iPad For Dummies, 8th Edition (2016)
Part I. Getting to Know Your iPad
Chapter 2. iPad Basic Training
In This Chapter
Getting going
Setting up the iPad
Locking your iPad
Mastering multitouch
Cutting, copying, and pasting
Multitasking with your iPad
Watching video through a picture-in-picture function
Spotlighting search
By now you know that the iPad you hold in your hands is very different from other computers.
You also know that these slate-style machines are rewriting the rule book for mainstream computing. How so? For starters, iPads don’t come with a mouse or any other kind of pointing device. They lack traditional computing ports or connectors, such as USB. And they have no physical or built-in keyboard, though Apple will sell you a Smart Keyboard accessory for the large-display iPad Pro model.
iPads even differ from other so-called tablet PCs, some of which feature a pen or stylus and let you write in digital ink. As we point out (pun intended) in Chapter 1, the iPad relies on an input device that you always have with you: your finger. Okay, so the iPad Pro you meet in this book also breaks that longstanding iPad rule, at least if you spring for the Apple Pencil accessory.
Tablet computers of one form or another have actually been around since the last century. They just never captured the fancy of Main Street. Apple’s very own Newton, an ill-fated 1990s personal digital assistant, was among the machines that barely made a dent in the market.
What’s past is past, of course, and technology — not to mention Apple itself — has come a long way since Newton. And suffice it to say that in the future, tablets — led by the iPad brigade, of course — promise to enjoy a much rosier outlook. Indeed, since the iPad burst onto the scene, numerous tech titans (as well as smaller companies) have introduced their own touch-enabled tablets; many rely on the Google Android mobile operating system, some on versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system, and a few on other operating systems. Some solid machines are among them, but the iPad remains the market leader and a true pioneer in the space.
If you were caught up in the initial mania surrounding the iPad, you probably plotted for weeks about how to land one. After all, the iPad, like its close cousin the iPhone, rapidly emerged as the hippest computer you could find. (We consider you hip just because you’re reading this book.) You had to plot to get subsequent versions as well.
Speaking of the iPhone, if you own one or its close relative, the Apple iPod touch, you already have a gigantic start in figuring out how to master the iPad multitouch method of navigating the interface with your fingers. If you’ve been using iOS 9 on those devices, you have an even bigger head start. You have our permission to skim the rest of this chapter, but we urge you to stick around anyway because some things on the iPad work in subtly different ways than on the iPhone or iPod touch. If you’re a total novice, don’t fret. Nothing about multitouch is painful.
Getting Started on Getting Started
We’ve always said that you needed the following four things to enjoy your new iPad, but starting with iOS 5, you don’t need a computer (and the connection to iTunes and whatever program you use to store your contacts) to use an iPad. You see, iOS 5 was the first operating system to allow you to activate, set up, and apply iOS updates to an iPad wirelessly, without having to connect it to a computer. And iOS 6, iOS 7, iOS 8, and iOS 9 continue the tradition. We show you how to get your iPad set up without a computer in the next section; in Chapter 3, we show you how to set up your iPad with your computer.
Because even though you don’t need a computer, we think you’ll prefer using your iPad with one rather than without one.
In our experience, many tasks — such as iOS software updates and rearranging app icons — are faster and easier to do using iTunes on a Mac or PC than on the iPad. Having a backup for your data helps too.
Now, here are those four things you need to use your iPad:
· A computer: As we point out, you don’t really need a computer, though it’s helpful to use your iPad with one just the same. The computer can be a Macintosh running Mac OS X version 10.5.8 or later, or a PC running Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7 (or Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional Edition with Service Pack 3 or later if you still have such a machine).
The iCloud service has higher requirements: Mac OS X Mountain Lion, Lion (10.7), Mavericks, Yosemite, or El Capitan for Macs; or Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10 for PCs. Flip to Chapter 3 for details about iCloud.
· iTunes software: More specifically, you need version 10.7 or later of iTunes — emphasis on the later because by the time you read this, it will be later. After all, iTunes was up to version 12.3 by the time we were preparing this book.
Apple constantly tweaks iTunes to make it better. You can go to www.itunes.com/download to fetch a copy. Or launch your current version of iTunes and then choose iTunes⇒Check for Updates.
The uninitiated might want to know that iTunes is the nifty Apple jukebox software that owners of iPods and iPhones, not to mention PCs and Macs, use to manage music, videos, apps, and more. iTunes is at the core of the iPad as well, because an iPod is built into the iPad, as part of the Music app. You can use iTunes to synchronize a bunch of stuff from your Mac or PC to and from an iPad, including (but not limited to) apps, photos, movies, TV shows, podcasts, iTunes U lectures, and of course, music.
Syncing is such a vital part of this process that we devote an entire chapter (Chapter 3) to the topic.
· An Apple ID account: Read Chapter 7 for details on how to set up an account. Like most things Apple, the process isn’t difficult. You’ll want an account to download content from iTunes, the App Store, or to take advantage of iCloud.
· Internet access: Your iPad can connect to the Internet in either of two ways: Wi-Fi or cellular (if you bought an iPad with 3G or 4G capabilities). You can connect your iPad to cyberspace via Wi-Fi in your home, office, school, favorite coffeehouse, bookstore, or numerous other spots.
At press time, 3G (third-generation) and 4G (fourth-generation) wireless data connections were available from many carriers in countries too numerous to mention; in the United States, you can choose among AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile. Those wireless carriers are pretty far along building the zippier 4G (fourth-generation) networks across the United States, with Verizon in the lead rolling out the fastest variety, called LTE (Long Term Evolution). While the others play catch-up on LTE, the latest iPad on AT&T and T-Mobile makes nice with other pretty fast networks, including something known as HSPA+.
