The iPad and Notability Win

By Anais on December 20, 2014 • ( 0 )

I get the opportunity to help my girls with web stuff attendant to their wonderful Mountain Valley Foods natural foods store in Kalispell. This week I was asked to help them adjust their monthly sales flyer (a PDF file), adding their logo and other specific information.

The elements of the project are pretty much stated in the sentence above:
– Input – PDF file; multi-page
– MVF logo
– Output – Treated PDF file, mult-page

Note: I work on Mac computers and have all sorts of Apple devices so this is my experience from that vantage point. There may be differences in the pathway for those using Windows apps and equipment.

The fact that the flyer is multi-page is really important. Most (if not all) image editors are capable of opening single-page PDF files for editing as an image. I use several Adobe apps: Acrobat Pro, Fireworks, InDesign. The home of PDF files is in Adobe so those applications are my go-to ones for PDF file projects.

I also extensively use PDFPenPro (by Smile Software); PDFPenPro also makes a version for Windows. PDFPenPro shines in PDF form filling. I was able to open the whole multi-page PDF into PDFPenPro, but it was buggy when I tried to lay the store’s logo image over the top of a page. It erased some of the under-layer. I made several frustrating attempts.

Adobe Fireworks opened up the document, but it made each page a single image file – yikes! So I then had nine pages of PDF files, each of which would have to be edited, then I would have to use another app to combine the pages into one single PDF file… aye!

At that point, I gave the project a rest. I find that sometimes this is the best thing to do. Give it a rest. I think this plays well with my Matrix Energetics learning which says that we can: choose, notice, let go, allow, trust – as a better MO for change-making, or getting things done. I like that and am incorporating and practicing it in everything I do.

After the break, I sat down to my MacBookPro and it came to me!

I’ve been using an app called Notability on my iPad for some time. It’s an app that accommodates PDF files very well. I can receive PDFs in e-mail and send those files directly to Notability where I can annotate the file with text, images, I can draw on the files, and apply several other treatments. I can also pull in files of different formats from Dropbox, iCloud, or other online file management/storage solutions. Notability is also available as a Mac desktop application.

In about three minutes I had:
– Opened the full multi-page PDF file
– Fetched the MVF logo image (from my iPad Photos) and placed it on each page, and
– Inserted the store’s address, phone number, and website information

…and violá the project was done!

Now I know. This solution does have some limitations – like the absence of a layers option on the iPad in Notability allowing for more fine-tuned adjustments to images and background text, but for this quick project that we didn’t want to have to spend much time on and wanted to be able to produce pronto, it worked splendidly.

I do use my iPad as a work tool for projects involving spreadsheets, I use it extensively and very happily to hold PDF copies of my yoga sets that I annotate and use during my classes, and in a few other instances. For most projects involving images, my desktop is the most appropriate tool. I am only cursorily using the WordPress app for iPad to create blog posts because I like to treat images (make them smaller or larger, add borders, combine images), and apply text formatting.

Success is sweet. There is always a way through. That way is always changing.

And in the end (as in the beginning)…love is all there is!

Takeaways from This Article

– Mountain Valley Foods – The BEST place in Northwest Montana to shop for organic and natural foods, supplements, body care, and more
– Applications – PDFPenPro, Notability
– Matrix Energetics – “So much of what we teach in Matrix Energetics is how to create a sense of separation between true self, authentic self, divine self, and these beliefs that are largely conditioned by our society, parents, educational system, and so forth. We teach people how to see what is different when you are no longer connected or entangled with those belief systems.” ~ Melissa Joy, Matrix Energetics (Interview, Saskia Roell of Your Soul Guidance)
– Equipment – Apple iPad Air 2