Freedom of a File System

Last week I was trying to run a fairly simple task, using the iPad. Our patent attorney sent me three PDF files asking to sign them. I wanted to sign them on the iPad and return signed, as attachments to the same email thread.

Despite having the latest iOS on the latest Apple device (that includes the "Files"), and having a whole suite of leading edge apps (including Google Inbox and Adobe Fill&Sign), completing this task was just not possible.

From the Inbox I can (using the system sharing options) save the attached PDFs to Files. I mean, almost, as it is not possible to create a folder in files. Luckily another app (LiquidText) has already created one, so I could save to the \OnMyiPad\LiquidText. From the Files I could share the PDF to "Copy to Adobe Fill & Sign" In the Adobe app I could add the signature and "share" the document again to Files. So far so good. But then I realized Inbox just did not have an option to add an attachment from Files. Yes I could "share" from Adobe directly to Inbox, but that creates a new email with a single file attachment. I wanted to attach three files No luck.

This whole "share to" thing in iOS is the most annoying feature. An app arbitrarily decides what other apps it wants to "share" to. I was hoping, the Files introduced in iOS 11 would bring some more freedom... like we have on real computers (Windows / Linux / macOS): creating folders, copying and moving files around. Unfortunately this is not the case. Files on iOS seem to be useless - far from what we know and love and what really makes the difference between computers and pads / tablets.

Without the freedom of a real file system, iPads will remain a poor substitute of computers. It is a shame that despite so many brilliant apps, simple tasks are tedious and awkward to execute and some are simply impossible.