As we come up on Apple’s October 30, 2018 event and the almost certain announcement of new iPads I’ve debated whether I will sell my current iPad Pro or keep it. Over the past few months I’ve found a great use for a second iPad when working on certain projects. Something I’ve started doing for certain tasks is using my iPad Air 2 as my reference screen. I can usually do everything just on the Pro in split screen but on occasion I’ll have a project that requires two larger screens and at that point it’s like having a dual monitor Mac.

One such task involves my use of the Affinity Apps, Designer and Photo. Both of these apps are full screen only, no split screen. Which is actually fine with me as the work I do there really requires the most screen I can get. But sometimes I need to reference both text and files for a project. If I can only have a slide over I’m limited to one or the other. I just finished such a project, a promotional postcard for which the client sent images and text to be used as content.

My workflow in this case was made so much better with the second iPad which became my text provider. On the Pro I had my Affinity Photo document and the Files app as a slideover window. I placed the two iPads side by side and got to it. I could reference the iPad Air for my clients directions and needed text. I selected text on the Air and copied it. Then on the Pro I pasted the text into place. Then I used the Files app slideover to drag and drop the images into place. In some cases this drag and drop happens from Mail, Notes, or Safari as the images provider. It’s also possible to copy the images on the second iPad for pasting into the Pro. Anything that can be copied to the system clipboard can then be pasted into the second device.

While it’s not quite the same as working with one computer and two displays it comes close to feeling like that which is what matters. Other than reaching over to the second screen or keyboard I don’t notice a slowdown to my workflow.