DropBox is a great service and getting files onto the iPad from your DropBox storage is easy with their free iPad App. But what about going the other way from an app like Pages? Thanks to a service called DropDAV it is pretty easy too.
DropDAV can be used to copy files from the iPad to a computer via DropBox
First, sign up for a free 2GB DropBox account. Once you have it setup, download the app, linked above. That way you can access your files on the iPad. To save files to the iPad you can then sign up for a DropDAV account. The cost is 30% of whatever you are paying for DropBox. So if you just use the free DropBox service then DropDAV is free too. Get the premium vesions of DropBox and you will pay 30% of the monthly/yearly fee. So, now go set up DropDAV. On that page you will use your DropBox user name (your email address) and password to connect the two services. Go back to the iPad and launch Pages, Numbers or Keynote.
Use the My Documents Share feature to copy to DropBox using WebDAV
Go to the My Documents screen in pages (tap the button in the upper left corner). There is a copy button at the bottom of that screen on the far left with a box and arrow on it. That’s the iPad share or copy button. Tap it to reveal the above menu and choose “Copy to WebDAV”. The resulting screen will ask you to sign in. Use the server address https://dav.dropdav.com. Then enter your user name and password for DropBox and tap Sign In in the upper right.
Choose the folder of your choice in DropBox and open files form DropBox. You can edit the file and then go back to My Documents. Hit the share button and copy the file back to the DropBox folder of your choice. You will have a choice of which file format to use. For example in Pages you can save files as a Pages file, a PDF or a Word file. The same is true for Numbers but instead of Word it has Excel and Keynote as PowerPoint. If it has a file of the same name it will ask you to replace it. The edited file will overwrite the original. It works great. This is now our chosen method of saving files created or edited in Pages, Numbers or Keynote to DropBox for editing on the Mac. Warning: There is an issue right now with editing iPad created/edited Pages files on a Mac. When opened on a Mac, the Pages file will be corrupted. You will see some really strange behavior, so don’t spend too much time formatting as you will likely lose it. The workaround is to just open the file edited on the iPad from the DropBox folder on the Mac. Copy everything and then create a new Pages document on the Mac and paste it there. If you have already done a lot of formatting you may want to copy to DropDAV as a Word file if you plan to edit it further on the Mac. Use PDF if it is in final form. It is ridiculous that Apple has not acknowledged or fixed the above issue, but hopefully they will soon.
