1. Create folders
iOS now supports folders. To create a folder all you need
to do is tap and hold on an app until they all start to jiggle, then drag the
app over another icon and release. Your
iPad will create a folder with both the apps in. The folder will be named
according to the category of the apps it contains, but you can rename it as you
like.
2. Access all running apps
Double-clicking the Home button shows you all the apps
that are running on your iPad in a bar along the bottom of the screen. To
switch to a running app just tap on it here in this bar. Just swipe the screen
downwards to remove this bar.
3. Orientation Lock or Mute?
The internet got mightily upset when Orientation Lock was
replaced with Mute on the iPad during the last iOS update. Apple listened, and
now you can head to Settings > General to choose between Lock Rotation and
Mute.
4. Control iPad notifications
By going to Settings > Notifications, you can decide
which apps can pop up alerts, which have notifications at the top of the
screen, and which appear in Notification Center. This means you can make sure
that noisy apps don't clog things up for you, and you notice the important
things.
5. Quick volume mute
When the iPad first launched, there was no dedicated mute
button anywhere on the device. However, with iOS 4.3 Apple has given you the
choice of using the lock switch to mute the sound or lock the iPad's
orientation. Either way, a good tip for quickly muting your iPad is to press
and hold the Volume-down button.
6. Use an Apple keyboard
Any Apple Wireless Keyboard will work with the iPad. In
fact, your iPad will work with any Bluetooth keyboard. Some iPad cases have a
keyboard built in.
7. Take an iPad screenshot
You can take a screenshot on your iPad by pressing Home
and then the Sleep/Wake button. The screen will flash and you'll hear a click,
indicating that a photo has been taken. Your screen shots are saved
automatically in your Photos gallery. Here, you can view or email them as you
see fit.
8. Avoid underpowered USB docks
The iPad does not charge when you connect it to some USB
docks or even certain ports on some notebooks. Instead, plug in to a high power
USB port (check your computer's specs, or use a powered USB dock). On some PCs,
USB ports on the front of the computer are lower power, so you will need to
plug into one on the back.
9. Restrict your Spotlight searches
Swipe left on the Home screen to reveal the Spotlight
search. By default it searches everything including songs in your iPod, podcasts,
apps and events. To restrict the areas it searches, since you may not want all
these categories included, look in Settings > General > Spotlight Search.
10. Share from Pages
Transferring Pages documents from your iPad by syncing
with iTunes on your Mac or PC is a real hassle. It's much quicker to use the
Share menu to email the finished document to wherever you need it to be. Also,
you can email it as a Word or PDF document if you like.
11. Turn iPad caps lock on
To type a capital letter on the onscreen keyboard you
first tap the left or right shift key, then the letter. Save time typing in caps by turning the caps
lock on. To do this, double tap on either shift key.
12. Copy and paste
You can quickly copy and paste text by tapping and
holding down, and then choosing Select to select the exact portion of text
you'd like the copy. Next tap Copy, then go to a different app, and tap and
hold down again, then tap Paste from the menu that appears. Top tip: To select
an entire paragraph of text you need to tap four times.
13. Replace a word
When you hold down on a word to copy it, choose Select,
then you will see a new option: Replace. Tap this and, you can see suggestions
for alternative words that have similar spellings. It's a good way of quickly
correcting typos.
14. Hidden apostrophe key on the
keyboard and Quick Quotes
This is a great tip for any app, such as Notes, Pages or
Mail, that you type into using the iPad's virtual keyboard. Rather than having
to go to the second screen of the keyboard every time you want to type an
apostrophe (which is a real pain) just tap and hold on the ! key and a hidden
apostrophe option will appear - then just slide your finger up to access it. You don't have to move the iPad's second
keyboard screen to enter a quotation mark either. Simply tap and hold over the
? key and a quotation symbol appears, which you can select by moving your
finger upwards.
15. Display PDFs
There are two ways to display PDFs on your iPad: you can
either email them to your iPad, in which case you get an Open in iBooks button
appear, or you can sync PDFs from your Mac or PC via the Books tab in iTunes. To do this just drag and drop the PDF into
iTunes, then when you sync your iPad click on the Books tab and select the PDFs
you'd like to sync. In iBooks you click on PDFs in your library to see the PDFs
you have ready to display.
16. Camera focus and meter
In the Camera app, tap on your subject to both focus on
and meter the light properly.
17. Quicker websites
Save time typing web addresses in Safari by using the
iPad's ".com" key when typing in a URL. A little-known timesaver is
that if you hold down the .com key you get access to a menu that offers a
.co.uk and other options too.
18. Quick Safari scroll
You can jump up to the top of any web site - indeed any
list - by tapping on the top of the title window. It's much faster than
scrolling by hand.
19. Find text on a page
You can search for a particular word on an open page in
Safari. Type your word into the Google search box. You'll see a list of
suggestions appear, and near the bottom you'll see "On This Page",
showing how many times that word appears on the page. Tap the Find option to go
to the first instance of the word.
20. iPad is flat and won't charge
If your iPad battery is completely flat then it can take
a while for the red battery symbol to appear when you plug it in to charge,
indicating that it is charging. Don't panic, just leave it plugged in and wait
- the charging symbol will appear eventually.