As this book goes to press, data rates (no contract required) are reasonably priced as long as you don’t stream or download a lot of movies or watch tons of videos while connected over 3G or 4G. For as little as $5 in some instances, you can purchase a day pass for data instead of opting for a monthly plan.
Figuring out how much data you need beforehand isn’t always easy, but it’s simple enough to adjust along the way. If you’re streaming a lot of music, T-Mobile for one provides a nice benefit: the capability to stream free on most major services, including Spotify and Apple’s own Apple Music.
The following are some of the offerings from the major U.S. carriers when we published this book. Keep in mind that all the rate plans cited are subject to change and sometimes tied to shareable family plans that include smartphones. In some instances, you must pay activation or other fees. Promotions are also common:
· AT&T: $14.99 a month for 250MB, 3GB for $30, and 5GB for $50
· Sprint: $10 a month for 100MB, 3GB for $35, and 6GB for $50
· T-Mobile: $20 a month for 1GB, 3GB for $30, and 5GB for $40
· Verizon: $20 for 2GB, $30 a month for 4GB, $40 for 6GB.
A friendly warning pops up on your iPad when you get close to your limit. At that point, you can pay more to add to your data bucket or start from scratch next month. Keep in mind that with 4G, you’re likely to consume more data in a hurry. And prices of course are subject to change.
Find a Wi-Fi network if you want to buy, rent, or watch movies.
Turning On and Setting Up the iPad
Unless your iPad is brand-spanking new and fresh out of the box, chances are good that you’ve already performed the steps that follow. We cover them here because if you choose to use your iPad computer-free, these steps make up the entire setup process.
Apple has taken the time to partially charge your iPad, so you get some measure of instant gratification and can go ahead and set it up right away by following these steps:
1. After taking your iPad or iPad mini out of the box, press and hold down the sleep/wake button on the upper-right edge.
You’ll see the Apple logo, followed by the word hello and similar greetings in a bunch of other languages. An arrow appears near the bottom of the screen, alongside another message in many languages. We’re pretty sure they all say, “Slide to Set Up,” or some variation, because that’s what the English rendition says.
2. Swipe the Slide to Set Up arrow to the right.
3. Tap to choose your language, followed by your country or region preferences.
4. Tap to choose an available Wi-Fi network, provide a password (if necessary), and then tap the blue Join button.
On certain models you may choose a cellular network, if available, and set up or change your Wi-Fi network later. (If you do wait to set up your Wi-Fi network, turn to Chapter 15 to find out how to do so via Settings.)
It may take a few minutes to activate your iPad. Next, the Location Services screen appears.
5. Tap to enable or disable Location Services.
Location Services is your iPad’s way of knowing where you are geographically. The Maps app, for example, relies on Location Services to determine where in the world you are.
Location Services can be turned on or off globally or for individual apps in Settings, as you discover in Chapter 15.
The Touch ID screen appears on compatible models; the passcode key on other models.
6. Do one of the following:
· If you see the Touch ID screen: Place your finger or thumb on the Home button to enable Touch ID.
Touch ID lets you get past the lock screen by using your fingerprint. Read about it in the sidebar that follows. Just know that if you don’t set up Touch ID now, you can always set it up later.
· If you see a passcode key: Type a passcode to unlock this iPad. When the Re-enter Your Passcode screen appears, type your passcode again.
If you choose a common passcode (such as 1111, 1234, or 0000) before the Re-enter Your Passcode screen appears, your iPad will warn you that the code you typed can be easily guessed. You can either change it or use it anyway — it’s your choice. However, we suggest that you change it if you’re at all concerned about keeping what’s on your iPad safe from prying eyes. You’ll be able to go with a longer passcode as well. If you have an iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 4, or iPad Pro, read the sidebar on using the Touch ID fingerprint scanner.
The Apps & Data screen for setting up your iPad appears.
7. Tap one of the following: Restore from iCloud Backup, Restore from iTunes Backup, Set Up as New iPad, or Move Data from Android.
See Chapter 16 for the scoop on restoring from iCloud or iTunes backups. For these steps, tap Set Up as New iPad. The Apple ID screen appears.
8. Tap an option to sign in with your Apple ID or create a new one.
If you have an Apple ID, enter your credentials here. If you don’t have one or forget it, tap the Don’t Have an Apple ID or Forget It? button. Through your Apple ID, you can take advantage of iCloud. See the end of this chapter for an introduction to this service.
Meantime, if you use a different Apple ID for iCloud than you do for iTunes, you can enter both at this stage. Tap the Use Different Apple IDs for iCloud & iTunes? button, and you’ll get the opportunity to enter your credentials for both.
Note that if you skip this step now, you can sign in later by tapping Settings⇒iCloud⇒Account.
The Terms and Conditions screen appears.
9. Tap the blue Agree button in the lower-right corner, and then tap the Agree button in the Terms and Conditions alert box that appears in the middle of the screen.
What happens if you disagree? You don’t want to know. And, of course, you won’t be able to use your iPad.
The Apple Pay screen appears on Air 2, mini 3, mini 4, and iPad Pro.
10. Tap Next to proceed.
11. Supply your credit card credentials.
If you already have a credit card on file with iTunes or the App Store, Apple may already prepopulate certain info on the card to get you started.
Why use Apple Pay? We have to say the feature is pretty cool and convenient. You can add numerous credit, debit, or store cards and employ Apple Pay with the finger you just used to authenticate Touch ID to make purchases with any of the cards you’ve added. (Again, read the “Pointing a finger at Touch ID” sidebar if you have a Touch ID-capable iPad.) We discuss Apple Pay in greater detail in Chapter 15.
The iCloud Keychain screen appears.
12. Tap Approve from Other Device, Use iCloud Security Code, or Don’t Restore Passwords.
iCloud Keychain is an iOS 7 (and later) feature that stores usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, and other web data in the cloud. When you’ve finished deciding what to do with iCloud Keychain, you see the screen for Siri, the loquacious digital assistant living inside your iPad.
