Thing 6 - Creating & Editing Docs

I downloaded CloudOn and QuickOffice for my iPhone. I use GoogleDrive every day and have been able to do some minimal editing in my docs from GoogleDrive through my browser (and more recently through the Google Search app - see Thing 3). I was intrigued about CloudOn because it supposedly has your docs looking like you're on the computer. My iPhone clearly has too small of a screen for this to be useful for me, but I would expect this to be more efficient and useful using a tablet.

My screen is too small!!

This is in CloudOn - I like all the different ways my docs can be sorted. Other good parts of CloudOn: 

• Ability to INDENT! I miss the "tab" button on my phone :)
• Changing fonts and font sizes easily
• formulas in Excel actually work!

I already store my circ stats in my GoogleDrive, so I can definitely see myself at a meeting and sorting and resorting the stats from my phone to help me answer questions in real-time to the city council.

I also downloaded QuickOffice, but was discouraged immediately because it wouldn't let me edit within the app. I had to download the GoogleDrive app if I wanted to edit documents. I could view them as a pdf, but I couldn't edit them. And from what I can see, the GoogleDrive app allows minimal editing like when I use it in the browser. 

Thing 5 - Notetaking

I downloaded SpringPad, Remember the Milk, and Dragon dictation. I have been using Remember the Milk and SpringPad, but I feel uncomfortable talking out loud to my phone, so I haven't use Dragon dictation. Then I realized, I'm, I am, um, the point of a phone is to talk into it to communicate with somebody so why not use it to communicate with myself, right? So I have dictated this entire paragraph using Dragon dictation and frankly I'm very impressed! woo hoo! I will explore Dragon dictation more and then update this post.

Remember the Milk
I am one of those people who has pockets filled with scraps of paper with "to-do" lists written on them. I have to-read lists, grocery lists, to-watch lists, to-get-at-target lists, to-tell-my-husband lists, to-do-for-summer-reading lists. I'm a list person. One of my high school teachers actually told me I have a "paper brain" because I write everything down. My favorite part of having a "paper brain" is the moment when I finish something and am able to whip one of my lists and CROSS OFF THE COMPLETED TASK! The RTM app lets me mark items "completed" and that is my favorite feature! I do feel like the actual entry of the task is kind of clunky, but I have been using this app for the past two weeks. I have made a couple of grocery lists on it and also a list for things I needed to do before my son's baptism. I think I would use this more in my personal life than in my professional life because my professional lists often have lots of footnotes or sublists and I don't think that's easy to do with this app.

SpringPad
What a cool app! I love the ability to keep different types of content in one notebook - links, photos, text, videos, etc. I will say that I did go on the website to see the features there - after exploring and loving the app. I hope that isn't cheating - I see it more as going "above and beyond"! As I mentioned in a previous post, I am working on collecting readalikes, fan pages, book trailers, etc to share with the teens at the Battle of the Books competition in August. I made a notebook for the Battle authors and started putting ideas in it and I'm almost ready to "share" them with my colleagues. One of my questions about SpringPad is in regards to sharing. Do the people I share the notebook with have to have an account or can they click on a link and see the information? I guess I'll find out soon and update this post!

Thing 1 - 23 Mobile Things

I'm participating in the 23 Mobile Things self-paced program for the next few months. I'm hoping to not only learn a few new skills that will help me better assist patrons but also maintain the skills I already have. I tweet at @hfkittle and will post some of my thoughts there, too.

http://23mobilethingsmn.org/the-23-things/