Writing Sites for MobileMe

Seems a simple enough app: a basic html/text editor that flips to a Safari preview of the document and allows you to upload to your MobileMe account. First off, ALL the web writing apps I have tried for the iPad are unstable. Most are so buggy, Apple should not have approved them for sale in the App Store. And NONE upload to a WebDAV server like MobileMe. Everybody is trying to get fancy and ignoring the fact that users expect these apps to functions from day one.

The good news is that you CAN code HTML and upload the file to MobileMe from your iPad through a workaround. Not as easy as pushing an Upload button, but you can do it in thirty seconds. I highly recommend you get eWeb Editor. This was one of the first HTML editors for iPad and by far the most stable. It's one of the cheapest too. It has some nice features, but the beauty is that the core functions work: HTML editing with an instant preview and these reliably save.

You will also need to download the amazing GoodReader app. But it's 99 cents, so your total financial layout is small. GoodReader's structure is a little convoluted, but it does so many things you'll quickly find out that it's pretty hard to contain all that function in a menu structure. it's like a Swiss Army Knife for documents on your iPad.

The workflow for editing and uploading your code is simple: Edit and preview in eWeb Editor. Then save your code in GoodReader as an HTML doc and upload it.

• Edit in eWebEditor

• Press the Gear icon and the Copy Code to Clipboard button.

• Open GoodReader.

• Tap on the Manage Files list on the right.

• Press the New File button.

• Under My Documents on the left, tap the file called "New Text.txt".

• In the right column tap the Rename button and rename the file "index.html" or whatever the document is called you're updating on MobileMe.

• Press the Okay button.

• Press the Connect to Servers header on the right.

• Choose your iDisk from the list.

• Navigate to the folder where you want the file to go and open it.

• Slide right on the file you're replacing and press the Delete button.

• Press the Upload button and choose your file from the list.

• Press the Upload 1 File button.

Takes a lot less time than it sounds. For those who like to hand code or need to tweak code from your iDisk on an iPad, at least it works.