[qrcodetag size="150" link="false"] What functionality should a text editor have that I would use on an iPAD? This is the first question that I had in mind when I started to think of a text editor for the iPAD. At first, the functionality seems rather obvious: create file, edit text, save file. Spellchecking would be nice. And Undo/Redo. Well that’s about out. But when I read The humane Interface by Jef Raskin, I started to think: how do I use a text editor? Is it a replacement for a notebook? And that was the moment when I realized that I wanted a notebook that has a build in text editor.

In my notebook, I’m writing down ideas, sketches. Typically, in no particular order other than the order given by the paper notebook interface: time. I divide my content with lines and write down the date of the note. That’s it. Plain and simple. With my favorite text editor on my MAC (TexShop) this is a different story: I create several files (like the one in which I put the notes of for this blog entry) and store them all over the place: sometimes on the desktop (because I want to continue later on this and want to keep it “nearby”), sometimes in a dedicated work directory hierarchy. However, sometimes I just forget where my notes are and I have to search for them with Spotlight.

These experiences (and Jef Raskin’s book) made me think. If you look at iOS, you won’t find files. The file metaphor (ever-present on your desktop) simply does not exist on mobile devices with iOS. Instead, you get an App and the App handles your data for you. This makes perfectly sense: what you need is DATA, i.e., the CONTENT. The iPAD editor does exactly this: you do not need to handle files. To find your data all you have to do, is to enter one or more keywords and jump (leap) to the position in the text. The beauty of this approach is that there are no files – you do not need to remember in which file you saved your data.

your ikangai development team

Tags: iPad, Jef Raskin, Text Editor, The humane Interface