13. Tap either Turn On Siri or Turn On Siri Later.
If your iPad is third generation or later, it offers the desirable option (at least in our humble opinion) of using your voice to control the device, as well as the capability to use dictation in any app that displays an on-screen keyboard.
You can find out more about using Siri and dictation in Chapter 14. For now, let us just say that we love this feature and use it when appropriate (which is often).
If you choose not to enable Siri at this time, you can switch on this feature later in the Settings app’s General pane.
The next couple of screens address Diagnostics Apple uses to improve its products, and App Analytics you can share (or not) with app developers.
14. Tap either Automatically Send or Don’t Send. Then tap to respond to a similar request to share app analytics.
The first tap is to send or not send, respectively, anonymous diagnostic and usage data to Apple. The second tap is to share or not share data with app developers to help cut down on crashes.
The Welcome to iPad screen appears.
15. Tap Get Started and let the fun begin.
Your iPad’s Home screen appears in all its glory.
If you’re using the iPad, the setup story ends here. Instead of using iTunes on your Mac or PC as described in Chapter 3, you have to make do with the available options in specific apps and in the Settings app (covered extensively in Chapter 15).
If you ever need to restore your iPad to factory condition, follow the same steps, as described in Chapter 16.
Pointing a finger at Touch ID
Apple wants you to give the iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 4, or iPad Pro the finger. But only in a good way. All four devices are equipped with Touch ID, a fingerprint scanner cleverly embedded in the Home button. With a gentle press of any designated finger, you bypass your passcode. (Setting up passcode safeguards is a good idea, and it’s something we also touch on in the chapter on Settings, Chapter 15.)
What’s more, you can use your own digit (not the numerical kind) to authenticate iTunes and App Store purchases. (Go to Settings⇒Touch ID & Passcode and make sure that the iTunes & App Store switch is turned on.)
On the iPhone or Apple Watch you get another benefit through Touch ID: the capability to purchase stuff in physical retail stores by using a payment technology known as Apple Pay. But Apple Pay on the iPad works only through participating online merchants, at least as of this writing.
To set up Touch ID, you must first let your compatible iPad get chummy with at least one of your fingers, though the system can handle up to five individual fingers, yours or anyone else’s with whom you share the tablet.
The iPad instructs you to press and lift your finger against the Home button repeatedly and from different orientations. Red lines fill an animated drawing of a generic fingerprint on the screen, giving you a sense of how far along you are. The process doesn’t take long, and if all goes smoothly, the iPad will soon enough declare your efforts to be a success.
What could go wrong? Well, your designated digit must be dry. The iPad needs to see your entire fingerprint, so don’t try this with a bandaged finger or one that has open wounds.
To add fingers after the initial setup, tap Settings⇒Touch ID & Passcode. Type your passcode, and then tap Add a Fingerprint. Then repeat the setup drill we just described.
Whether you choose to set up fingerprint authentication now, later, or not at all, you should still establish an old-fashioned four-digit (or longer) passcode as well. In fact, if you do opt to go with Touch ID, you must set up a passcode as a backup should the iPad fail to recognize your paw three times in a row. Hey, it happens. Maybe you’re sweating profusely, or you have a cut in the wrong place, or you’re wearing gloves.
Locking the iPad
We can think of several sound reasons for locking your iPad:
· You won’t inadvertently turn it on.
· You keep prying eyes at bay.
· You spare the battery some juice.
Apple makes locking the iPad a cinch.
You don’t need to do anything to lock the iPad; it happens automatically as long as you don’t touch the screen for a minute or two. As you find out in Chapter 15, which is all about settings, you can also set the amount of time your iPad must be idle before it automatically locks.
Can’t wait? To lock the iPad immediately, press the sleep/wake button.
If you have an iPad with a Smart Cover or Smart Case (or a third-party equivalent), opening and closing the cover locks and unlocks your iPad, but the Smart Cover has the advantage of awakening your iPad without making you drag the slider (though you may still have to enter a passcode).
Unlocking the iPad is easy, too. Here’s how:
1. Press the sleep/wake button, or press the Home button on the front of the screen.
Either way, the on-screen slider appears.
2. Drag the slider to the right with your finger.
3. Enter a passcode, or press the Home button on a Touch ID-capable iPad if you need to.
See Chapter 15 to find out how to password-protect your iPad.
Mastering the Multitouch Interface
The iPad, like the iPhone, dispenses with a physical mouse and keyboard, in favor of a virtual keyboard — a step that seemed revolutionary just a few years ago. Nowadays, a virtual keyboard doesn’t seem as novel.
Neither does the fact that the designers of the iPad (and iPhone and iPod touch) removed the usual physical buttons in favor of a multitouch display. This beautiful and responsive finger-controlled screen is at the heart of the many things you do on the iPad.
In the following sections, you discover how to move around the multitouch interface with ease. Later, we home in on how to make the most of the keyboard.
Training your digits
Rice Krispies have Snap! Crackle! Pop! Apple’s response for the iPad is Tap! Flick! Pinch! Oh yeah, and Drag!
Fortunately, tapping, flicking, pinching, and dragging are not challenging gestures, so you can master many of the iPad’s features in no time:
· Tap: Tapping serves multiple purposes. Tap an icon to open an app from the Home screen. Tap to start playing a song or to choose the photo album you want to look through. Sometimes, you double-tap (tapping twice in rapid succession), which has the effect of zooming in (or out) of web pages, maps, and emails.
· Flick: Flicking is just what it sounds like. A flick of the finger on the screen lets you quickly scroll through lists of songs, emails, and picture thumbnails. Tap the screen to stop scrolling, or merely wait for the scrolling list to stop.
· Pinch/spread: Place two fingers on a web page, map, or picture, and then spread your fingers apart to enlarge the images. Or pinch your fingers together to make the map or picture smaller. Pinching and spreading (or what we call unpinching) are cool gestures that are easy to master and sure to wow an audience.
