Plenty of tablet aids for schoolwork

Going back to school with a tablet computer means you'll have available a lot of useful applications for the classroom and homework to get and stay organized, write reports, and do the higher mathematics.

We'll focus here on apps for the market-dominating iPad.

Pages, the easy-to-use Apple Inc. word processor, is $9.99. It's a powerful part of the iWork suite tooled for mobile devices, along with Keynote for presentations and Numbers for spreadsheets (also $9.99 each).

In Pages, templates allow you to quickly set up term papers, visual reports, posters, or a syllabus. Of course, unless you've opted for a separate wireless keyboard, you'll be typing with the on-screen QWERTY pad, but practice makes that less of an obstacle.

The simple toolbar has just three icons - an incredible relief from the bewilderingly stacked headers in Microsoft's Word. And it's a delight to pop photos and charts in and out of documents, and then to move them around, with a few finger taps.

Pages documents can be saved in iTunes in the Pages, pdf, or Word formats. As an alternative to iTunes, you can use your ever-useful Apple ID to sign on and store documents for sharing on a beta iWork.com site.

In addition to a number of paid apps that help you organize your class schedule, remind yourself of assignments and tests, and take lecture notes, there are several free apps that do the same things and do them well.

One of those freebies is an advertising-supported app called inClass, by OneZeroWare L.L.C. You can create schedules of your courses, class and lab times, and teacher and contact information, including office hours.

Open up a page for notes and you can type or, if you wish, tap the microphone icon and record audio of your lecture or meeting. The audio link is automatically embedded in your notes. Other icons are for taking pictures - if you're using a camera-equipped iPad2 - and for inserting visuals into your notes as well.

Parents used to have to spring for expensive graphing calculators so the children could do the sort of math that's beyond most of their elders' understanding.

Now, we need only a little pocket change for Graphic Calculator HD, by Appcylon L.L.C. It's a $1.99 app that lets a student go all Einstein to help justify the tablet purchase.

And, no, I'm not going to pretend I know everything the calculator does, even after reading through the tutorial. But it looks elegant, with lots of squiggly mathematical symbols in easy reach and its x and y axes in what appear to be the right places.