OT: Preaching from an iPad

I just got a new iPad Pro 10.5 - I previously had the 9.7. It's big enough that I believe I'll be comfortable preaching from it. I have a couple of questions for either: a) people who are already preaching from an iPad; or b) people who know iOS really well.

1) I don't want any notifications or sounds or anything to come from the device while I'm preaching. If I put the iPad in Do Not Disturb / Always mode, will that ensure that those issues don't happen?

2) My preaching notes are in a Word document, and they're accessible on my iPad via Dropbox. Dropbox displays Word documents pretty well. But I'm wondering if there's a better read-only app (i.e. not Word for iOS) to use for displaying the notes. It would be trivial for me to convert Word to pdf. I suppose the one thing I'd like in such an app most is to change pages by touching the right margin (or left to go back) - not dragging up to scroll up or swiping right-left to turn page. The Kindle app works this way, as can the Logos Bible app.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks,

Donnie

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Comments

Levi Durfey

I use a 9.7 inch iPad Air 2.

I use PDF expert to display my sermon notes. You get the ability to swipe (or touch) to change pages, plus the ability to highlight and make short notes. (I go back and correct my manuscript after preaching). In order to best use the space, I set my margins to .5 inch and my paper size to 8.25x11 (the same ratio as the screen on the 9.7 inch iPad). I use Georgia font, size 16, with 1.2 line spacing (so I can sneak a note in-between the lines in PDF Expert).

Do Not Disturb mode will keep any notifications from popping up. I, however, went to settings and turned off the Notifications for practically every app. I read, preach, and study on my iPad, so it doesn't need to disturb me (my iPhone does that nicely).

BTW: don't forget to turn on orientation lock before preaching, it will save you from the embarrassment of having to jiggle your iPad in front of everyone.

William Gabriel

Hi Donnie,

I preach from an iPad. I've used the smaller version, though my wife has the big one and I'm interested in trying that one out. Using the iPad has worked really well for me. I do feel like I "worry" about extra things, like having a battery run out or other technical difficulties, but I remind myself that there could be problems no matter what (I left my paper notes at home!).

Apple says that Do Not Disturb will block notifications, sounds, etc. I do have an iPhone that will ring when someone calls my Google Voice number even if it's on DND, but that's probably a weird bug or exception.

I have really enjoyed using PDF Expert. I export my notes to that, then I can annotate or highlight those notes on the iPad with PDF Expert. It's helpful for any last minute changes or things I want to give visual prominence as I go over my notes. It treats each page as a discreet page and turns rather than scrolls. I'll have to check and see if tap works to change pages--I think it does.

Bill

Kenneth Neighoff

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/952644#Comment_952644

I preach from my iPad 12.9.

I create my sermon with the sermon editor in Logos and preach from it.

It works well for me.

Mike Binks

Hi Donnie

I have been preaching from the iPad for a number of years now without any problems at all.

I prepare my sermons (and the rest of the service) in Pages - save to Dropbox - and preach from Dropbox's display.

On the rare occasion that I have not adequately prepared or something has happened that required I have simply opened up in Pages made the alteration and then preached from the Pages document. You need to be a little more careful with the scrolling action but I have not had any major distractions.

I simply turn on the Mute button - I have never been distracted by the rare notifications that may turn up - they are dismissed with a quick flick.

I have recently been trying with dropbox open in 2/3 of the screen and Proclaim remote in the other 1/3. It seems to work well.

Kevin A. Purcell

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/952646#Comment_952646

I have preached from iPad for years now. I use Word and since I have.an office 365 subscription it saves the file to my onedrive. And usually when I open word on my iPad it's there in the recent documents section at or near the top.

I don't thin there's a better way to do it. It's automatic. I don't have to convert the document. I can do a quick edit before I preach if I see the need and it's saved for posterity long after I'm done.

When I preach I put it in Airplane mode because Do Not Disturb actually does disturb sometimes. Not sure why, but it does. Taking it offline after loading my document is more dependable, plus I turn down the volume. I actually leave it down almost 100% of the time.

Word now has a Mobile view on the View Tab that I turn on so I can preach and see little else but the text of my sermon/bible study.

Donnie Hale

Thanks everyone for all the replies. They're very helpful. Not sure yet which app I'll use to display my preaching notes, but I think I've got all the other "make sure to's" now. Big help.

Donnie

Samuel

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/952753#Comment_952753

Thanks everyone for all the replies. They're very helpful. Not sure yet which app I'll use to display my preaching notes, but I think I've got all the other "make sure to's" now. Big help.

Donnie

Just to put other option in the mix, I've preached for a few years from the Documents app by Readdle. It free, has a great UI and has been useful. It also has a "crop mode" when you open a document that will crop the white margin space around the edges. It's a ice way to "zoom" a document when preaching.

I've also used Goodreader which has been a good experience but hasn't been updated I a while so it's hard to tell if the app is dead or not.