· Drag: Here’s where you slowly press your finger against the touchscreen without lifting it. You might drag to move around a web page or map that’s too large for the iPad’s display area.
· Drag downward from the top of the screen: This special gesture displays Notification Center (which you find out about in Chapter 13). Press your finger at the very top of the screen and drag downward.
· Drag downward from any Home screen without starting at the very top of the screen: This action summons Spotlight search, a discussion for later in this chapter.
· Drag upward from the bottom of the screen: This time, you’re calling up Control Center, a handy repository for music controls, airplane mode (see Chapter 15), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, do not disturb, mute, volume, orientation lock, timer (Clock app), camera, AirPlay, and brightness controls. Check out Figure 2-1 for one view of Control Center.
· Four- or five-finger swipes and pinches: To quickly multitask or switch among or view running apps (see the later section, “Multitasking”), use four or five fingers to swipe upward. Swipe left or right (only one finger required) to switch between recently used apps. Pinch using four or five fingers to jump to your Home screen. Swipe up (one finger will do the trick) on an app’s thumbnail to quit it. The four- or five-finger swipes and pinches require you to enable Multitasking Gestures in the Settings app’s General pane.
Figure 2-1: We think you’ll call on Control Center a lot.
Later in this chapter, you read about a couple of new ways to employ your digits, at least on certain models: slide over and split view.
Navigating beyond the Home screen
The Home screen, which we discuss in Chapter 1, is not the only screen of icons on your tablet. After you start adding apps from the iTunes App Store (which you discover in Chapter 11), you may see a row of two or more tiny dots just above the main apps parked at the bottom of the screen. Those dots denote additional Home screens each containing up to 20 additional icons, not counting the 4 to 6 separate icons docked at the bottom of each of these Home screens. You can have up to 15 Home screens. You can also have fewer docked icons at the bottom of the Home screen, but we can’t think of a decent reason why you’d want to ditch any of them. In any case, more on these in a moment.
Here’s what you need to know about navigating among the screens:
· To navigate between screens, flick your finger from right to left or left to right across the middle of the screen, or tap directly on the dots. The number of dots you see represents the current number of screens on your iPad. The all-white dot denotes the screen that you’re currently viewing.
You can also drag your finger in either horizontal direction to see a different screen. Unlike flicking — you may prefer the term swiping — dragging your finger means keeping it pressed against the screen until you reach your desired page.
· Make sure you swipe and not just tap, or you’ll probably open one of the app icons instead of switching screens.
· Press the Home button to jump back to the Home screen. Doing so the first time takes you back to whatever Home screen you were on last. Tapping Home a second time takes you to the first Home screen.
· The dock — which contains the Messages, Mail, Safari, and Music icons in the bottom row — stays put as you switch screens. In other words, only the first 20 icons on the screen change when you move from one screen to another.
You can add one or two more icons to the dock. Or move one of the four default icons into the main area of the Home screen to make space for additional app icons you may use more often, as described later in this chapter.
Select, cut, copy, and paste
Being able to select and then copy and paste from one place on a computer to another has seemingly been a divine right since Moses, and that’s the case on the Apple tablet as well. You can copy and paste (and cut) with pizzazz.
On the iPad, you might copy text or a URL from the web and paste it into an email or a note. Or you might copy a bunch of pictures or video into an email.
Suppose you’re in the Notes app, jotting down ideas that you’ll eventually copy to an email. Here’s how you would exploit the copy-and-paste feature:
1. Double-tap or press against a word to select it.
2. Tap Select All to grab everything.
You can also drag the blue grab points (handles) to select a larger block of text or to contract the text you’ve already selected, as shown in Figure 2-2. Dragging grab points may take a little practice.
3. After you select the text, tap Copy. If you want to delete the text block, tap Cut instead.
4. Open the Mail program (see Chapter 5) and start composing a message.
5. When you decide where to insert the text you just copied, tap the cursor.
Up pop the Select, Select All, Paste, Quote Level, Insert Photo or Video, and Add Attachment commands, as shown in Figure 2-3. (We get to the last three options in Chapter 5.)
6. Tap Paste to paste the text into the message.
Here’s the pizzazz part. If you made a mistake when you were cutting, pasting, or typing, shake the iPad. Doing so undoes the last edit (provided that you tap the Undo Paste or Undo option when it appears and keep the feature enabled in Settings).
You also see these options:
· Auto-Correct: If you happen to select a word with a typo, the iPad might underline that word. If you tap the underlined work, the iPad might show you the word it thinks you meant to spell. Tap that suggested word to accept it.
· Predict: A predictive word feature reveals up to three word or phrase options in buttons just above the keyboard. If one of these words or phrases is what you had in mind, tap the appropriate button.
· Replace: The iPad may show you possible replacement words. For example, replacement words for test might be fest, rest, or text. Tap the word to substitute it for the word you originally typed.
· Define: Tap your selected word for a definition, courtesy of the New Oxford American Dictionary, the Oxford Dictionary of English, an Apple dictionary, or a foreign language dictionary if you’ve downloaded any dictionaries onto your iPad.
Figure 2-2: Drag the grab handles to select text.
Figure 2-3: Tap Paste and text will appear.
Multitasking
Multitasking on the iPad was introduced way back in iOS 4, and it has become better ever since, most dramatically with the iOS 7, iOS 8, and iOS 9 upgrades. Through multitasking, you can run numerous apps in the background simultaneously and easily switch from one app to another. The following examples illustrate what multitasking enables you to do on your iPad:
· A third-party app, such as Slacker Personal Radio, continues to play music while you surf the web, peek at pictures, or check email. Without multitasking, Slacker would shut down the moment you opened another app.
