Beefing up the iPad App

[rmansfield]

Mellel used to be my primary word processor back in the day. Forgive me for staying a few years ago. The newly-released version 5 has convinced me to come back. I really like that there's also an iPad app so that I can go back and forth between my iMac and my iPad Pro and read and edit the same documents.

With the addition of trackpad support to iPadOS, my iPad Pro has become more more of a frequent tool for me, especially when I'm away from my desk. I appreciate the ability to open and edit Mellel files on the iPad, but there are a lot of features really lacking. For instance, there's no ruler at all unless I'm unclear how to make it visible. The new trackpad support in iPadOS does not seem to really be enabled for text selection. As I mentioned in a separate post, I cannot add hyperlinks in the iPad app. And like the lack of trackpad support, there's also no support for keyboard commands. On other iPad Processors such as MS Word, I can hold the command key down to see a list of possible keyboard shortcuts. No list like this shows up in Mellel, although standard formatting commands (bold, italic, underline) do work.

I'd love to see the iPad version of Mellel get some love to take it to the next level.

Here's a screenshot of the kind of keyboard commands in Word. I'd love to see Mellel keyboard equivalents added to the iPad version of Mellel.

[macsailor]

I agree with everything you wrote regarding the iPad version of Mellel. Have stopped using the iPad version since it's not up to the standards of what I hoped for regarding Mellel.

[rmansfield]

I believe that in the long run, mobile apps will have to stop being looked at as “accessories” to a desktop app and demonstrate that they can be used exclusively on their own right if necessary. I work for a software company myself, and we have had long conversations about this. We’re coming to a point that as more users switch to mobile platforms that have become mature enough for everyday work, allowing the mobile app to be a “lesser” version of the desktop app will be a mistake. We regularly have customers tell us that they want to use the mobile app exclusively because they like the freedom that a tablet gives them. We’re scrambling to bring our mobile app up to par (like many other companies) because very few of us realized the impact that mobile devices would have.

When I look at the abilities of my 12.9” iPad Pro, especially when paired with a keyboard and trackpad, I realize that if it weren’t for the fact that I work for a company that also creates software for macOS and Windows, I would be be able to use the iPad Pro as my main computing device. Certainly this would be true if I were still teaching in a classroom or if I was primarily writing for a living.