Originally posted on the NCCUMC Faith and Tech Blog:
The era of tablet computing offers communicators the ability to speak and preach without printing paper! As an iPad user I find preaching and teaching from the tablet cleaner and easier than dealing with a stack of papers. There are a couple ways to go paperless.
Option 1: Use your tablet’s document preparer. On my iPad I have Pages and Quickofficethat both allow me to prepare and also read documents. If I choose to prepare my doc on my computer rather than the iPad then transferring via email or Dropbox will do the trick.
Option 2: Using a PDF reader is my preferred option. When you present from a document preparer you have to scroll through the text. I find this difficult. Instead, I create each presentation as a PDF and flip through the pages of the document. My favorite program for this is GoodReader. One of the early apps for such work, GoodReader continues to allow PDF reading as well as now allowing the viewing of multiple media formats. GoodReader also will sync or download docs from Dropbox, Google Docs, and other cloudbased services.
A bonus of tablet preaching – no light required. Many a pulpit from which I have preached seemed poorly lit and some would have required an electrician to install a light. Tablets are backlit – no light required. Recently during our Good Friday service we went with candlelight except for the spot on the cross. Our worship leaders were able to read clearly from my iPad from a dark corner without too much light!