· A navigation app can update your position while you’re listening to, say, Pandora Internet radio. From time to time, the navigation app will pipe in with turn-by-turn directions, lowering the volume of the music so that you can hear the instructions.
· If you’re uploading images to a photo website and the process is taking longer than you want, you can switch to another app, confident that the images will continue to upload behind the scenes.
· Leave voice notes in the Evernote app while checking out a web page.
Multitasking couldn’t be easier — and as noted it’s become pretty smart through the various iOS upgrades. Now your iPad can anticipate your needs. For example, if it detects, over time, that you tend to turn to your social networking apps around the same time every morning, it will make sure the feeds are ready for you.
Double-press (not double-tap) the Home button. You see preview pages with icons just above them for any open apps, as shown in Figure 2-4. Scroll to the right or left to see more apps. Tap the preview screen for the app you want to switch to: The app remembers where you left off. (Scroll all the way to the left, and you’ll also see a preview screen for the last Home screen you opened, which was the preview all the way on the right.) If you hold the tablet sideways in landscape mode, the previews for your apps appear sideways, too.
Figure 2-4: Scroll to see the apps you’ve recently used or are still running.
Apple insists that multitasking will not overly tax the battery or exhaust system resources. The iPad conserves power and resources by putting apps in a state of suspended animation. And your iPad will schedule updates only during power-efficient times, such as when your device is connected to Wi-Fi.
Still, we think it’s a good idea to shut down apps you’re not using because you’ll see a battery hit over time. To remove an app from the multitasking rotation, swipe up the app’s preview. Poof — it’s gone.
You can use the four- or five-finger gesture to swipe upward to reveal your multitasking options and to swipe left or right to switch between apps. From this multitasking view, you can pinch with four or five fingers to return to the Home screen. It’s a cool gesture.
Now lets take a look at some newer tricks that make multitasking even more powerful.
Splitting the screen
Of course, all the iPads have larger screens compared to their iOS cousin, the iPhone. (We’re talking a really larger screen with iPad Pro.) And with iOS 9, you can exploit the extra screen real estate to make multitasking even more productive.
For starters, there’s a new feature called slide over. Launch the first app you want to use and then press your finger against the right edge of the iPad screen. Swipe left and you can drag a second running app into a sidebar area that extends out roughly one-third the way across the entire display.
We bet you can think of all sorts of reasons to run two apps at the same time. Maybe you’re composing a message to a friend in the Mail app while scrolling through Safari in the smaller panel to find a place to have lunch. Maybe you’re sketching in one app while using a photo in another as a reference point.
You can switch the app that appears in the sidebar by swiping down from the top of the sidebar and tapping the icon for the alternative app.
When you’re done with that secondary app, just slide it away. The slide over feature works with Apple’s own apps as well as some third-party apps.
Useful as slide over is, you may want that secondary app to get equal billing with the first app you opened. To make that happen, press your finger in the short line that appears on the sidebar border and slide toward the center of the iPad display. Now each running app will automatically claim half the screen. Apple refers to this extension of the slide over feature as split view.
Split view works only on the iPad Air 2, iPad mini 4, and iPad Pro models.
Figure 2-5 shows slide over and split view, side by side.
Figure 2-5: Turning a slide over view (left) into a split view.
Picture-in-picture
There’s a good possibility that your television at home has a picture-in-picture feature that enables you to watch one channel in the main portion of the TV screen while checking out a second channel in a small window on the screen. You don’t really want to miss any of the action in the big game now, do you?
With iOS 9, your iPad gains the same feature. You’re not necessarily watching live TV shows in this smaller window, but you might be. The picture-in-picture feature on the iPad works when you’re on a FaceTime video call or watching a video via the Videos app. Both topics are reserved for Chapter 8.
Picture-in-picture couldn’t be simpler. While watching a video, press (not tap) the Home button. The video picture shrinks into a small window hanging out in the lower-right corner of the display.
You can pause the video or shut it down by tapping the controls that appear in this diminutive video window. (Tap the window if you don’t see the controls.) If you want the video to take over the entire iPad screen, the way it started out before you pressed Home, tap the leftmost picture control inside the video window, shown in Figure 2-6.
Figure 2-6: Like your TV, the iPad has a picture-in-picture feature.
Meanwhile, if the video window is blocking a portion of the screen that you want to see, you can drag it to another space.
Picture-in-picture works on the iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 4, and iPad Pro.
Organizing icons into folders
Finding the single app that you want to use among apps spread out over 15 screens may seem like a daunting task. But Apple felt your pain and added a handy organizational tool: folders. The Folders feature lets you create folder icons, each containing apps that pertain to the name that Apple assigned or you gave to that folder.
To create a folder, follow these steps:
1. Press your finger against an icon until all the icons on the screen wiggle.
2. Decide which apps you want to move to a folder and then drag the icon for the first app on top of the second app.
The two apps now share living quarters inside a newly created folder. Apple names the folder according to the category of apps inside the folder.
3. (Optional) Change the folder name by tapping the X on the bar where the folder name appears and typing a new name.
To launch an app inside a folder, tap that folder’s icon and then tap the icon for the app that you want to open.
You have plenty of room for all your apps on the iPad. Indeed, you can put as many as 16 apps inside a folder, stash up to 20 apps or folders per page (not counting up to 5 apps in the dock), and have as many as 15 pages.
When you drag all the apps from a folder, the folder automatically disappears. You can also drag apps on or off the dock.
Printing
Apple didn’t include built-in printer functionality with the original iPad. A variety of third-party apps helped fill the bill to some degree, but still the faithful waited for Apple to come up with a solution. The AirPrint feature that subsequently arrived provided just such a remedy — to a point. You can print wirelessly from the iPad to an AirPrint-capable printer. The first of these compatible features emerged on more than a dozen HP printers; now you have offerings from Epson, Canon, and others.
AirPrint works with Mail, Photos, Safari, and iBooks (PDF files). You can also print from apps in Apple’s iWork software suite, as well as third-party apps with built-in printing.
