10 Great iPad Apps with Great Mac Versions

Many Apple iPad owners also use a Mac and often want to run a version of Mac apps on the iPad and vice versa. We’ve rounded up the best apps that work on both iPad and Mac. These apps provide users with a cross-platform tool that they can use on the go with a touch interface and on a Mac, while taking advantage of better keyboards, more power, and larger screens that are usually available.

In this review, you will find mostly productivity apps. We left games out because the gaming experience on iPad and Mac looked too different to include. If you disagree, please leave a comment below to suggest some games that work on both platforms.

Scrivener

Scrivener is not just a word processor. It is a long-form writing and research tool for novelists, play and screenwriters, students working on long dissertations or research papers, and non-fiction book writers.

Literature and LatteThe makers of Scrivener recently released the long-awaited iOS version. This caught my attention as an iPad user and we posted our review of the Mac and iPad versions. In our review, the bottom line is that despite the $45 price tag on the Mac and the $20 price tag on the iPad, Scrivener is still cheaper than a one-year Office 365 subscription. Plus, its long-term research tools make it a better choice for a collection of books, dissertations, screenplays, and even recipes. The healthy user community offers tons of ready-to-use Scrivener templates.

Scrivener is organized around a notebook or binding analogy. Scrivener works like a three-ring folder that one can use to compile their writings and research. Users write shorter parts of the project in segmented sections. A research folder holds things like web pages, videos, audio files, images, and character sheets for the novel they wrote.

Once the author has finished the project, he can use the powerful compilation tool to export the book or work in multiple formats including ebook formats like PDF, EPUB, MOBI or just Word and Text files. Users format whatever they want to appear and then export it. Mac users will likely also love the iBooks format, which will make it available for immediate sale in Apple’s bookstore.

The sync isn’t perfect. The company relies on Dropbox instead of using its own sync tool or even iCloud like most of the apps below.

Fame

If you take notes, consider Fame. It is the best handwritten note tool on iOS and works on Mac. Unlike Scrivener above, it uses iCloud for seamless syncing. However, they have set up automatic syncing in Notability with other services like Dropbox and Google Drive.

Notability users can create a note. iPad or iPhone and start getting registration information with a stylus, finger, or Apple Pencil. It also processes text entered with the keyboard. Users can import photos or websites and draw diagrams or sketches. Notability will sync them all to the desktop or laptop running OS X or recent macOS.

Implementation costs $5.99 on the Mac App Store and $7.99 on iOS. The company offers comprehensive help for teachers using Notability with their students.

Adobe Mobile Apps

Import photos into Lightroom Mobile, edit them on iPad, and then sync Collections with the web and desktop versions of Lightroom.

Adobe is king in creativity software, with Photoshop, Acrobat, InDesign, and Premiere dominating their markets. These tools work on both Mac and iOS. please see Adobe mobile apps user guide with great desktop apps.

Olive Tree Bible Study

I spend a lot of time in Bible software. Whether you want to study the Bible as a believer or wonder what the fuss is about, Olive Tree Bible Study offers users useful features and simplicity in one package. You can find simpler Bible apps with both iOS and Mac versions, but you won’t find a simpler app that can evolve with the user as they become more proficient in studying the Bible.

The company offers free resources for book readers. You can download them so you don’t have to connect to the Internet while on an iPad or Mac. If you want, you can buy new ones to use in the program.

The program makes it easy to find all the information the user library contains about a Bible passage. Open the passage in the left box and the right box shows a list of all the books that talk about that passage and its subject.

Microsoft Office 365

I would prefer Apple’s own iWork apps on iOS and Mac apps as they allow me to work with the same app on both platforms. Then Microsoft released their iOS apps. Now Word, Excel and PowerPoint manage office documents, spreadsheets and presentations on both platforms better than Apple’s own offerings.

We will not try to explain every feature of Office 365 apps. One of the cool things it does on the iPad Pro is that it includes annotations with the Apple Pencil. This allows me to flag documents to aid group collaboration. While giving a presentation, a speaker or teacher can draw on the screen with a whiteboard or chalkboard as in the old days.

