1. Take a screenshot
If you need a screenshot, whether it's to prove your high
score in a new game or to send an important chart to the office, taking one is
quick and easy. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button (on the top of the iPad,
on the right-hand side) and the Home button at the same time. The screenshot
will be added to your camera roll.
2. Multi-touch gestures
It won't have escaped your notice that the iPad is a
touchscreen device but even those who have mastered swiping, tapping and
pinching to zoom often don't know about some of the more complex controls. Turn
them on in Settings - General - Multitasking Gestures and then try the
following:
- Place four fingers on the screen and swipe upwards to
reveal the multitasking bar; swipe down to close it again.
- Swipe left or right with four fingers to switch between
apps
- Pinch four fingers together to close the running app and
return to the homescreen. Do this very slowly and you can watch the animation
as the app fades out and the homescreen fades in. Hours of fun. Probably. Don’t forget a single-finger swipe
up from the bottom reveals frequently used settings and from the top
information about today.
3. Typing tricks
There are several ways to make typing easier on your iPad.
Here are a few suggestions:
- Caps Lock: sometimes you need to type all in capitals and
hitting Shift before each letter is a pain. Don't worry, Caps Lock is easy:
make sure the Caps Lock function is turned on in Settings - General - Keyboard,
and then double-tap either shift button whenever you are typing to turn on Caps
Lock.
- Hidden punctuation: Apostrophes and speech marks can be
fiddly on the iPad's virtual keyboard because they are tucked away on a second
keyboard. Or so you would think. In fact, there are shortcuts to both on the
main keyboard. Just tap and hold the exclamation mark to get an apostrophe and
tap and hold the question mark for speech marks.
- Split the keyboard: It can be hard to type on the iPad
when you are holding it in your hands. Apple has an option to make this
slightly easier by allowing you to split the keyboard into two. Just place two
fingers near the centre of the keyboard and drag them apart. The keyboard will
split into two, smaller halves - one on each side of the screen - making it
easier to hold the iPad in two hands and type with your thumbs.
- Shortcuts: If there are certain phrases, names or other
terms that you type frequently, you can create shortcuts for them under
Settings - General - Keyboard. Type "omw", for example, and the iPad
will enter "on my way".
4. Parental controls
Children love iPads and there are some great apps available
for children. However, there are plenty of reasons why you might want to
control the things your children are able to do with your iPad. You might not
want them to have unrestricted access to the web, for example, and it might be
irritating if they delete your favourite apps. You certainly don't want to let
them loose in the App Store if they're spending on your credit card. All of
those things and more can be set within the Settings - General - Restrictions
menu. Once set, the Restrictions settings are pin-protected so that only you
can change them.
5. Tap titlebar to return to top
Scrolling all the way up to the top of a long page can be
irritating. That's why Apple included a shortcut: just tap on the title bar at
the top of the screen to automatically jump to the top. This should work across
most apps, except for the odd perverse developer who opts to turn it off, thus
condemning users to an irritating time swiping screen after screen. I'm looking
at you, The New Yorker app.
6. Find text on a page
On a computer CTRL+F is a handy way to find a word or phrase
on the page you're reading or in a document. You can do the same thing on an
iPad too. Type the word or phrase you are looking for into the search box in
the top and if it appears on the page then you will see an 'On This Page'
section in the search results. Tap that to see the word highlighted on the
page.
7. Conserve battery life
The iPad has pretty impressive battery life: but turning
down the brightness (found in the Settings menu) will help, as will switching
off 3G, or even going to Airplane mode completely when you don't need any
connectivity. If you do need to stay connected, try fetching data less
frequently (see Settings: Mail, Contacts and Calendars).
8. Airplay mirroring
One of the best features of the iPad is the ability to
mirror the display to a television using AirPlay. You'll need an Apple TV
connected to your television for this to work but assuming you have one of
those, this is a handy trick for sharing photos with the family or just showing
everyone that hilarious video of a skateboarding cat. Here's how it works:
first, open the iPad's multitasking menu by swiping upwards with four fingers
or double-tapping the home button, then swipe left. You'll see a range of
player controls and, if your iPad is on the same WiFi network as an Apple TV,
you'll see the AirPlay logo - a rectangle with a black triangle over the bottom
edge. Tap that to mirror your screen.
9. Fast app switching
If you have followed the tips above then you will have seen
this by now. Switching apps quickly is very easy. It's not necessary to close
one app and then scroll through your apps to find the one you want. Just open
the iPad's multitasking menu by swiping upwards with four fingers or
double-tapping the home button. You'll see all of your recently opened apps.
Scroll right and you'll see even more. Just tap the one you want to switch
quickly. This is especially useful if you want to copy-and-paste between one
app and another. Swipe one up to quite it.
10. Copy/Paste
This is a tremendously useful feature. If you need to copy
text between, say, a document and an email, just tap and hold on the text you
want to copy. The word you have tapped will be highlighted and you'll see a bar
with a blue circle on it at each end of the word. Drag these bars to select the
text you want and then tap 'copy'. Then go to the app you want to paste the
text into, tap and hold and then hit 'paste'.
11. Access your home computer
This one costs a little money, but by downloading iTeleport,
it means you can access your home computer from anywhere in the world through
your iPad.
Control downloads, play music to the empty house to make
potential burglars think you are home, email yourself files from your desktop.
The possibilities are endless, provided you leave the
computer switched on of course.
12. Zoom
Want to see something close up, then this feature might be
for you.
This feature sits in the accessibility folder under general
settings. when turned on, double tap on the screen with three fingers to zoom
into a spot.
To navigate around while zoomed in, drag three fingers
around the screen.
And if things still are not magnified enough, then double
tap again while zoomed in with three fingers before dragging them up or down.
This will zoom you right in and out of the action.
13. Shake to undo
Made a mistake when typing and wish there was a handy undo
button just like on your desktop word processor. Actually there is, but you
have to get physical.
Simply pick up your iPad, hold it tightly and give it a
rigorous shake. A box will flash up on the screen asking if you would like to
undo the typing you have just inputted.
14. Triple click the home button
While most people know that a double click of the home
button will bring up the multitasking bar, allowing you to access apps that are
open, few will know about triple click.
Hidden in the accessibility menu in general setting, there
is an option to turn on triple click.
You can then chose to activate a number of features when the
round button at the bottom of the screen is pressed three times in quick
succession.
These include the ability to invert the colours on the
screen or to zoom. The iPad's VoiceOver function, which helps people with
visual difficulties navigate around the screen, can also be activated in this
way.
15. Find my iPad
Are you one of those forgetful people who leaves your
portable technology lying around in rooms and then forgets where you put it?
Then this feature is for you.
Turn it on in the iCloud settings and next time your iPad
vanishes from the face of the Earth, log in to the iCloud on your nearest
computer or phone with your iTunes details.
You can then ask your iPad to display a message telling any
potential finder how to return it to you.
You can ask the iPad to play a sound that overrides any
volume and mute settings. Have you found it yet?
There it is, buried under that stack of newspapers
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