotes as worthy options. Useful comparison here: http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/app-for-strictly-taking-notes.1950982/#post- 22474535

Jul 20, 2016 5:41 AM in response to james a Leff

James, I have an iPad pro and unfortunately none of the Apple based office apps allow me to mark up documents with the Apple Pencil. If, however you have office 365 loaded you can use the Apple Pencil in draw mode and mark up word, excel and one note (this is what I have been able to do to date). You cannot annotate a pdf file with the Apple Pencil unless an add on app is purchased (this is what I have read so far).

It is a pity that Apple have a very limited functionality with the Apple Pencil but perhaps this will change. The microsoft office suite does seem to have more functionality if one wants to mark up documents and have hand writing recognition, although one has to use office on a macbook pro for that to work.

I have not used notes plus but am cautious about the approach that one has to purchase multiple apps to achieve a goal when microsoft office seem to have this covered.

Using Pencil and iPad to Edit Text

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