Kelvin, I know I'm a bit late on this one, but I have been sifting
through an absolutely astonishing amount of email so far this summer.
As for text editing, I've run across a lot of the same ios text
editing woes you describe.
I think if ios just had a decent accessible search function and
spellchecker, it'd be about perfect.
There are some neat things you can do with the pages app, but it's
fairly expensive at 10 u.s. dollars just for experimentation purposes.
I will say that having a Bluetooth keyboard makes editing text on ios
a lot easier. You'll be surprised how effective they are if you've
never used one.
There are several fairly cheap ones that you can get and that are
pretty reliable.
I use a Verbatim.  It folds up small enough to fit in a mid to large
sized pocket, and expands out to a lap usable full sized keyboard
(about the size you might find on a netbook.)
I hope this has been at least a bit helpful, and you can email me
either on or off list if you think I might be able to help further.
Good luck, and let me know if you find any good search ability on ios,
as I'd love to get ahold of it myself.
73,
Zach, kk4ruz

On 6/27/13, Kelvin Marsh <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I want to use my Iphone for writing long documents, such as the Active
> Elements reviews, and for reading text manuals.  This means I often want to
> search for a string and start editing or reading at that position in the
> document.  This is something I do in Word or Notepad all the time.
>
> I'm struggling to do this with any of the WP apps I've tried in IOS.  I've
> tried 'Documents' which is a WP app which allows searching, but the Search
> mode is separate from the edit mode, and so I can't search for a string and
> commence editing at that point.
>
> I've tried Voice Dream Reader, and this is great for reading books, but
> does
> not have a Search option within the Editor, and does not have the fine line
> by line control needed for reading technical material.
>
> Am I trying to do something that IOS just doesn't do?
>
> Best wishes, Kelvin Marsh - M0AID
>
> Working to improve accessibility for radio amateurs with disabilities
>
> www.active-elements.org
>
> For accessibility evaluations of amateur equipment and MP3 manuals
>