The app store is loaded with apps – from useless to useful.  There are some apps that are just ESSENTIAL and  GoodReader falls into this category.  I have not come across anything this useful for file management and viewing documents on my iPad as GoodReader.  Let’s dig deeper and see why GoodReader is a JAMM Essential!

The name GoodReader only hints at what this powerful app can do.  It certainly is a unified place for viewing documents such as PowerPoint, PDF, TXT, photos, and it also covers audio playback.  Previewing files in the “Preview Tab”, you can already see the first page of a document.  (Please note that for all screenshots that I have wiped out the file name of the PowerPoint file for privacy reasons).  Tapping on files on the left side will open them in the reader. 

Let’s look at this reader.  Multiple files can be opened simultaneously in the reader which supports tabs.  In the way of PDF files, GoodReader is a Swiss army knife.  You can adjust brightness, extract text (this is a beta feature), rotate all pages, view 2 pages simultaneously, annotate the PDF (you can find your annotations in the bookmarks section), crop the PDF, search the PDF, jump to page, and even print the file!  (Wow, that was a mouthful of features…)  To get the toolbars to show up after they auto hide when you are reading a document, swipe down with 3 fingers.

If you have a lot of files, then it would be very quick to search for the one that you need from the “Find Files” tab.  I only have a few files, this feature is not as useful.

In the “Manage Files” section, you’ll be able to copy, move, rename, create, protect, and ZIP files.  The interface is easy to use.  Just select the files you wish to manage from the left side and select the action that you want on the right side.  The ability to ZIP and unZIP files is extremely useful as I can immediately zip and email a file through the GoodReader interface.  Unfortunately, you cannot rename  the extension of a file.  I tried renaming a HTML to TXT so that I could view the source code, but this does not seem possible.  The interface makes it easy to select and mange files by copying locally.  We’ll get to moving files to other places when we talk about the “Connect to Servers” section.   GoodReader also supports data encryption which is great to lockdown files.

The “New Download” tab allows you to browse the web and save actual HTML files.  My only wish is that they would make it where if this is done on a picture that it will allow you to save just the picture.

This is the web browser view where you can download web pages.  Popups are not supported – I was hoping to see tabbed popups and the ability to have a tabbed experience like in Safari.

You can easily add or edit various locations in the “Connect to Servers” section.  On my own device, I was able to connect my iDisk, Dropbox, SugarSync, and FTP account.  It can also connect to mail servers, google docs, box.net, WebDAV, and SFTP servers.  I hope to see SpiderOak added in the future but as to all the majors, the server connections are pretty complete.

Here I am logged into my SugarSync account.  When I get to a folder where I can upload my files, then I’ll get the upload button (shown below)…

From here by clicking upload, I am presented with my documents again where I can choose and upload multiple files quickly and easily.

The little “Wi-Fi” button (circled in the photo above) is the part that thrills me the most.  This little gem allows you to upload via a web browser as GoodReader has its own built-in webserver.  You can do this as long as you are on the same network.  To add to the power, this address can be mapped as network drive providing the ultimate power for PC and Mac users to connect and send/receive files quickly and en masse.

Let’s go back one tab and view the “Photos” button.  This button allows you to access your camera roll.  By tapping on a photo, it will create a JPG copy of the photo.  You will not be able to modify or delete photos directly, but you can do anything you want to the copy that is created.  I have found that a very fast way to transfer my photos if I didn’t want to use iTunes would be to quickly tap through all photos (yes in this case it would be 80+ photos) and then use WiFi to transfer the photos to my PC.  It would be incredible if a feature could be added that would allow direct manipulation of the photo roll.

There are tons of settings available for GoodReader – consult the manual for in depth info.  Personally I would recommend setting the “Other Settings” to ask permission first before a WiFi transfer takes place.

This is the built-in manual.   It would take a long time to go through everything.  As GoodReader 3 progresses, you’ll see things like “What’s New” which talks about adding support to RAR files as well as split archives.  If something doesn’t work, be sure to check out the “Known Issues” in the “Introduction” section where it lists limitations to opening DRM protected PDFs as well as password protected MS Office files to name a few.

Conclusion: What else can I say about this fabulous must have program?  It does so much and allows me not only pleasurable reading but also file management with the local storage as well as with remote servers.  I highly recommend it!

Vital Statistics:

App Title: GoodReader
Version: 3.11.0
Publisher: Good.iWare
Publisher Website: http://www.goodreader.net
Price: $4.99
Availability: Apple App Store