The one office item my smartphone or tablet can’t put in my pocket is the printer – and it’s the one I miss the most. (Sometimes you need a hard copy.) Who will step up and make it easy for me to print while I am on the road?

Two categories of businesses haven’t done so yet, but would benefit from it. There is also PrinterOn, a service with a technical approach that fills the bill nicely.

You email the file you want printed directly to the printer, which is about as platform-independent as you can get.

First, office supply and package shipping chains, who could learn a thing or two from convenience stores. A convenience store chain in my area made an excellent marketing move to drive foot traffic into their stores by installing no surcharge ATMs in every store. People come in for cash. They leave with a cup of coffee, a doughnut, milk, bread, a bag of chips, a thicker waistline and a thinner wallet than if they had gone to their bank’s ATM to get their cash.

Office supply and package shipping chains both have print services in their locations. Part of the reason is to increase foot traffic. All have apps for various mobile platforms, but none of them appear to have made it easy to print from those devices to their print services.

A service called PrinterOn may be able to show them the way.

The PrinterOn approach leverages the ability of multi-function devices to hold a print job until a release code is entered. Their apps for various mobile platforms allow you to identify a printer near you. Each printer has an email address. You email the file you want printed directly to the printer, which is about as platform-independent as you can get. The printer emails the release code for your print job back to you. When you get to the printer location you simply enter your release code and pick up your paper.

PrinterOn locations tend to be in airport frequent flyer club lounges, hotels and other business traveler hubs. Why not in the print and copy center in your neighborhood office supply store?

The other business tool I frequently leave in the office is a highlighter. I suspect they would be willing to help me with that while I am in their store picking up my print job.

About the author: Joe Puckett is PC Helps’ director of recruiting and training. He grooms the talent here, and creates our internal and client-facing corporate training courses. A 15-year PC Helps veteran, Puckett is the one to ask if you ever have a software question. He has been researching and testing the iOS 5 operating system as part of his ongoing efforts to build new iPad training modules for PC Helps productivity consultants.

Click here for a video of Puckett describing what makes a good productivity consultant.

Peanut butter and chocolate were both around for quite a while before Reese’s figured out how to put them together in a convenient package. Once they did, they had a big hit on their hands. I think SharePoint and iPad are another hit combination, and developers are getting close to combining them in a way that will work for a lot of people.

Wrapping SharePoint in iPad would be a killer combo.

The peanut butter is SharePoint’s ability to gather all the information a business user needs into one place. The chocolate is the iPad’s ability to deliver information in a mobile-friendly form and interface. Wrapping SharePoint in iPad would be a killer combo.

For now, the biggest obstacles to combining these two great productivity tools in a single package are dealing with the diverse kinds of information SharePoint can include and the more widespread problem of working with Microsoft Office files on an iPad.

SharePlus shows promise in connecting the iPad and SharePoint.

Two apps, SharePlus and Filamente, are getting close to connecting SharePoint and iPad in a way that delivers the full potential of the combination. As with most iPad apps, which of the two is closest depends on which features were added during the last round of updates. So how close are they? I’ll answer that from a SharePlus perspective since it is the SharePoint-iPad connector I have been using the most of late.

SharePoint is all about lists, although some display in specialized ways that make them look like calendars or document libraries. SharePlus renders all the lists I use on a regular basis pretty well. It also allows me to see and edit the metadata associated with list items. Those are two important capabilities that I’m pretty sure weren’t easy to develop. The most impressive recent upgrade is the ability to replace a document in a SharePoint Document Library with a revised copy that was edited on the iPad. There are, however, still some quirks and limitations to doing that.

The biggest problem with working on the same document on an iPad and in a more traditional storage space such as a network drive or SharePoint Document Library is the fundamental difference in the ways applications are allowed to access files. On an iPad, each application is restricted to its own dedicated storage space. Network drives and SharePoint Document Libraries allow multiple applications to access the files in any particular location. The result is that when you open a file from a SharePoint Document Library on an iPad the working copy is made in the storage space only the application that opened the file can access. This makes most of the ways you would get the modified file back to SharePoint unavailable.

