Tools + Learning
“I really wanted to learn Portuguese, but after three days I realized I was still much more fluent in English. So I quit.”
NOTE: The article re-appeared in my feed and I noticed its title had been changed from “here’s what I learned” to “here’s why I failed”. Better.
Filed under Other Tools.
It’s 2020. You’d think we’d be done with these I tried replacing my laptop with an iPad, gave it a whole week and failed articles—implying that...heck...it just ain’t possible people. But no: I read a brand new one from Macworld this week. I’m not linking to it because...meh. It’s easy to find if you want to.
I will discuss it however.
At their core, all of these “experiments” share an underlying theme: someone has decided to make a profound change but doesn’t want anything to change.
Any tool more complex than a hammer implies a learning curve. The idea that you can shutdown your MacBook, pick up an iPad the next day and go about your business as if nothing happened is utterly ridiculous. They’re not the same device and they don’t run the same OS. How bloody difficult is this to understand?
You don’t transition to an iPad in 7 days. You don’t switch from Canon to Fujifilm in 7 days either. Or from Lightroom to Capture One. You research, you study the basics and you acclimate yourself before moving in. And even then, you may be straggling the fence for awhile.
Let’s look at a few excerpts from the article that caught my attention.
“As a writer, I work with text a lot, and I have a lot of shortcuts and muscle memory built into my workflow. Most of it gets thrown out the window on the iPad (1). Selecting text with the trackpad isn’t nearly as intuitive as it is on the Mac (2), and depending on the app I used, I often had to reach out to touch the screen just to make sure the selection I needed was properly highlighted.”
I’ve added those numbers in parentheses to make replies easier:
Well...yeah (fighting very hard here not to add “duh”). Does this mean new muscle memory can’t be acquired and become just as productive? Of course not. It’s called adjusting to a new environment.
I agree, selecting text with the trackpad isn’t great. But for as long as I can remember there have been mouse folk and keyboard folk. On the Mac I mean. I was always a keyboard person so for me, selecting text on an iPad is exactly the same as it always was on a Mac: arrow keys, shift/command/option to select and extend. I’ve done this on the iPad with every single external keyboard I’ve owned and it’s never failed, never changed. For that matter, using a trackpad to select text isn’t that much easier on a Mac...it’s more of a trackpad issue imho. And a mouse can be used on an iPad.
“On my Mac, working with photos is easy. Just pop in the card, transfer the pictures to my desktop, open them in Photoshop, and make the necessary edits (1). On the iPad, it’s not so simple. While my camera’s card was recognized, it wasn’t so easy to edit my photo—and all I needed to do was crop it to a specific size (2). Photoshop doesn’t recognize RAW (3), Lightroom wouldn’t let me easily customize a crop (3), and Photos balked at properly importing the images so other apps couldn’t access them (4). I couldn’t even find a way to rename a photo in Photos to upload it to my CMS. (5)”
Sigh...let’s unpack this. A lot of whoppers:
If only there was a way to crop using Photos on iPad…
On iPad, pop in the card, transfer with the Files app, to whatever destination is available, and open in an image editor. Or browse the card card with an image editor, open it from there and make those edits. No, it doesn’t need to be Photoshop. Also: in which universe has Photoshop ever been “easy”?
Cropping? There’s a full-featured tool in Photos. So the steps are: import into Photos and crop. Anything else?
Photoshop…Lightroom…so basically, Adobe. These are not iPad problems, are they? They’re Adobe problems. Life is more than fu$#&g Adobe. Pixelmator Photo and Affinity Photo both recognize and edit raw files. They also do custom crops. Did I mention Photos does it as well? I did.
Photos balked? I have no idea what this means. I’m guessing he’s talking about image imports being forced into Photos? Ok. Except that’s not the case anymore. If you insert an SD card and use Files to browse and import its content, you can copy to whatever location is available (a local or network folder, an attached drive if you’re using a hub). But yes, if you import using Photos it’ll go into Photos. Just like it would on...wait for it...a Mac. Files is to iOS/iPadOS what Finder is to MacOS. Not exactly the same paradigm but this is 101 stuff. Basics.
