Even a three year old boy can use an iPad at a basic level. It's designed that way. But even still, there are lots of tips and tricks that you're just supposed to magically know, but no one ever necessarily tells you about them. 10 iPad Tips and Tricks is here to help.
iPad Tips and Tricks #1: Shut Down Your iPad For Real
When you press the power button on the iPad it really just turns off the screen. That‘s why it comes on so fast. What you may want to do to conserve battery life or recover from a freeze is do a reboot.
To do this just hold down both the power button and Home button until the red slider appears on the screen. Slide it and the iPad will shut down. Give it a minute and then you can restart it by pressing the power button again. It seems to take a few seconds before it responds so be patient. And, to force quit an application, just hold the home button by itself in a similar fashion.
iPad Tips and Tricks #2: Easy/Quick Mute
Unlike the iPhone, there's no dedicated mute switch on the iPad. There you are, in the back row of a funeral just minding your own business when, oops, you forgot to mute those YouTube clips on your iPad! However, you can still cut the sound in a hurry if you need to pretend you're doing something serious instead of watching the latest YouTube viral.
Apple decided to make the volume buttons do double duty. Tap them repeatedly and the volume will go up or down. But if you press and hold the volume down button for about two seconds, then you get a quick mute.
iPad Tips and Tricks #3: Add Two More Apps in Dock
There are four default apps in your dock at the bottom of the iPad screen. But you can actually add two more. As you would move any app to a new location or screen, tap and hold one of the app icons till it starts dancing. Then move it on to the dock.
The first image above has four and the second is with the two extra apps for a total of six, so easy!
iPad Tips and Tricks #4: Use Spotlight to Find Things
Spotlight is the search screen that you access by hitting the Home button when you are on the first screen of apps. It has a search field at the top. Start typing and it begins to populate the list with things on your iPad, like apps, contacts, and appointments. To take this a step further than the regular iPad user did, go into Settings and tap on the General tab. Hit the Home item in the fourth section. That screen lets you choose what your Home button does. If you choose Search Results at the bottom you can tell the OS what to search when typing into the Spotlight.
iPad Tips and Tricks #5: Turn Favorite Sites into Links on Home
If you have a favorite web site that you visit often, it might save some time to save that link as a Home screen button. Surf to the site and choose the + sign next to the URL field. The drop down list has an item that says Add to Home Screen. It now shows up like any other icon for an app. To go a step further, maybe it would be a good idea to set up one page just for your favorite web sites.
iPad Tips and Tricks #6: Turn iPad caps lock on
You do this by double tapping the shift key on either side of the keyboard. This is on by default. If you need to type a whole word in caps this can be painful. You control that in the Settings as well. In Settings tap on General and Keyboard to find the item. Set Enable Caps Lock to Off.
iPad Tips and Tricks #7: Extend iPad Battery LifeIt‘s claimed that iPad‘s battery life can support ―up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music‖. Here are some useful but not happy tips to help you use your iPad a lot longer without having to plug in all the time.
- Turn off all apps and functions you don‘t use.
- Live streaming and downloads
- Screen Brightness
- Stay away from games
- Emails and Social Networks
- Disable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
iPad Tips and Tricks #8: Get Back a Deleted App
If you delete an app, either accidentally or because you don‘t think you will use it, you can always get it back one of two ways.
Way 1:
If you have synced your iPad with iTunes since downloading the app, it will be in the Apps tab of your iPad‘s screen in iTunes. Just recheck the box for that app.
Way 2:
Without tethering to your computer, just find the app in the iTunes App store on the iPad and download it again. You will see a prompt that you have already bought this app and an option to re-install it without having to pay for it again. It is a little nerve-racking, especially if the app is an expensive one. But don‘t worry so long as you are sure that was the app you deleted.
iPad Tips and Tricks #9: Change your Default Email Signature
The default email signature on the iPad says, ―Sent from my iPad.‖ It finds that to be a little boastful. To remove the Apple marketing and become like a real person, go into Settings and tap on Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Find Signature in the fourth section down. Type whatever you wish.
Some people will leave the phrase and add something like ―so forgive the brevity of this message‖. I personally just use my name and web address.
iPad Tips and Tricks #10: Show Movies On a Bigger Screen
The iPad can send its display to a larger screen just like a computer can. But only certain apps take advantage of this feature. The Video app does so long as you are obeying the DRM rules. It is a pain, but if the video has DRM it won‘t work usually. But if you have a home movie loaded or some DVD you have ripped, it should work. You will need the Dock-to-VGA adapter. Other apps that allow for showing content trough the adapter are Netflix, Keynote and Photos. If you want to show off a web page, then get the Expedition app.
You can connect the iPad to your television. You'll need the Apple iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter, which connects to the 30-pin port on the iPad and to the VGA port on your HD.
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