An AirPrint printer doesn’t need any special software, but it does have to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the iPad.
To print, follow these steps:
1. Tap the share icon, and then tap the Print command.
The icon is shown in the margin.
2. In the Printer Options bubble that appears, tap Select Printer to select a printer, which the iPad locates in short order.
3. Depending on the printer, specify the number of copies you want to print, the number of double-sided copies, and a range of pages to print.
Graphics that appear may even show you how much ink the printer has left.
4. When you’re happy with your settings, tap Print.
If you display the preview pages while a print job is underway, the Print Center icon appears with all your other recently used apps. A badge indicates how many documents are in the print queue, along with the currently printing document.
Proactive search
Using the Safari browser (see Chapter 4), you can search the web via Google, Yahoo!, Bing, or DuckDuckGo. If you’ve added a foreign language keyboard, other options may present themselves. For example, with a Chinese keyboard enabled, you can summon the Baidu search engine.
You can search also for people and programs across your iPad and within specific apps, using a combination of Spotlight and Siri. We show you how to search within apps in the various chapters dedicated to Mail, Contacts, Calendar, and Music.
Searching across the iPad is based on the powerful Spotlight feature familiar to Mac owners. Spotlight can search for news and trending topics, local restaurants, movie times, and content in Apple’s own iTunes Store, App Store, and iBooks Store.
Moreover, with Siri teaming up with the Spotlight feature (familiar to Mac owners), you’ll also see circled icons representing the contacts you engage with the most, the people you are next scheduled to meet, as well as nearby eateries, shops, and other nearby places of possible interest.
The searches with the iOS 9 update are also proactive, meaning that the device gets to know you over time and makes suggestions accordingly. It attempts to read your mind. The tablet might surface the News app for example, if it learns that you turn to it every morning (while enjoying your coffee).
Or if you’re in a particular area, you may see the news that’s trending in your location.
Here’s how the search feature works:
1. Swipe down from any Home screen to access search.
A bar slides into view at the top of the screen.
2. Tap the bar and use the virtual keyboard to enter your search query.
The iPad spits out results the moment you type a single character; the list narrows as you type additional characters.
The results are pretty darn thorough. Say that you entered Ring as your search term, as shown in Figure 2-7. Contacts whose last names have Ring in them show up, along with friends who might do a trapeze act in the Ringling Bros. circus. All the songs on your iPad by Ringo Starr show up too, as do such song titles as Tony Bennett’s “When Do the Bells Ring for Me,” if that happens to be in your library. The same goes for apps, videos, audiobooks, events, and notes with the word Ring.
3. Tap any listing to jump to the contact, ditty, or app you seek.
Figure 2-7: Putting the Spotlight on search.
At the bottom of the Spotlight results list, you can tap to move your search query to the web (using your designated search engine) or to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. You can search the Maps app too.
The Incredible, Intelligent, and Virtual iPad Keyboard
As you know by now, instead of a physical keyboard, several soft, or virtual, English-language or (depending upon what you chose during setup) foreign-language keyboard layouts slide up from the bottom of the iPad screen, including variations on the alphabetical keyboard, the numeric and punctuation keyboard, the more punctuation and symbols keyboard, and the emoji keyboard.
Indeed, the beauty of a software keyboard is that you see only the keys that are pertinent to the task at hand. The layout you see depends on the app. The keyboards in Safari differ from the keyboards in Mail. For example, in Mail, you’ll see a Return key. The similarly placed key in Safari is labeled Go. Figure 2-8 displays the difference between the Mail (top) and Safari (bottom) keyboards.
Figure 2-8: The keys on the Mail (top) and Safari (bottom) keyboards.
Before you consider how to actually use the keyboard, we want to share a bit of the philosophy behind its so-called intelligence. Knowing what makes this keyboard smart can help you make it even smarter when you use it. The keyboard
· Has a built-in English dictionary that even includes words from today’s popular culture. Dictionaries in other languages are automatically activated when you use a given international keyboard, as described in the sidebar “A keyboard for all borders,” later in this chapter.
· Adds your contacts to its dictionary automatically.
· Uses complex analysis algorithms to predict the word you’re trying to type.
· Suggests corrections as you type. It then offers you the suggested word just below the misspelled word. When you decline a suggestion and the word you typed is not in the iPad dictionary, the iPad adds that word to its dictionary and offers it as a suggestion if you mistype a similar word in the future.
Decline incorrect suggestions (by tapping the characters you typed as opposed to the suggested words that appear below what you’ve typed). This extra step helps your intelligent keyboard become even smarter.
· Reduces the number of mistakes you make as you type by intelligently and dynamically resizing the touch zones for certain keys. The iPad increases the zones for keys it predicts might come next and decreases the zones for keys that are unlikely or impossible to come next, although you can’t see this behavior.
Anticipating what comes next
The keyboards on your iPad became even more useful with the arrival of iOS 8. Now the keyboard takes an educated stab at the next word you mean to type and presents what it surmises to be the best possible word choices front and center. Say you’re in the Messages app and the last message you received was an invitation to lunch or dinner. Above the row of keys on the iPad keyboard, you’d see buttons with three word suggestions: Dinner, Lunch, and Not sure (as shown in Figure 2-9). If one of those was the appropriate response, you could tap the button to insert its text into your reply.
Figure 2-9: The iPad keyboard predicts what you might want to type next.
If you wanted to respond with something different than the three options presented by Apple, you’d just type your response with the regular QWERTY keys. As you type additional letters and words, the three suggested word choices above the keyboard change in real time. For instance, if you start by typing That is a in your message, the new trio of word choice buttons that show up might be great, good, and very.
Such QuickType keyboard predictions vary by app and even according to the person with whom you are communicating. So the predictive text choices that show up in Messages when you’re involved in an exchange with a friend are likely to be more casual than those in an email to your boss.
