• how-to,  ipados,  mac os x,  numbers

    Adding Videos to Apple Numbers Spreadsheets

    Numbers is the spreadsheet application in Apple’s iWork productivity suite. With the recent release of Numbers 10.1 for macOS, you are now able to embed and playback YouTube and Vimeo videos directly in Numbers spreadsheets.

    As a longtime user of Apple Keynote and Microsoft PowerPoint, I understand why presenters would want to add a video to their slide decks, but videos in a spreadsheet, that seems a little weird. So, naturally, I had to try it.

    Apple’s website shows beautifully crafted works of art cleverly disguised as spreadsheets. As and IT professional, my spreadsheets are usually uninspiring lists of things hastily thrown together so that I can quickly move on to the next thing that needs my attention.

    YouTube video embedded in a Numbers spreadsheet

    In my sample Numbers spreadsheet, I have a very simple high-level task list for deploying some computers and joining them to a domain. To provide instructions for redeeming an Apple gift card code, I embedded a YouTube video from the Apple Support channel. Using videos as a way to help illustrate how to perform a task is just one practical example of why one might want to embed a video in a spreadsheet.

    To embed a video in your Numbers document:

    1. Find the web video you want to embed and copy the videoURL
    2. Select the Numbers sheet where the video will be embedded
    3. Click/Tap the Media Add > Web Video
    4. Paste the video URL and click Insert
    5. Reposition and resize the video as needed

    There are a few problems that you will need to be aware of if you are going to use videos in your spreadsheet for professional purposes. The first is that you will have to click (macOS) or tap (iOS/iPadOS) the play button twice to get the video to play. The first click loads up the video, which is pretty quick, and the second begins playback. The second is that your video will not be playable in full screen. Depending on your use case, that could be a deal breaker. Your mileage will vary depending on your project’s needs.

    To learn more about how to add embedded videos to your Numbers spreadsheets, there are detailed directions on Apple.com.

  • ipad,  ipados,  wwdc

    Scribble for iPad

    When Apple first introduced the iPad, then CEO Steve Jobs remarked that if you saw a stylus you failed to design a good iPad app. While many at the time agreed with that sentiment, I believe that in 2020 an iPad paired with an Apple Pencil is a far more powerful customer tool than an iPad alone.

    Photo Credit Apple, Inc.

    Last month, at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), the iPad maker introduced a new feature coming to customers this fall called Scribble. Scribble is a new way to use Apple Pencil to handwrite text directly into input files and convert the handwritten characters into typed characters automatically. This means that if you are already holding Apple Pencil in your hand, you don’t have to put it down and switch to another form of input by using a hardware or software keyboard. The user interaction model is a natural as pen and paper.

    Let’s assume that I am sitting in a conference room discussing the upcoming work for the week. In this meeting I might be jotting down notes in an iPad note taking app, such as Noteshelf by Fluid Touch. While the app is open, a Messages notification appears. Using Pencil, I can pull down the notification to read the message, and right there, jot out a quick response with Pencil and then tap the send button.

    There will also be two new Scribble editing gestures that iPad and Pencil can use. the first is text selection. When using an app that has been updated to work with Scribble, such as the Reminders or Notes apps, you will be able to draw a straight line through some text to select it for editing. The text will automatically highlight and the standard editing tools will appear. Then there’s my favorite, scratch to erase. This feature works just like it sounds. To delete some text, just make a wavy scratch out motion with Pencil over the text to delete and it will disappear. This gesture, minus the poof cloud animation, was taken directly out of Apple’s Newton PDA product from the 1990s.

    Apple has made Scribble part of the iPadOS system experience. Developers get these new features with minimal effort when they use Apple’s standard application programming interfaces (APIs) as part of their apps. In iPadOS 14, Apple is adding the new UIScribbleInteraction and UIIndirectScribbleInteraction APIs alongside of the existing Standard Text Controls and UIKit Text Input APIs. Scribble features will be available in apps by default and will allow users to use Pencil to interact with text input fields without having to tab any extra buttons or switch input modes. Scribble will keep track of where the users are writing on the screen to make sure that the converted type written text is entered into the correct input field. Finally, user privacy is maintained because all of the machine learning character recognition is performed on the iPad. No Internet connection required. As a design consideration, the handwriting passwords is not supported. Apple recommends that customers and developers rely on password autofill from Keychain.

    Overall, I am looking forward to Scribble support in iPadOS 14. I like to use Apple Pencil with my iPad Pro or taking notes in meetings. (Remember when we were able to have in-person meeting with our teammates?) I also think that using Scribble to fluidly enter text into fields without having to switch input modes will be a frictionless productivity boost for people who already use Apple Pencil. I do think however, that there is a high barrier to entry for people who prefer to write in paper notebooks. The loss of the tactile feel of pen on paper and the $99 starting price of Apple Pencil, makes me think that Scribble will be an additive experience feature for current Pencil owners rather than a feature that draws more pen and paper fans to the iPad.

  • apple,  business,  dell,  ipad pro,  ipados,  lifestyle

    The iPad Pro as a “Real” Computer

    Photo Credit: Apple, Inc.

    The iPad Pro is a real computer. You might be thinking “Yeah, duh!” right now. Let me explain.

    I was recently working in my office – my corporate office for my job-y job, not my fun-with-computers home office – and I was using my company issued Dell Latitude laptop. I needed to jump on a conference call, so I undocked my laptop, opened the lid, and moved closer to the window for better lighting. I also wanted to charge my work-issued 2018 12.9-inch iPad Pro. I decided to try to charge my iPad Pro from the USB-C cable from my Dell WD19TB USB-C/Thunderbolt dock.