SharePlus gets around this by putting itself on the “Open In …” list that appears when you tap and hold on a file in some iPad applications. When you choose SharePlus from this list it checks to see if this is a document that is already in one of the SharePoint Document Libraries you have connected to SharePlus and offers to replace the existing document in SharePoint with the new one. That is great if the iPad app you have used lets you access the “Open In …” list, but many don’t.

Never fear, most of them will allow you to email the updated document as an attachment and Mail does allow access to “Open In …”.

I doubt that SharePoint and iPad will ever be as popular as peanut butter and chocolate, but at least they contain zero calories and can put all the information you need into one convenient package.

About the author: Joe Puckett is PC Helps’ director of recruiting and training. He grooms the talent here, and creates our internal and client-facing corporate training courses. A 15-year PC Helps veteran, Puckett is the one to ask if you ever have a software question. He has been researching and testing the iOS 5 operating system as part of his ongoing efforts to build new iPad training modules for PC Helps productivity consultants.

Click here for a video of Puckett describing what makes a good productivity consultant.

OneNote for iPad: Goodbye 2x, hello tabbed interface & expanded language support.

The market is flooded with note-taking applications, but OneNote consistently ranks at the top (see Lifehacker’s recent list). That’s because the PC version is free with MS Office, which most corporate employees use anyway, and syncing is a cinch with a SkyDrive account, which is also free. Other plusses include automatic save (for those of us who forget to hit CTRL+S regularly), sharing capabilities, and the ability to view and take notes on mobile phones.

Keep in mind that with the free iPad version, you will only be able to create a total of 500 notes. If you want to create more, you will need to pay $14.99 (compared to $4.99 for the iPhone version). Features new to the iPad version include a tabbed interface and expanded language support.

Here’s how to use it:

• Open the OneNote for iPad app.
• Sign in with your Windows Live ID (Hotmail, MSN, Xbox Live, Zune pass, Windows Live Messenger, etc.).

To create a note:

• On the navigation bar at the top right of the screen, click the icon that looks like a document with a plus sign.
• A new note appears, into which you can add text, images, checkboxes and bulleted lists.

OneNote for iPad will automatically sync your notes to your Windows Live SkyDrive account, but you can also manually sync notes. Here is how:

• On the home screen of OneNote for iPad, tap Settings (in the upper left area of screen).
• Tap Sync Now.
 When the sync is completed, you will see a time stamp with last updated date and time.
• You can also email a note from your iPad. Just click the envelope icon in the upper right corner of an open note.

To view your synced notes on your PC:

• Open a web browser and go to http://skydrive.live.com.
• Sign in with your Windows Live account.
• Click on My Files on the left side.
• Click to open a folder, and double-click to open a OneNote file.
• With a Note open, click on the Home tab, and choose “Open in OneNote.”
• Any changes you make will automatically be synchronized.
• If you want to save a copy to your PC, go to File, select Save As, and choose a file type and location.

Note: Any notebooks you create on your mobile device will be automatically synced to your SkyDrive, but not files you create on your PC. To share a PC-created notebook, open it, go to File and choose Share, then select the notebook you want to share, where you want to share it, sign in and click Share Notebook to complete the process. It will sync automatically once this step is completed. Also, if you save your notebooks on a network drive rather than locally, you may encounter syncing problems.

Note to Apple OS users: Microsoft has not created OneNote for Mac.

This week we offer another take on the tablet: The most common support questions from corporate iPad users.

Click to view a video of an iPad support call.

iPad usage in the enterprise continues to grow at a rapid pace, but quality support options for business users are limited. Companies deploying iPads have had to build support capabilities in-house, or direct their users to AppleCare standard support — the same support Apple consumers receive.

AppleCare support stops when a non-Apple-specific application, like Microsoft Outlook or PowerPoint, is introduced. When this situation occurs, to what resource or resources should the end-user be directed? And what types of questions can be anticipated?

