If you bought this book (or are even thinking about buying it), you’ve probably already made the decision to use an iPad in your work. That's great, because the iPad makes a great tool for people in all sorts of businesses. Maybe your iPad is an adjunct to your computer, or maybe it's your primary computer. Either way, this book has you covered.

About This Book

Who you may be, dear reader, varies widely. Maybe you've been using an iPad for entertainment and other personal activities, or maybe you're completely new to the iPad. Maybe you're self-employed, or part of a small business that has little or no tech support. Maybe you work for a big company that has an IT department to both help you and impose rules on how you can use your iPad at work. The type of business the readers of this book do also varies widely.

That's why I cover a wide range of activities that you may do with your iPad for the purpose of work. I also cover multiple tools that you might use for each kind of task, because the right tool for you might not be the right tool for someone else.

This book helps you select and use the right tools for your work needs, as well as use the iPad effectively and safely in your work environment by addressing issues such as keeping work and personal information separate.

Here’s one thing this book won't do: Teach you the basics of the iPad. Many good books are available to show you how to use the iPad itself, and several of those books come from the publisher of this book, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Start with one of them if you are new to the iPad, and then use this book to learn how to make the iPad work at work.

If you're completely new to the iPad, I recommend that you get Wiley's iPad For Seniors For Dummies, by Nancy Muir. Don't let the “Seniors” in the name dissuade you: It's a great primer for anyone.

Foolish Assumptions

This book is organized by sets of functions that people do at or for work. Although I do walk you through the steps to accomplish specific tasks in apps where those tasks are complex, this book is not a recipe book for using apps. Instead it’s a guide to picking the right tools and understanding how to make the iPad fit into common business workflows and practices.

I presume that you know how to do your job, so my tone is direct and uncomplicated, with no idle chitchat. I give you straightforward advice and recommendations for the right tools to do that job. Some of the issues I raise are technical or complicated because, well, that's just how work is sometimes — but I do my best to make those issues clear.

Each chapter covers a range of tools for the work you may do. I show what these tools do well and how they work at a basic level. I also let you know their limitations and requirements so that you can assess their fitness for your work.

Conventions and Icons Used in This Book

This book uses several iPad-specific terms, including:

• Tap: Press your finger on the screen and release it quickly.
• Swipe: Drag a finger across a substantial portion of the screen, often to scroll the screen's contents. Some apps use the word slide to describe this action.
• Flick: Quickly drag a finger over a short area and then release it from the screen, usually to reveal a menu button like Delete.
• Press: Push down on a physical button with your finger and then release it. The iPad does have a few physical buttons and switches, including Home, Volume Up, Volume Down, Sleep/Wake, and the so-called Side switch that can be set to lock the screen rotation or mute the iPad. (The iPad Air 2 does not have the Side switch, so use the corresponding controls in the Control Center instead; you access the Control Center by swiping up from the bottom of the screen.)
• Pop-over: A container for features and commands similar to a dialog, palette, or sheet in a computer application. You can dismiss a pop-over by tapping elsewhere on the screen.
• Form: A container for features and commands that you can dismiss only by tapping a button such as Done, Cancel, or OK. It's like the settings sheet in the Mac's OS X user interface.
• Status bar: The menu bar at the very top of the iPad screen that stays visible most of the time, displaying the time, network connection status, battery charge, and so on.
• Home screen: The screens that display app and folder icons. Your iPad can have as many as 15 Home screens, which you navigate by swiping sideways among them.
• Home button: The physical button at the bottom side of the iPad (when held vertically). Press the Home button to switch from an app to the last Home screen opened, and press it again to go to the first Home button. Double-press the Home button to enter multitasking view, which shows all running apps. Tap an app's preview screen to switch to it.

Three icons are used in this book to alert you to special content:

Tip icons point out insights or helpful suggestions related to tasks in the step lists.

Remember icons point out context or background information that will help you avoid mistakes or confusion later on.

Warning icons point out things that don't work as you'd expect or don't work correctly. I provide suggestions for how to deal with such warnings.

