Setting up the next week’s Dracula Live tweets is a task I do weekly that would be unbearable on an iPad. I need Safari window with the table of contents open so I can link to the appropriate entry from the novel. Then I have a folder on my computer with all the entries that are titled with the date and time they need to be posted, which I need to schedule the tweets in Tweetdeck (another Safari window). I include a frame from the book’s scene from one of four movies, so I have a folder with those open. I pick a movie that includes that scene, open the movie, it, and grab the frame. Could I do all this in iPadOS? Probably, but flipping between all those apps would be so tedious I’d probably give up on the project. Having all that open on the Mac is the only way.

I really do like the iPad, but it just doesn’t let me do this sort of thing in any way that resembles how I actually want to work, which is to spread all my (virtual) materials out and use them.

More, though, I don’t really want to argue that the iPad necessarily needs to allow for this. If what I’m doing really does only require one or two apps, having a dedicated device that just becomes that tasks is preferable. No menu bar or Dock to get in the way. If asked to choose, I’d prefer the iPad to stay simpler rather than sacrifice some of its elegance for the ability to do a job the Mac already does well.

I’d sort of like to find a way for the iPad, and iPadOS and iOS, to not be seen as lesser just because they’re not optimized for multi-part workflows. If all you need to do is hammer something into the wall, you use a hammer, and you don’t blame the hammer for not being a complete workshop.