Here are a few we have encountered from our customers:

Working with Microsoft Office Documents on the iPad

• Modifying a Microsoft Office document (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) on the iPad
• Converting Microsoft Office documents to PDF files and annotating them (using downloaded Apps)
• Editing or working with Excel files on iPad using downloaded apps such as Numbers or Documents to Go
• Correcting formatting problems when converting Word or PowerPoint documents into Apps like Pages or Keynote
• Fixing formulas, formatting, and broken links in Excel spreadsheets on the iPad
• Viewing track changes markup or comments in Word documents using Documents to Go or Microsoft Office Web App
• Working with PowerPoint documents on iPad using Keynote app, and switching between PowerPoint and Keynote from laptop to iPad and back.

iPad Interface/Hardware

• Mastering Cut, Copy, Paste, and Replace features to avoid backspacing or retyping text
• Toggling and making effective use of spell checking, auto-correction and other keyboard features
• Configuring iPad for mobile device management solutions like MobileIron, and Good Technology
• Quitting Apps that are frozen or behaving erratically; restarting malfunctioning iPad
• Adjusting settings to conserve battery life when charger not readily available
• Recovering paid app that was accidently deleted
• Sharing files to a PC with Wi-Fi or USB connections
• Troubleshooting Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, and VPN connection problems

Read a more comprehensive list here (PDF), and view a video of an iPad business call here.

By Joe Puckett, director of recruiting and training at PC Helps

The Rave:
Have you ever fumed when you felt something had interrupted your work, or entertainment, unnecessarily? If not, please share your secret. One of the great ongoing gains from the upgrade to iOS 5 will be the change to incremental OS upgrades that will allow you to keep working or watching even while the update runs. This is possible because, with iOS 5, updates replace only the software that changes. Past iOS updates were wholesale modifications that wiped the device clean and started over.

With iOS 5, incremental updates are easy. It's the first-time upgrade that'll hurt.

The Rant:
All this goodness is yours once iOS 5 is installed. The upgrade to iOS 5, however, is non-incremental and more disruptive than previous updates. Much of this is because several very worthwhile new applications are added and inserting their icons onto a home page may disrupt your carefully constructed and extremely effective arrangement of folders and icons. There also have been more reports of lost information than with with previous iOS upgrades. It is possible that, since people were already expressing a frustration with the upgrade, a higher percentage of such incidents were reported.

The Conclusion:
If you haven’t upgraded to iOS 5 yet, do it soon unless you have an unusual situation that makes it impossible. As with any upgrade, prepare for the possibility that it will not go smoothly. Back up your data, then find the backup file and make a backup of it. Knowing that there will be some new icons added, take screenshots of your home screens and folder contents (hold down the Home button and press the Sleep/Wake button) so you will have a roadmap if icons are moved. If multiple icons are moved, using the iTunes interface to reorder the home screen may be easier.

***

Read Part 1: Using Gestures
Read Part 2: Wireless Sync
Read Part 3: One Day at a Time
Read Part 4: Keys in the Fridge

About the author: Joe Puckett is PC Helps’ director of recruiting and training. He grooms the talent here, and creates our internal and client-facing corporate training courses. A 15-year PC Helps veteran, Puckett is the one to ask if you ever have a software question.

This week, PC Helps Blog is featuring Puckett’s series of “iOS 5 Rants & Raves” geared to end-users. Last week’s posts were geared to IT leaders and professionals. He has been researching and testing the new operating system as part of his ongoing efforts to build new iPad training modules for PC Helps productivity consultants.

Click here for a video of Puckett describing what makes a good productivity consultant.

By Joe Puckett, director of recruiting and training at PC Helps

The Rave:
The people I work with can be charmingly absentminded, myself included. One of the more entertaining evidences of this was when I opened a refrigerator in the lunch room and saw someone’s keys on a shelf. At first I thought that they had been left there by accident, but then I realized that it was a brilliant compensation strategy for absentmindedness.

iOS 5's notification settings: Flexible and effective, but missing a universal on/off switch.

There was something in the fridge that they needed to remember to take home, and you can’t go home without your car keys. I bring this up to give you some context on why Notifications in iOS 5 is such a huge hit in our office.

