SGS233

Wondering if anyone has found a fast/efficient way to make annotations on a digital release, please?

We receive ours via MobileCCI, and other than saving a copy to "Books" I've not yet figured out a better way.

Anyone doing something different?

Many thanks in advance!

JohnBurke

When I get a release, it comes via .pdf, and I open it on an ipad with .pdf Expert. I know others who use Goodreader, etc. I use an apple pencil and the annotation tools in the .pdf program to highlight and underline, or write on the release, for reference in the airplane. I usually get my release one or two hours prior to report time, and I'll highlight anything relevant, including NOTAMs.

I suspect there are a variety of ways to do that, but this works for me. I keep company documents in the same program, so I can open anything relevant alongside the release. If there are maintenance deferrals, I can pull up the MEL and review them, and make any notes on the release, or references, etc. I can put the deice manual nearby, and relevant holdover charts, etc. Whatever I need, from the QRH to operations manuals, so it's available in one spot, quickly. If I have to reference that in a briefing, it's a tab away, already open, and also highlighted.

SGS233

Thanks John!

I've been using PDF Expert for the past week now, not quite as extensively as your usage scenario, but certainly for annotating releases and it's been a game changer.

Any chance you've found a way to auto-magically *sync* annotations made to a release viewed in PDF Expert on your phone (eg, at the hotel, on the airport shuttle, etc.) to your EFB (once you get into the cockpit)?

I'm hoping that there might be an option that's somewhat akin to the way that Apple handles edits made to "Notes" across multiple devices (ie, they just show up via iCloud synching... WITHOUT having to share modifications via a message or email) but I haven't found it yet. (Nor have I heard back from the app's tech support folks.)

Many thanks again for the recommendation... it really has simplified things on this end... A LOT!

usmc-sgt

books and an Apple Pencil is seamless. Pen tool, pencil tool, highlight tool and quickly change colors and back and forth between the eraser.

JohnBurke

I'm not a particularly tech-savvy person, but with certain things saved to the "cloud," what's entered in one device shows up in another. With apple products, one can also transfer items with an "airdrop" between devices. For my end, I keep everything on my ipad. I've worked with various EFB setups, involving ipads and other devices. The easiest setup I've used was the same ipad in a fixture in the airplane, that I had in the hotel, so no need to transfer anything; when I got my flight release at the hotel, I did everything before I left the room, and when I got t the airplane, that ipad slipped into a bracket and was the chart source and EFB I used in flight.

I do have .pdf expert on my phone and ipad, so can transfer items that way, and there's a cloud transfer or storage that can be used, too. The setup I have right now is my own ipad, but a different device in the airplane. I reference the flight release that I've been sent, on the ipad, and I carry that in the airplane, but I don't transfer it to an EFB on board. I can receive it or see it on my phone and my ipad, but a phone is too small for looking at most anything, so if I'm going to mark it or review it, it goes to the ipad.

SGS233

Thanks for this, it really helps to see what others are doing!

Any thoughts (or experience) with getting a pdf (or, in my case, a pdf with annotations) to automatically sync between two different iCloud accounts, please?

In the past I've created an Apple Note, shared it with someone else, and then had it automatically update (ie, sync) whenever either of us has made edits to it.

Haven't found that function/feature/capability in *either* PDF Expert or Apple Books (yet).

Context, please:

My personal Apple iPhone uses my personal iCloud account.

My company EFB uses an iCloud account that I created specifically for it.

In a perfect world, I'd just sign-in to a single iCloud account from both devices, but I'm hardover on keeping the two accounts (my personal one, and the one used for the company EFB) firewalled/partitioned.

Many thanks again!