I am pleased to note that the folks at Dropbox have made the task analysis below unnecessary with their most recent (4/17/2011) update to the Dropbox app for the iPad. Now an iWork for iPad user can simply email out the document to themselves, and then choose to open the email attachment in the Dropbox app.
This still requires a couple of additional steps that should be unnecessary (specifically emailing out and then opening from the email app), but it's far simpler and removes the need to use additional third party software like AirSharing HD.
I'll leave this page up for a short period of time to help get that message to anyone working through this issue.
Sincerely,
Erin Wade
4/18/2011
Required Materials:
- iPad
- A Dropbox account
- The Dropbox application for iPad
- Air Sharing HD installed on your iPad
- A word processing or document creation program for iPad that emails documents out. In this example I will be using Pages, part of Apple's iWork suite, but there are a number of other options. This process will also work with pictures or any other type of file.
- 1. Install the applications indicated above to your iPad.
- 2. Set up AirSharing HD so that it can access your Dropbox account. You will find instructions for doing so here.
- 3. Go to Pages (or the word processor of your choice - but note that these instructions are specific to Pages) and create your masterpiece. I'll wait here for you...
- 4. In Pages tap the My Documents button in the upper left-hand corner.
- 5. Tap the swooshing arrow button to get the file sharing menu.
- 6. Tap the Send via Mail button. It will bring up options for the file format you want to send in.
- 7. Select your file format. Note here that Pages can send out a file in Microsoft Word's .doc format, so even though the iWork Suite is a Mac program, you don't necessarily need to have a Mac to use Pages on your iPad.
- 8. An email form with the document attached will come up. Fill in the "To:" field on the email form. You can send to any email address, including your own (e.g. you can send it from and to the same address, which is what I recommend here).
- 9. Tap the "send" button in the upper right hand corner of the email form.
- 10. Exit the word processor and open your email application. You should have received the email that you sent out from the word processor.
- 11. Tap on the email.
- 12. Tap on the attachment in the email. It will open the document in a viewer.
- 13. Touch on the center of the document, and it will bring up a task bar at the top of the document.
- 14. Tap the "Open in..." button in the upper right corner. This will bring up a choice menu.
- 15. Tap AirSharing HD. The document will then open up in that application.
- 16. Touch the center of the document, and it will bring up a task bar at the top of the document.
- 17. Tap the My Documents button. This will take you to the main directory in Air Sharing HD, where you should see your file.
- 18. Tap the "Edit" button in the upper right had corner. This will cause all the documents and folders to move to the right and a circle should appear to the left of each of them.
- 19. Touch the circle to the left of your file. A check mark should appear in the circle.
- 20. Tap the gear in the lower right hand corner of the screen. This will bring up a menu.
- 21. Select "Move" from that menu. You should now see a little document "paper-clipped" to the upper right hand corner.
- 22. Tap the "Servers" button in the upper left-hand corner. This should take you out to a list that will include your Dropbox account that you set up in Air Sharing earlier.
- 23. Touch the icon for your Dropbox account. This will take you into your main Dropbox folder.
- 24. Once here you should see the "paper-clipped" document icon again. Tap the "paper-clipped" document icon. This will bring up a single item menu saying "Paste 1 item".
- 25. Tap "Paste 1 item". You should then see a progress bar telling you that it's copying the item.
And that's it - the file is now in your Dropbox! In my experience it usually takes a few seconds for it to show up after you've copied it, so don't be alarmed if you don't see it immediately.
This procedure should work for any file type that can be opened or viewed in Air Sharing HD. There is an expected update for the iPad this fall (moving it to iOS 4, the same operating system as on the new iPhone 4). I sincerely hope Apple makes this task analysis obsolete with that update, but I'll leave this up and available until they do.