You can use the built-in OneDrive sync feature provided by Microsoft or take advantage of Dropbox, iCloud or SharePoint support.

To take full advantage Office 365, you pay a minimum of $6.99 per month or $69.99 per year. A family can enjoy the more expensive version for $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year. This allows you to add a total of five users.

PDF Expert by Readdle

If you don’t want the cost of a monthly Create Cloud subscription from Adobe but still need great PDF document tools, consider PDF Expert from Readdle. They make great productivity software for both Mac and iOS.

PDF Expert 5 for iOS works great on iPad Pro with Pen support. You can draw, write and highlight your PDF files and then see them synced to the newly released Mac version of PDF Expert 2. See below.

It works on both iPad and iPhone if you buy an iOS app. The Mac version includes a nice file editor to keep track of all your PDF files. Review Mode in iOS allows you to edit PDFs on your iPad or iPhone like an MS Word file.

you can take iOS app for $9.99 Get the Mac version on the App Store or here: Read directly for $59.99 or in Mac App Store for $59.99.

sketchbook

Artists will love Sketchbook on iPad Pro with Apple Pencil. It’s also great with another great stylus on the iPad Air or iPad mini. This free iOS app lets artists create some beautiful masterpieces.

Here’s what Sketchbook can do. The image below, created in Sketchbook for Mac, shows what’s possible with this app.

An iPad and Mac user can purchase an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription for $50 a month, or buy apps like Pixelmater and Sketchbook for a fraction of that. this Desktop version It costs $4.99/month or $29.99/year. iPad application that also works on iPhone, Free. The full Pro Tools costs $4.99 via in-app purchase.

fantastic 2

Fantastical offers the best iPad app for calendars available on macOS. On both platforms, the app allows me to add natural language appointments. This means I can type in the “Meet John at the Office for an hour Tuesday at 2:00 PM” box and enter all relevant information and set up the appointment. It then syncs the appointment to the other platform using the calendar I chose.

The app supports iCloud Google calendars. Also users can add Exchange, Yahoo, fruux and CalDav calendars.

Apps can use your built-in iOS and macOS Reminders to keep track of your To-Do lists as well. Both your calendar events and reminders will appear on your calendar.

On macOS, the app works with an icon in the menu bar. Click to see your appointment and reminder list for the day. It also shows your monthly view. You can enter a new appointment, search for future appointments and reminders, and view upcoming months using the arrow icons just above the month view.

The latest version now lets you open a full calendar window. This gives you more control over your calendar when working with multiple program windows at the same time.

this Mac version costs $39.99 while iPhone version will cost $2.99. Unfortunately you have to pay for the iPad version separately, It costs $4.99.

pixel maker

Above, we suggested that people use Adobe’s Creative Cloud apps, but that comes at a cost that many photographers and graphic creators won’t be willing to pay. Pixelmater offers a great alternative with some great photo editing tools as well as some layout and design tools. Like Photoshop only cheaper.

The iPad version installs filters in the iOS Photos app for simple edits. Or the user can open the app himself and do some amazing and unbelievable things.

Pixelmater costs $29.99 on Mac and $4.99 on iPad. This means buyers can take advantage of the many power and tools in Photoshop for less than four months for a lifetime Adobe photography subscription of $9.99 per month.

Loose

Slack provides groups with a chat system plus services to share. A team creates a Slack team and then adds other services. The free version allows the team to add a few functions such as integration with Google Docs, Evernote or Twitter. Add up to 10 integrations or tools.

A team can add channels to their Slack space. Most will use the Public channel, but will add others. It also offers private person-to-person chat.

Slack on iPad offers three panes in landscape mode. The middle pane shows conversations from the current channel or private conversation. The left channel shows a list of rooms or channels. The right side offers settings and the ability to switch between teams for those who use Slack with multiple teams. In portrait mode, it essentially only shows the current chat.

The Mac version looks and behaves almost the same as the iPad version in landscape mode.

Receive loose free and use apps On Mac, Windows, iPad, iPhone and Android.