Beyond the Book

I have written a lot of extra content that you won’t find in this book. Go online to find the following:

• Online articles covering additional topics at

  www.dummies.com/extras/ipadatwork

  Here you’ll find out how to avoid ever losing the contents of your iPad; use the new Handoff feature to pick up from where you left off while working on another device; make your iPad act like a phone if your iPhone is close by; turn your iPad into a Wi-Fi hotspot; record your iPad’s screen by using your computer and an app; and print from your iPad. Here you’ll also find ten preferences in the Settings app that every business user should know.

• The Cheat Sheet for this book is at

  www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/ipadatwork

  Here you’ll find a primer on using the iPad's gestures and buttons, common Siri controls, and the apps supported by the various accounts the iPad can access.

• Updates to this book, if I have any, are at

  www.dummies.com/extras/ipadatwork

Where to Go from Here

The book's chapters are organized into parts so that related business issues are kept together. But you can read the chapters in any order — let your needs and questions determine what you read, and when.

But I do recommend that you start with Chapters 1 through 3, because they cover issues that many users simply don’t think about when using an iPad for work, such as what iPad model to buy and how to manage business accounts and data separately from personal accounts and data. Getting these issues right will make the rest of your iPad experience a lot more pleasant, and effective.

This book assumes that your iPad is running iOS 8, the operating system released in fall 2014. Apple updates iOS roughly once each year, so you may be running an earlier or later version. (Your iPad or iTunes on your computer will alert you to both those major updates and to smaller updates that occur in between.)

Those changes may affect what you see on the screen, but you'll find the app advice and basic operational instructions to be the same whether you are using iOS 7, iOS 8, or something newer. When a change is very substantial, I may add an update or bonus information that you can download at this book’s companion website, www.dummies.com/extras/ipadatwork.

Part I

Getting Started with iPad at Work

Visit www.dummies.com for great For Dummies content online.

In this part . . .

Envisioning the iPad in Your Work Day

When I go on the road for work, I no longer bring my laptop with me, and I haven’t done so since 2011. I can do most of my work on my iPad, so why lug around the laptop? Plus, my iPad is one of the cellular versions, so I can access the Internet from almost anywhere. That means no hunting for the nearest Wi-Fi cafe.

If I do need to do work that my iPad has no apps for, then I can still bring the laptop with me, leaving the computer at the remote office or hotel room to do that special work when I need to. Meanwhile, my iPad is with me all the time, ready to use when needed for the many things it can do.

But you don’t have to be a road warrior or work in the field to benefit from an iPad at work. I find that it’s really handy in the office, too: I bring it to conference rooms to take notes that are instantly available on my computer when I get back to my desk. I look up information during the meeting to make sure decisions aren’t based on bad assumptions. I show people that presentation or those budget numbers or that how-to video.

There are also times I use both my computer and iPad at the same time for work at my desk. In that case, the iPad becomes a second screen, letting me check some stats for a report or monitor my email while Word and Excel fill my computer’s big screen. Or I can monitor a conference on my iPad while working away at my computer.

Where the iPad Can’t Do the Job

As convenient as the iPad is — you can bring and use it almost anywhere — its limits are real:

• The small screen means you can’t scan and work across multiple open windows as you would on a PC’s larger monitor. In the iPad world, you’ll find yourself focusing on one app at a time.
• The iPad doesn’t support a mouse, which allows for much finer control for delicate and precision activities like drawing plans.
• A PC’s physical keyboard is much faster to type on, and more accurate, too. Don’t get me wrong: After you adjust to it, the iPad’s onscreen keyboard is quite usable, but it ain’t a computer keyboard. And you can buy an external Bluetooth keyboard for your iPad if you prefer to type on physical keys.
• Some applications don’t run on the iPad at all. Some — like Microsoft Office, AutoDesk AutoCAD, and Adobe Photoshop — have iPad versions that drop some desktop features that your work may require you to use.

So, for most of us, an iPad doesn’t replace our computer. But it does let us do more than a computer alone can do.

Equipping Your iPad

Before you can use an iPad at work, you need to get an iPad. Whether you buy it yourself or requisition it from your employer, you’ll want to review the choices you need to make both for the iPad itself and essential peripherals for it.