To exploit the predictive typing feature, make sure the Predictive setting is turned on (as it is by default). Go to Settings⇒General⇒Keyboard, and slide the Predictive switch to on.
Such suggestions don’t appear only in English. If you’re using an international keyboard, suggestions are presented in the appropriate language.
Discovering the special-use keys
The iPad keyboard contains several keys that don’t actually type a character. Here’s the scoop on each of these keys:
· Shift: If you’re using the alphabetical keyboard, the shift key switches between uppercase and lowercase letters. You can tap the key to change the case, or hold down shift and slide to the letter you want to be capitalized.
· Caps lock: To turn on caps lock and type in all caps, you first need to enable the Caps Lock setting (if it’s not already enabled) by tapping Settings⇒General⇒Keyboard and then tapping the Enable Caps Lock item to turn it on. After the Caps Lock setting is enabled, double-tap the shift key to turn on caps lock. (The arrow will be underlined in black.) Tap the shift key again to turn off caps lock. To disable caps lock, just reverse the process by turning off the Enable Caps Lock setting (tap Settings⇒General⇒Keyboard).
· Typewriter: Enable the Split Keyboard option (tap Settings⇒General⇒Keyboard), and you can split the keyboard in a thumb-typist-friendly manner, as shown in Figure 2-10. When you’re ready to split your keyboard, press and hold down the typewriter icon key, and tap Split on the menu. From that menu you can also dock the keyboard to the bottom of the screen. When you want to bring the keyboard back together, press and hold down the typewriter icon key again and choose either Merge or Dock and Merge from the menu. You can also tap this key to hide the keyboard and then tap the screen in the appropriate app to bring back the keyboard.
· #+= or 123: If you’re using a keyboard that shows only numbers and symbols, the traditional shift key is replaced by a key labeled #+= or 123 (sometimes shown as .?123). Pressing that key toggles between keyboards that just have symbols and numbers.
· Emoji: Tap this key and you can punctuate your words by adding smiley faces and other emoticons or emojis.
· International keyboard: You see this key only if you’ve turned on an international (or third-party) keyboard, as explained in the nearby sidebar “A keyboard for all borders.” From this key, you can also pull up an emoji keyboard with numerous smiley faces and pictures.
· Delete: Tapping this key (otherwise known as the backspace key) erases the character immediately to the left of the cursor.
· Return: This key moves the cursor to the beginning of the next line. You might find this key labeled Go or Search, depending on the app you’re using.
· Dictation: Tap the microphone icon and start talking. The iPad listens to what you have to say. Tap the key again, and the iPad attempts to convert your words into text. You can use this dictation feature in many of the instances in which you can summon the keyboard, including the built-in Notes and Mail apps, as well as many third-party apps. See Chapter 14 for more on dictation.
When you use dictation, the things you say are recorded and sent to Apple, which converts your words into text. Just make sure to proofread what you’ve said because the process isn’t foolproof. Apple also collects other information, including your first name and nickname, the names and nicknames of folks in your Contacts list, song names in Music, and more. Apple says it does this to help the Dictation feature perform its duties. If any of this freaks you out, however, tap Settings⇒General⇒Keyboard and slide the Enable Dictation switch to off. You can also restrict the use of dictation in Settings, as explained in Chapter 15.
Figure 2-10: Press and hold down the typewriter icon key to split the keyboard.
The addition of iOS 9 brought a few fresh options to some of the keyboards on your iPad. On the top row of the keyboards that pop up in certain apps — Mail and Notes, for instance — you’ll find dedicated B, I, and U keys to the right of the three suggested word alternatives. These permit you to bold, italicize, or underline selected text. Consult Figure 2-8 (top) to take a peek.
To the left of the three alternative word suggestions on various iOS 9 keyboards, you’ll see icons for undoing or redoing your last steps, plus a third icon that pastes the last selected word or passage that you copied. Such options are visible in both images that make up Figure 2-8.
Choosing an alternative keyboard
Good as the keyboards that Apple supplies to your iPad are, you can choose an alternative keyboard from a third-party app developer, a welcome iOS 8 change to the producers of the SwiftKey, Swype, and Fleksy keyboards, among others, which debuted on the rival Android mobile operating system. You can fetch new keyboards in the App Store. Some are free; some require a modest sum.
After you’ve downloaded a keyboard, visit Settings⇒General⇒Keyboard⇒Keyboards⇒Add New Keyboard and select the keyboard of choice. Then press and hold down on the international keyboard key (globe icon) on the iPad’s own keyboard, and select your new keyboard from the list that appears. Alternatively, keep tapping the globe icon until the keyboard you want takes over.
Finger-typing on the virtual keyboards
The virtual keyboards in Apple’s multitouch interface just might be considered a stroke of genius. Or they just might drive you nuts.
If you’re patient and trusting, in a week or so, you’ll get the hang of finger-typing — which is vital to moving forward, of course, because you rely on a virtual keyboard to tap a text field, enter notes, type the names of new contacts, and so on.
As we note earlier in this chapter, Apple has built intelligence into its virtual keyboard, so it can correct typing mistakes on the fly or provide helpful word choices by predicting what you’re about to type next. The keyboard isn’t exactly Nostradamus, but it does an excellent job of coming up with the words you have in mind. We’ve found that tapping one of the predictive buttons appears to speed things up as well as bolster our typing accuracy.
A keyboard for all borders
Apple is expanding the iPad’s reach globally with international keyboard layouts for dozens of languages. To access a keyboard that isn’t customized for Americanized English, tap Settings⇒General⇒Keyboard⇒Keyboards⇒Add New Keyboard. Then flick through the list to select any keyboard you want to use. Up pops the list shown in the figure, with custom keyboards for German, Italian, Japanese, and so on. Apple even supplies four versions of French (including keyboards geared to Belgium, Canadian, and Swiss customers) and several keyboards for Chinese. Heck, you can even find Australian, Canadian, Indian, Singapore, and U.K. versions of English.