    As expected, my iPad started charging immediately. What I wasn’t expecting was a few seconds after that, iPadOS 13.4 “attached” to the dock and started mirroring the screen, accepting input from my Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse, as well as connecting to the network.

    iPadOS 13.4’s wireless mouse and system-wide pointer support worked with my Logitech Unifying Receiver connected K750 keyboard and M510 mouse just as smoothly as it does on the iPad Pro Magic Keyboard or a Magic Trackpad 2. I am also using a Dell 32-inch 4k UltraSharp U3219Q monitor, which displayed the video output from the iPad crisply. With an Ethernet connection, I was able to use Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Mobile client to connect to Windows 10 and Windows Server machines. Files was able to connect to my frequently used SMB server, and I was able to use multiple FileMaker applications hosted on FileMaker servers with FileMaker Go.

    There are a few things that I found a little disorienting while using my iPad Pro in place of my Windows laptop. I am confident they will become second nature quickly, but I think that they are worth mentioning in case you, dear reader, want to try your own iPad Pro at work experience.

    First, the iPad Pro will go to sleep a lot faster than Windows will put my laptop to sleep. I am apprehensive leaving my iPad constantly connected to power for multiple hours after 100% charge was reached. Second was getting the K750 keyboard to wake up and work with the iPad was occasionally problematic. The M510 mouse never had an issue. As a security feature, the contents of password fields are not mirrored to the external monitor. I kept clicking into the password field thinking I missed the target for the cursor until I realized what was going on. Finally, I discovered that while the iPad saw the USB powered speaks that are connected to the dock, I was not able to play audio of audio of any kind from the iPad through the dock speakers. I will have to keep playing with the speakers to figure out what’s going on.

    Overall, I had an enjoyable afternoon working on my iPad Pro in place of my Windows 10 laptop. There are few specific tasks that I probably could have done on the iPad, but muscle memory makes those technical IT tasks quicker for me in Windows. Enabling hardware support for USB-C docks and accessories is not a glamorous headline grabbing iPadOS feature, but I’m glad it is there.

  • apple,  ipad pro,  ipados,  keyboard

    Portrait or Landscape – Rethinking the iPad Pro

    Photo Credit: Apple, Inc.

    The iPad, and now the iPad Pro, has been positioned by Apple as the Windows PC laptop alternative for the last few years. I feel that the time has come to make the iPad Pro a true laptop alternative. Three things have happened in the last year that has really changed my opinion.

    The first is iPadOS 13.4 and the iPad Magic Keyboard. Since the April release of iPadOS 13.4 I have been using a wireless mouse with my 12.9-inch iPad Pro. It has been a game changer. Excel and Numbers are now usable with pointer support. For the last two and half months, I have been using a wireless mouse with a USB-A wireless receiver. That required that I use a USB-C to USB-A adapter cable. The resulting dongle hanging off the right side of the iPad Pro felt like a clunky solution to an otherwise clean design of the iPad Pro. After purchasing an iPad Magic Keyboard, it felt like a complete work solution that was designed together. The new scissor switch keys feel great and the trackpad is capable of getting the job down without having to carry around another accessory and dongle. I briefly considered buying a Magic Mouse 2 or a Magic Trackpad 2. They would get right of the unsightly dongle, but neither would fix the extra accessory problem. The iPad Magic Keyboard is an integrated clean solution that feels great to use and compliments a 2018 or 2020 iPad Pro nicely. In 2010 Apple said that there is no wrong or right way to hold the iPad. In recent years however, with the release of Apple’s Smart Keyboards for iPad Pro, the iPad has been undergoing a subtle transformation into a landscape-oriented device. The landscape oriented embossed Apple logo on the back of the iPad Magic Keyboard is further evidence of the acceptance that the iPad Pro is a landscape-oriented device.

    The second thing is that the iPad Pro needs to change the front facing TrueDepth camera from the top bezel to the right bezel when the iPad Pro when held in portrait orientation. There has been a debate about the iPad for a long time. In keeping with the theme that the iPad Pro is a landscape device, having the TrueDepth camera along the left bezel, results in webcam video that is off center. With many people still working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, webcams and video conferences are going to remain an important tool for working and learning collaboratively. Embedding the TrueDepth camera along the top bezel, when docking in the Magic Keyboard, where it is on the MacBook, means that you will center centered video in tools like Microsoft Teams without negatively impacting the Face ID feature. For the non-Pro iPads, I would leave the camera right where it is. The camera location would then become another feature that distinguishes the two iPad lines from each other.

    The third thing that I would change with the iPad Pro would be the addition of a second USB-C port. The iPad Magic Keyboard, with its charging-only USB-C port attempts to mitigate this change. The USB-C charging port, on the left side of the Magic Keyboard, is nice. I can plug-in the charger and not have to worry about the iPad battery while I’m working at my desk. My personal preference, however, is that the USB-C port for data and input devices shouldn’t be so high along the right side of the device. I feel that using USB-C to A dongle adapters or hard drive cables up that high on the right is inviting disaster. By having the ports and cables lower on the iPad chassis, there is less chance that the iPad Pro or accessories will be damaged while reaching for something that is on my work surface.

    I have always thought of the iPad as a portrait device that goes landscape when being used for content creation. The 2018 and 2020 iPad Pros and the iPad Magic Keyboard are challenging me to think differently about how these devices are used. Taking into account the new design language of the iPad Pro models and the impressive utility of the iPad Magic Keyboard and the enhancements in iPadOS 13.4 for pointer support, I consider the iPad to be a device that fits the user’s needs, regardless of which way the logo appears on the back.