Can the iPad be used to type documents? Can it open and save Microsoft Office files? Can it open and save PDF files?

The iPad most certainly can be used to type documents.

One major point of differentiation between the iPad and the iPod touch and iPhone, beyond the obvious difference in display size, is that iPad has compatible productivity software -- a version of the iWork Pages, Numbers, and Keynote applications -- for word processing/basic page layout, spreadsheets, and presentations, respectively. These applications are available for US$9.99 each, a bargain compared to most productivity applications on Macs and Windows PCs.

Onscreen & Physical Keyboard Options

In addition to the productivity software and a "soft" onscreen keyboard, the iPad is compatible with the Apple Wireless Keyboard (US$69), the discontinued Apple Keyboard Dock Accessory, and a variety of third-party keyboards.

Keyboard support makes it possible to comfortably compose full documents on the iPad. This external keyboard capability is a major point of differentiation between the iPad and its smaller siblings as well.

Photo Credit: Apple, Inc. (Original iPad with Keyboard Dock Accessory)

Microsoft Office Compatibility & Real-World Experiences

The iPad is capable of opening Pages, Numbers, and Keynote documents created on a Mac; opening Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents created on a Mac or Windows PC; and opening PDF files and saving files in PDF format as well. Oddly, Pages supports saving documents in Word format, but Numbers and Keynote do not support saving documents in Excel and PowerPoint, respectively.

Apple's marketing copy officially declares that the Pages, Numbers, and Keynote applications "work well with others" and documents can "easily" be shared. Of course, in practice, sometimes translation efforts between programs are flawless and other times the results are unusable.

In real-world experience, PCMag's Tim Gideon reported:

When I downloaded the template for the Word document I am currently using for this review, the iPad automatically asked if I wanted to convert it to a Pages doc. When I did, I was immediately using a doc that looked exactly like my original Word document. Sending attachments is just as easy, as Pages can also convert your document back to Word when you're finished editing -- and you can send via the Email app by just clicking an arrow beneath your document's icon (you don't need to be in Mail).

The WSJ's Walt Mossberg -- likely using a more complex document -- was not as lucky:

I even got some light work done in the optional iPad word processor, called Pages, which is part of a [US]$30 suite that also includes a spreadsheet and presentation program.

This is a serious content creation app that should help the iPad compete with laptops and can import Microsoft Office files. However, only the word processor exports to Microsoft's formats, and not always accurately. In one case, the exported Word file had misaligned text. When I then tried exporting the document as a PDF file, it was unreadable.

iWork Compatibility & Real-World Experiences

Just like Walt Mossberg noted when converting an iWork document created on the iPad to Word and PDF, individual users likewise have reported problems when opening iWork files on an iPad when those files were created on a Mac. Apple's own support site quietly acknowledges a number of specific formatting changes that will occur when converting files between the Mac and iPad versions of the Pages and Keynote applications from the iWork suite.

Kenn Marks, writing for the well-respected O'Grady's PowerPage, cautioned:

If you are planning on buying an iPad to be a portable editing device for your iWork content -- think twice. The Apple Discussion boards are all aflutter with teachers and professors who hoped they could leave their laptops in the office and only take their new iPads to the lecture hall. This is not the case. Although Apple has branded the programs the same as the versions you can buy for your Mac , this is where the similarity ends. It's like using Google Translation to convert a foreign web site into your language of choice, but worse. The two programs I was interested in were Pages and Keynote and they both corrupt files on import (once you can get them in -- that's another article). Formatting is lost in Pages so formulas and footnotes disappear in Keynote transitions and builds go away. It is not as if they are temporarily suspended while on the iPad they are gone so when and if you save back to your Mac they are no longer there.

In a ZDNet blog posting, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes summarized his opinion regarding the issue:

The problem here is that Apple is attempting to blur the lines between the desktop/notebook ecosystem and the iPad by releasing the iWorks apps for the iPad, but the company is being disingenuous in obfuscating the limitations of the mobile app, especially when those limitations can actually cause irrevocable changes to those documents.

Please be very sure to note that creating an iWork file on a Mac and saving it on the iPad changes the file permanently. Anyone interested in using the iPad for document creation would be wise to create simple documents directly on the iPad or convert a copy of complex documents to a stable format like PDF after creation on a Mac or Windows PC before sending them to the iPad for display.

In response to this issue, Apple has prepared a "best practices" document for creating a Keynote presentation on the Mac that you want to display on an iPad that should reduce the number of translation problems. Nevertheless, as always, keep a backup of a file before attempting to convert between any formats.

iPad Document Preparation Conclusion

If you need to prepare simple documents for online use and occasionally print as well as prepare and even display presentations -- and you don't need a notebook computer for more "heavy lifting" tasks -- it is possible that the iPad could meet all of your mobile computing needs.

However, if you routinely prepare complex documents in a collaborative environment (where documents will be sent back and forth between multiple parties for revision), a Mac -- or possibly a Mac and an iPad -- would be a better choice for document creation than an iPad alone.