It is in your face exactly the right amount. You get notifications even when the screen is locked. You can view a list of notifications by dragging down from the top of the screen. When you are busy working, you can set notifications to appear as discreet pop-ups, the way they are on keyboard and mouse machines, or you can set them to show up as the stop-the-presses box iOS has always had. Flexible and effective — who could ask for anything more?

Me, of course.

The Rant:
Could we please schedule a conference call between the people who made Notifications and the people who made Keynote? Keynote is a capable presentation app, especially for just 10 bucks. Notifications is a great improvement in iOS 5. Making an uninterrupted presentation with Keynote requires going into Notifications and turning off each notification individually. Then you have to go back in and turn them all back on. Maybe we should include the people who made Airplane Mode in the conference call. Notifications really needs a single on/off switch that puts a quiet little icon somewhere to remind you of what you aren’t getting.

The Conclusion:
I haven’t seen any keys in the fridge since iOS 5 came out. There is no way to prove that Notifications caused that, but it is good enough to have done so. Now if it could only keep us from forgetting our iPads.

***

Read Part 1: Using Gestures
Read Part 2: Wireless Sync
Read Part 3: One Day at a Time

About the author: Joe Puckett is PC Helps’ director of recruiting and training. He grooms the talent here, and creates our internal and client-facing corporate training courses. A 15-year PC Helps veteran, Puckett is the one to ask if you ever have a software question.

This week, PC Helps Blog is featuring Puckett’s series of “iOS 5 Rants & Raves” geared to end-users. Last week’s posts were geared to IT leaders and professionals. He has been researching and testing the new operating system as part of his ongoing efforts to build new iPad training modules for PC Helps productivity consultants.

Click here for a video of Puckett describing what makes a good productivity consultant.

By Joe Puckett, director of recruiting and training at PC Helps

The Rave:
While “One Day at a Time” was just fine as the name of a ’70s sitcom, it is no way for busy people to move through their calendars. Prior to iOS 5, navigating the iPad calendar felt like you were going one day at a time.

iOS 5's new Year view.

There were ways to get around more quickly, but they were a little cumbersome and less than intuitive, partially because they were very different from how you would do the same thing on an old-fashioned keyboard and mouse computer. That changed with iOS 5.

Need to look at a date in 2015? No problem on an iPad running iOS 5. One tap gets you to the new Year view, and a few quick swipes takes you to 2015. Tap on the date you want — even my fumbly fingers find the right one most of the time — and you are where you need to be. Need to rearrange a few things on that far-flung date? Tap and drag like you would click and drag on a computer. In fact, moving about the iPad calendar in iOS 5 is so much like using a mouse that you won’t even need to squeeze dedicated time to learn how into your schedule.

The Rant:
I know what date I want to go to. I can type. Please let me. There is still no method to go directly to a date. It seems to me that the search box could be configured to do the job.

The Conclusion:
The more mobile you are, the more volatile your calendar is likely to be, and the more dependent you are likely to be on it. The navigation enhancements to the iOS 5 calendar make it better suited to the mobile lifestyle, but there is still room for improvement.

***

Read Part 1: iOS 5 Rants & Raves for End-Users: Part 1, Using Gestures
Read Part 2: iOS 5 Rants & Raves for End-Users: Part 2, Wireless Sync

About the author: Joe Puckett is PC Helps’ director of recruiting and training. He grooms the talent here, and creates our internal and client-facing corporate training courses. A 15-year PC Helps veteran, Puckett is the one to ask if you ever have a software question.

This week, PC Helps Blog is featuring Puckett’s series of “iOS 5 Rants & Raves” geared to end-users. Last week’s posts were geared to IT leaders and professionals. He has been researching and testing the new operating system as part of his ongoing efforts to build new iPad training modules for PC Helps productivity consultants.

Click here for a video of Puckett describing what makes a good productivity consultant. 

By Joe Puckett, director of recruiting and training at PC Helps

The Rave:
The convenience and intuitiveness of the multi-touch gestures that helped fuel the skyrocket of iOS device sales just got a lot better with iOS 5. Four-finger up/down swipes to show/hide the multitasking bar and four finger left/right swipes to move among open apps make multitasking much faster and easier. A five-finger pinch sends the current application to the multitasking bar so you can get to the current home screen.