Setting Up Apple ID and iCloud

For an iPad to access Apple’s services — iTunes, the App Store, iMessage, and FaceTime — you need an Apple ID. Chances are that you already have one: If you have an account at the iTunes Store, that’s your Apple ID. If you don’t have one, you’ll get the option of signing up for one when you first turn on your iPad and go through its Welcome screens. You can also sign up for an Apple ID via iTunes on your computer, by choosing Store⇒Create Apple ID and then following the prompts to create an Apple ID. (If you don’t see this option, choose Store⇒Sign Out first.) Or you can go to https://appleid.apple.com from any browser to set up your Apple ID.

Most people use their Apple ID to access both Apple’s online stores and Apple’s iCloud sync-and-storage service, given how convenient using one ID is. And you may not want to. If someone discovers your Apple ID, he or she can then use that ID to buy media from the iTunes Store, App Store, and so on, plus access any iCloud documents, email, browser bookmarks, and even passwords. That person could also sign in to iCloud.com and have your email redirected, so you wouldn’t get the notifications of his or her activities.

But don’t panic: Apple has several methods to reduce the risks of such account hijackings, as Chapter 3 describes. Still, using separate Apple IDs for your iTunes and iCloud accounts can be an easy way to add an extra margin of safety to your iPad’s services.

To use a different sign-in for iCloud than for iTunes, you need to create two Apple IDs (do so at https://appleid.apple.com) and then sign in to the iTunes Store and App Store via one ID and iCloud via another.

When you first set up a new iPad, you’re asked to sign in to the iTunes Store and into iCloud, so you can enter the two IDs and passwords then. Or you can skip those steps during setup and enter them in the Settings app later, as follows and as Figure 2-1 shows:

• In Settings, tap iCloud, enter your ID and password, and tap Sign In. You can also create a new Apple ID here.
• In Settings, tap iTunes & App Store, enter your ID and password, and tap Sign In. You can also create a new Apple ID here.

If you are using a single Apple ID for both iTunes and iCloud and decide to create a separate ID for iCloud, you’ll have to sign out of your iCloud account on all devices that use it, and then sign in with the new ID. The documents and settings that had been stored in your old iCloud account will not transfer to the new one. For Safari bookmarks and passwords, that’s okay, because Safari will take whatever settings are stored locally on your various devices and send them to the new iCloud account. But your iCloud documents won’t do that, so be sure to first copy them to your computer or local storage on your iPad and then move them back to iCloud after you’ve switched accounts.

Choosing between iTunes Backup and iCloud Backup

Everyone should back up his or her iPad, but if you use an iPad for work, you have an extra measure of responsibility to ensure that your settings and other data are backed up so that you can retrieve them if your iPad is wiped, damaged, lost, or stolen, minimizing the downtime for you and your business.

Setting Up Business Mail, Contacts, and Calendars

An iPad lets you set up multiple accounts, so you can work with both business and personal email from the Mail app. Ditto for your calendars and contacts. Even though you have multiple accounts active, with a unified Inbox view in Mail, their data is not commingled — your business messages are kept separate from your personal messages, so replies are from the account that received them. You can even have separate email signatures for each account, so work emails get your business info while your personal emails don’t.

You manage your email, contacts, and calendar accounts in the Settings app’s Mail, Contacts, Calendars pane.

To add an account, tap Add an Account and then tap the account type for the service you are adding. Your options are iCloud, Exchange, Google, Yahoo!, AOL, Outlook.com, and Other, which lets you add email services using the widely used IMAP and POP protocols.

Most businesses use Exchange (which includes Microsoft’s new Office 365 service), which you set up by tapping Exchang. Some businesses use email servers running the IMAP protocol, which you set up by tapping the Other option. And some businesses use Google accounts, which you set up by tapping Google.

You can have multiple accounts for any of the supported account types, such as a personal Google Gmail account and a business one. Just create each account in turn.

Enter the settings requested for the account type you selected. (You may need to get the details from your IT department, or see what they are in your email client, such as Outlook or Apple Mail, on your computer.)

After you enter the correct settings, you choose which services to use for that account, as Figure 2-2 shows. The business services available vary based on the account type, but the possibilities are Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, and Notes. Use their corresponding switches to turn a service on or off. You can enable any combination of services per account. For example, you may want to enable your personal Gmail but not your Google contacts on an iPad primarily used for work.

