iCloud is a great place to store files that you need to access on multiple Macs. However, there are limits, some of which may be deal-breakers. The main problem is that files are accessible only to the applications that created them. If you create a file with TextEdit, for example, you can save that file in a number of formats, such as RTF and .doc, the Microsoft Word format. However, you can't open those files with Word. In fact, you can't open those files with anything other than TextEdit, at least not from iCloud.

You can, of course, move a file from iCloud to your Mac, as I explained above, and then open it with Word, but this adds an extra step. Frankly, if you need to pass files between different applications, .

Apple's iWork programs--Pages, Numbers, and Keynote--have iOS equivalents that let you access files you create on your Mac on your iPad or iPhone. But, the same is not the case for, say, TextEdit or Preview.

If you save a TextEdit file in the cloud, it's in a black hole as far as iOS is concerned. When you go to your phone, for example, there's no way you can access it--it's in the cloud, but your iPhone doesn't have the keys to open its container. While you can move files from the cloud to your Mac, there's no way to do this on an iOS device. You'll need to go back to your Mac to find your file and move it.