The Rant:
Still no widgets or a way to have the same app in multiple places? How will I know where I am without the weather widget on the home screen of my phone listing my location without me having to open anything? Most people’s digital life is not so neat that having mail in only one place is convenient. I’ve seen many Android phones with the mail application in four or more places. Being able to put the same app in multiple places enables people to group things by business function rather than computer function.

The Conclusion:
The convenience of having everything in one place is one of the primary forces driving the use of personal devices in business. The new multitasking gestures in iOS 5 make it much easier to move among all the things on an iOS device. Widgets and duplicate app icons would still be nice, but being able to leave a lot of things open and move between them so quickly is a good way to accomplish the same purpose.

***

Read Part 1: iOS 5 Rants & Raves for End-Users: Part 1

About the author: Joe Puckett is PC Helps’ director of recruiting and training. He grooms the talent here, and creates our internal and client-facing corporate training courses. A 15-year PC Helps veteran, Puckett is the one to ask if you ever have a software question.

This week, PC Helps Blog is featuring Puckett’s series of “iOS 5 Rants & Raves” geared to end-users. Last week’s posts were geared to  IT leaders and professionals. He has been researching and testing the new operating system as part of his ongoing efforts to build new iPad training modules for PC Helps productivity consultants.

By Joe Puckett, director of recruiting and training at PC Helps

The Rave:
Can the day be far off when there are people who find the notion of connecting one device to another with a wire as strange as buying music on a vinyl album is to today’s high-schoolers? It is a wireless world, and iOS 5 makes it more so with iTunes Wi-Fi Sync. Connect the computer running iTunes to the same network your iOS device is connected to wirelessly and synchronization happens without wires. This has turned out to add more convenience than I expected it to.

With iOS 5 iTunes Wi-Fi Sync, wires are no longer needed.

The Rant: 
One of the things you could count on when conversing with an Apple aficionado was hearing, “Apple products just work.” iTunes Wi-Fi Sync has taken some of the shine off that apple. Getting it to work, especially the first time, can be very quirky. Things tend to get more seamless once it has worked over some network, but can still require more human intervention than we are used to with Apple products. It also exceeded its advertised performance in a rather disconcerting way. I had seen in numerous places that the device had to be plugged in to recharge for iTunes Wi-Fi Sync to work. It was a little surprising to see it working with my iPad 2 not plugged in. To prove that I’m human, I was then disappointed that my original iPad worked as I had been told to expect, which was for iTunes Wi-Fi Sync to not work unless the iPad was plugged in to recharge.

The Conclusion:
Reducing the need to connect your iOS device to anything by wire is a positive step. It would be nice if there were fewer rough spots to stumble over on that path, but maybe we needed a reminder about how spoiled we are that things just work. iOS 5 and Wi-Fi Sync have managed to do both.

***

Read Part 1: iOS 5 is Like Going to the Gym — No Pain, No Gain.

Read Part 2: iOS 5 Lets You Cut the Cord, Maybe.

Read Part 3: Separate Checks, Please.

Read Part 4: Are We There Yet?

Read Part 5: Are You a Member of the Club?

About the author: Joe Puckett is PC Helps’ director of recruiting and training. He grooms the talent here, and creates our internal and client-facing corporate training courses. A 15-year PC Helps veteran, Puckett is the one to ask if you ever have a software question.

This week, PC Helps Blog is featuring Puckett’s series of “iOS 5 Rants & Raves” geared to end-users. Last week’s posts were geared to  IT leaders and professionals. He has been researching and testing the new operating system as part of his ongoing efforts to build new iPad training modules for PC Helps productivity consultants.

By Joe Puckett, director of recruiting and training at PC Helps

The Rave:
It’s a well-known fact that who you know can be just as important as what you know. For example, the right person from your organization being a member of the
right golf club can make a huge difference.

Part 5 in the series: 
Are You a Member of the Club?

Personal links made on the golf links can drive business. In the location-independent global village we now live in, having the right people as followers or friends can be much like belonging to the right golf club. The increased integration of social media in iOS 5 makes it easier to be everywhere at once.