A note about the Chinese keyboards: You can use handwriting character recognition for simplified and traditional Chinese, as shown here. Just drag your finger in the box provided. We make apologies in advance for not knowing what the displayed characters here mean. (We neither speak nor read Chinese so can only assume what we’ve produced is gibberish.)
Have a multilingual household? You can select as many of these international keyboards as you might need by tapping the language in the list. (You can call upon only one language at a time.)
When you’re in an app that summons a keyboard, tap the international keyboard key (globe icon) in the lower left until the keyboard you want to call on shows up. (The globe key sometimes shows up as an emoji key with a smiley face; you have to tap the emoji key to see the globe icon.) Tap again to choose the next keyboard in the corresponding list of international keyboards that you turned on in Settings. If you keep tapping, you come back to your original keyboard. Or press against the globe icon until you see the list of all the keyboards you’ve added. You’ll also see the aforementioned Predictive switch above the list of keyboards that you’ve added to your iPad.
To remove a keyboard that you’ve already added to your list, tap the Edit button in the upper-right corner of the Settings screen showing your enabled keyboards and then tap the red circle with the white horizontal line that appears next to the language to which you want to say adios.
As you start typing on the virtual keyboard, we think you’ll find the following additional tips helpful:
· See what letter you’re typing. As you press your finger against a letter or number on the screen, the individual key you press darkens until you lift your finger, as shown in Figure 2-11. That way, you know that you struck the correct letter or number.
· Slide to the correct letter if you tap the wrong one. No need to worry if you touched the wrong key. You can slide your finger to the correct key because the letter isn’t recorded until you release your finger.
· Tap and hold down to access special accent marks, alternative punctuation, or URL endings. Sending a message to an overseas pal? Keep your finger pressed against a letter, and a row of keys showing variations on the character for foreign alphabets pops up, as shown in Figure 2-12. This row lets you add the appropriate accent mark. Just slide your finger until you’re pressing the key with the relevant accent mark and then lift your finger.
Meanwhile, if you press and hold down the .? key in Safari, it offers you the choice of .us, .org, .edu, .com, or .net with additional options if you also use international keyboards. Pretty slick stuff, except we miss the dedicated .com key that was on the keyboard prior to iOS 7. You can bring the key back by holding down the period key and then releasing your finger when .com is highlighted.
· Tap the space bar to accept a suggested word, or tap the suggested word to decline the suggestion. Alas, mistakes are common at first. Say that you meant to type a sentence in the Notes app that reads, “I am typing an important … ” But because of the way your fingers struck the virtual keys, you actually entered “I am typing an importsnt … ” Fortunately, Apple knows that the a you meant to press is next to the s that showed up on the keyboard, just as t and y and e and r are side by side. So the software determines that important was indeed the word you had in mind and, as Figure 2-13 reveals, places it front and center among the three predictive text buttons. You’ll note that the suspect word is highlighted. To accept the suggested word, merely tap the space bar. And if for some reason you actually did mean to type importsnt, tap that word instead among the predictive buttons that appear.
If you don’t appreciate these features, you can turn off Auto-Correction and Predictive in Settings. See Chapter 15 for details. Visit www.wiley.com/extras/ipad for autocorrection tricks.
Figure 2-11: The ABCs of virtual typing.
Figure 2-12: Accenting your letters.
Figure 2-13: Fixing an important mistake.
Because Apple knows what you’re up to, the virtual keyboard is fine-tuned for the task at hand, especially when you need to enter numbers, punctuation, or symbols. The following tips help you find common special characters or special keys that we know you’ll want to use:
· Putting the @ in an email address: If you’re composing an email message (see Chapter 5), a dedicated @ key pops up on the main Mail keyboard when you’re in the To: field choosing whom to send a message to. That key disappears from the first view when you tap the body of the message to compose your words. You can still get to the @ by tapping the .?123 key.
· Switching from letters to numbers: When you’re typing notes or sending email and want to type a number, symbol, or punctuation mark, tap the .?123 key to bring up an alternative virtual keyboard. Tap the ABC key to return to the first keyboard. This toggle isn’t hard to get used to, but some may find it irritating.
· Adding apostrophes and other punctuation shortcuts: If you press and hold down the exclamation mark/comma key, a pop-up offers the apostrophe. If you press and hold down the question mark/period key, you’ll see the option to type quotation marks.
If you buy the iPad Pro, you’ll likely want to consider purchasing the optional iPad Pro Smart Keyboard cover accessory. It’s kind of pricey at $169, but the large screen might just tempt you go with a physical keyboard. You’ll be tempted also by the $99 accessory stylus know as Apple Pencil. For more on iPad accessories, let us direct you to Chapter 17.
Of course, we already mentioned that other iPads, unlike some tablets from the past (and a few in the present), eschew a pen or stylus. But sometimes you might want to call upon a digital pen, and third-party companies fill the bill. For example, Wacom sells various Bamboo Stylus models, starting around $8 and going well up from there. It’s a potentially useful tool for those with too broad, oily, or greasy fingers, or those who sketch, draw, or jot notes. You can find lower-priced styluses as well.
Editing mistakes
We think typing with abandon, without getting hung up over mistyped characters, is a good idea. The self-correcting keyboard can fix many errors (and occasionally introduce errors of its own). That said, plenty of typos are likely to turn up, especially in the beginning, and you have to correct them manually.
A neat trick for doing so is to hold your finger against the screen to bring up the magnifying glass. Use the magnifying glass to position the pointer on the spot where you need to make the correction. Then use the delete key (also called the backspace key) to delete the error and press whatever keys you need to type the correct text.
And with that, you are hereby notified that you’ve survived basic training. The real fun is about to begin.