Renaming. It must be awful to be cut off from the web and most of modern civilization, unable to find solutions to computing problems.
Let’s see: on a Mac you would rename images from an export dialog, save them to a folder and upload. On the iPad you would rename images from Share> Save to Files, save them to a folder and upload. Yes there is a difference in UX, because iPadOS is built around an app concept as opposed to a monolithic file management application such as Explorer or Finder. So the first step is always to pick the destination app which, I’ll admit can be confusing to new users. And Apple could do a better job of explaining this for people coming from the PC or Mac. But again…it’s a web search away if you can’t figure it out at first glance. And if you’re a tech writer…‘nuff said.
Btw, the iPad screenshot of the crop tool you see in this paragraph? I could’ve let it sync through iCloud but just for kicks I shared it from Photos on my iPad Pro to my iMac desktop, using Files. I renamed it on export as well. Took 10 seconds. Not rocket science.
And the pattern continues throughout the post:
The iPad was “confusing” because Word and Photoshop (again with Adobe??) didn’t know if “they wanted to be mobile or desktop”. Well, there’s that developer problem again right? Gmail just got Split View in its iPad app apparently…five years after the feature’s introduction in iOS 9. Do we know who’s to blame for this? Google.
“There aren’t enough USB-C ports”. Ok, get a USB-C hub then. It’s an iPad, not a Thinkpad. And this issue isn’t exactly hidden in tiny print.
My favourite one however has to be the following, about Face ID:
“But that magical experience stops at the App Store. Face ID is supported for buying apps, of course, but the system isn’t nearly as seamless as it is with unlocking password managers and other apps. Just like your iPhone, you need to double click the power button to confirm your purchase, which isn’t the easiest thing to do when docked.”
Emphasis mine but….?????
I didn’t mention it but the author makes a point of saying he purchased the Magic Keyboard with his iPad Pro 12.9. So if he can’t access that button easily because his iPad is “docked”...I don’t know how the hell he’s using the keyboard. The button is on the upper left corner of the iPad, completely exposed. Can’t be any easier to reach. And call me crazy but I prefer physically confirming a purchase before it goes through? I don’t know...something something about security? But he goes on:
“It might seem like a small thing, but when you’re buying a few things each day, it takes you out of your element.
What element? The App Store Impulse Buy element? Is he serious? A double-click is harshing his purchasing buzz?
FFS. Talk about scrambling to fit a narrative to a conclusion.
...
I shouldn’t get riled up by this and in fact I’m not—to each his/her own. But the article begins with “I really wanted it to work”—which…no, he didn’t. More importantly, it’s titled 12 things I learned by switching from the 13-inch MacBook Pro to the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. The trigger word is LEARNED. He learned nothing. This is not learning. You don’t learn by refusing to understand or explore.
Investing ourselves in our tools is worth it. Education will never be instantaneous and an open mind is essential, whatever the subject.
Circling back to that Electra 120 typewriter I wrote about this week: I love it like crazy, and yet the first moments sucked. But I took a deep breath, read the manual and watched a couple of videos. They made me aware of features I would’ve missed otherwise, aware that any hiccups were due to a lack of knowledge. MY lack of knowledge. Now I’m finding my footing and getting better at using the machine. And it’s a nice feeling too, when your mind suddenly expands through effort.
If you’re truly interested in using an iPad as a central part of your workflow here’s my advice: blank slate. Don’t just blindly replicate what you already know. Understand there are new basics to grasp. Find apps that are good citizens and built FOR the platform: we mostly live in an era of universal formats now—there’s no reason to use bloated apps with bad UX or antiquated features. And make sure the device fits your needs, because it may not. I spend 95% of my time on the iPad but the Mac is still super important to my work. Trucks and cars—even if that line is increasingly blurred.
Don’t expect to be done in 7 days either. That’s just a god thing.