If you use multiple devices, such as a smartphones, tablets, and computers, you can set up different service combinations for each, customizing what each device accesses based on what you use it for. After all, why wade through emails, contacts, and appointments on every device you use if you don’t have to?

The corresponding iPad apps will then access your accounts’ enabled business services. Here’s how to move about those accounts in the iPad apps:

• Mail: In the Mailboxes list (tap Back in the upper left of the app window if you don’t see it), tap the account you want to see the email for. If you tap All Inboxes, you see all emails from all accounts, as long as those emails weren’t moved to folders. (You have to go to a specific account to see its folders.) You can change the order of accounts, as well as enable or disable special views such as Unread, by tapping Edit. Figure 2-3 shows the Mailboxes list being edited.
• Contacts: By default, all contacts display. Tap Groups at the upper left of the app window to get a list of accounts. If an account has a check mark next to it, it’s visible. Tap Done when done.
• Calendar: In the Calendar app, tap Calendars and then tap each account you want to be visible or invisible in your calendar view. If an account has a check mark next to it, it’s visible. Note that many accounts support multiple calendars each, and you can show or hide each individual calendar as desired here. Tap Done when done.
• Notes: By default, all notes display. Tap Accounts at the upper left of the app window to get a list of accounts and then tap the account you want to restrict the display to.
• Reminders: A list of accounts and its individual reminders lists appears in the left pane. Tap the account list you want to work with.

Connecting to Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi is how any iPad can connect to the world, or at least to a router that serves as the bridge to the Internet.

In terms of using Wi-Fi, the iPad works like any computer: You scan for available networks or enter a Wi-Fi network’s name (called an SSID) and then its password. You do this by using the following steps:

1. In Settings, tap Wi-Fi.

   Wait a few seconds for the available networks to appear.

2. Tap the Wi-Fi network you want to connect to, as shown in Figure 2-4.

   If Wi-Fi is disabled, turn it on by sliding the Wi-Fi switch there.

3. Enter the password and tap Join. After you’ve joined a Wi-Fi network, the iPad will automatically rejoin it when it detects that network in the future.

In corporate environments, you may also be asked to accept a digital certificate. Doing so saves a file on your iPad that is like a second password that fills itself in for you, giving your network administrator extra assurance that your device is authorized when it later reconnects, as well as a way to keep track of the different devices that have connected.

In some corporate environments, Wi-Fi routers will also ask for additional credentials, usually the username and password you use at the office to access email and so forth (often called ActiveSync or Exchange credentials). Fill in what’s required to get that access.

In hotels, airports, and cafes, connecting to Wi-Fi is just the first step to gaining access to the Internet. Usually, after a few seconds, a Safari browser window opens, requiring you to sign up for (usually paid) access or enter your account credentials for that network’s provider. Sometimes all you have to do is accept some terms and conditions and look at an ad to get Internet access.

If you don’t seem to get Internet access after connecting to a Wi-Fi network in a commercial establishment, try opening Safari to see whether that forces the sign-up/sign-in pages to load. These pages don’t always load automatically from the Settings app.

After you’ve connected to a Wi-Fi network, the iPad automatically reconnects in the future when you get in range. But you still may need to go through a web sign-up form at a commercial establishment.

If you have a cellular iPad model, you don’t need to use Wi-Fi to connect to the Internet, though Wi-Fi is typically faster. My advice: Skip the high hotel, cafe, and airport Wi-Fi costs by using your cellular services in such locations, but definitely use Wi-Fi at work and home so that you don’t use up your cellular data allotment where you don’t have to. Hotels and airports often charge $10 to $30 a day for Wi-Fi access, which can add up to $100 or more per trip. By contrast, a 1GB or 2GB cellular plan — which provides plenty of data for email and other work uses — will cost just $20 to $30 for a month, and can be used in any location that has a cellular signal. Of course, if you do things like stream movies, you’ll eat up that cellular bandwidth fast — watching a single movie can take an entire gigabyte. So be sure to price the various scenarios to get the best option for your usage.