Table of contents for Issue 58 in iPad User Magazine

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use the new multitasking features on your iPad YOU’LL NEED iPadOS 13 or later The first iPads didn’t multitask: you could do one thing at a time and nothing else. A very basic kind of multitasking was introduced in iOS 4 for iPhones, but iPads didn’t get it until iOS 4.2 in 2010. Even then, it wasn’t really multitasking: it was fast app switching and the ability for a very small selection of apps such to use a handful of features – location services, audio playback – in the background. Today, though, iPads really do multitask. You can run apps in Split View, where two different apps or two copies of the same app run side by side. Or you…

1 Control Centre The simplest way to turn off both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in iOS is to open Control Centre. Press the symbols for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (the stylised fan and runic B) and they’ll turn from blue (on) to grey. Active connections will drop. 2 Bring them back To turn them back on, just do the same thing, and the icons will turn blue again. This means you can still use AirDrop, Handoff, AirPlay and your Apple Pencil – none of these will work without Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. 3 Switch audio output While you’re in Control Centre, press and hold on the audio controls to open them up. Now tap the triangle-with-circles button in the top right to switch between internal speakers and others, including Bluetooth devices. 4 Reactivation…

IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use the rich features of the new Reminders app YOU’LL NEED iPadOS The Quick Toolbar allows you to quickly add additional resources The new Reminders app in iPadOS mirrors those in iOS 13 and macOS Catalina. It has been redesigned from the ground up and, for that reason, you’ll need to upgrade all your devices to the latest version of their respective operating systems in order to use it with iCloud on those devices. If you share lists with other users, they will also need to upgrade in order to share lists created or edited with the new Reminders app. The differences between old and new are obvious the moment you launch Reminders. The opening screen displays one of its…

1 Try a trendline Open the Charting Basics document and tap the Data Comparison sheet tab. Tap to select the Column Chart at bottom left and tap Copy. Make a new sheet by tapping the plus sign at the top left, then New Sheet. 2 Add trendlines Tap Table at bottom right, then the bin. Tap the blank sheet and Paste. Drag a corner to size up the chart. Tap the Format paintbrush at top right, tap Chart, then Trendlines. Trendlines clarify patterns in data. 3 Choose a trendline type Pick Linear, then tap Trendline at the top left of the popup for options. Turn on ‘R2 Value’ and this appears on the chart (for each series). A value near 1 means the line is a good fit. Tap Type…

IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use the Punchbowl app and platform to create and send an invitation YOU’LL NEED iOS 9 or later and Punchbowl (free to download) Invitees get an ‘envelope’ by email, which they click to see the invite Punchbowl (punchbowl.com) is a free app for sending greetings cards and invitations. It’s with the latter that its features really kick in, because you can track your RSVPs and chase up non-responders. We’re almost tempted to start using it for meetings. This is one of those ‘free’ apps with rather pricey subscriptions to unlock features, but you can do plenty without paying. Cards and invitations are delivered with an advertising banner unless you subscribe at Platinum level. This costs £75.99 per year as an…

1 Start searching Tap OK to allow the Gemini app to scan your photo library. It will start locating similar shots, duplicates, video clips, screenshots and blurred photos. You can review existing results while it looks for more files. 2 Choose a category Tap on the Similar section. You can then view collections of similar files by Date or Event. Here we’ve tapped on the Event button to view photos taken at a particular time and place, such as a day trip to London. 3 Remove similar files Scroll down to view groups of similar shots. Gemini suggests the best version and marks the inferior shots with red ticks. Swipe to review the rejected shots and untick them if necessary. Tap Empty Trash when you’re ready. 4 Delete blurred shots…

IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to fine-tune the new Home screen YOU’LL NEED iPadOS Just having your to-do list visible when you unlock your iPad is really useful We love iPadOS. It keeps everything we like about iOS but takes advantage of the iPad’s power and much bigger screen. That’s true of the interface, which now lets you to do a lot more in the same space: where iOS on iPad sometimes felt like a phone operating system made big, iPadOS is better and bolder. If like us you wished you could get more things on screen at once, you’re going to love the changes to the Home screen and Today View: both are really easy to customise so that you can get the widgets you…

1 Drag it out Slide Over is great for quickly checking documents or messages. To use it, open the main app you want and then slide up to see the Dock. Drag the icon for the second app towards but not onto the edge of the screen. 2 Drop the app When you stop dragging, the second app will appear in a panel at the side of the screen. You can use it like any other app. To move it, drag from the top around the screen. To close it, swipe it off the side of the screen, again from the top. 3 Slide Over switcher You can switch apps just within the Slide Over window! Swipe up from the bottom of it to see all apps you’ve used in…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN You’ll learn how to use the new features in Files YOU’LL NEED You’ll need iOS 13 For many years, Apple didn’t want anybody to go anywhere near file management on iOS devices: that was something  you do on your Mac, not your simpler, streamlined iOS device. That changed in iOS 11 with the introduction of the Files app, which enabled you to access your iCloud Drive as well as third party services such as Dropbox. You can use it to play media files, view and annotate documents and send files to apps such as Mail and Messenger, and in iPadOS (plus iOS 13 on iPhone) the Files app has been given some key new features. Files doesn’t look much different in iPadOS,…

1 Adding a pic From the main Reminders screen, tap the list you want to add the new reminder to, then tap Add Reminder. You’ll see the Quick Toolbar above the keyboard, tap the Camera icon then tap Photo Library and tap the photo you want to add. 2 Set a geofence Tap an existing reminder or add a new one. From the Quick Toolbar, tap the Location icon. Choose one of the options or tap Custom to create a new one. Type a location name, address or postcode. Tap it when it appears, then tap Done. 3 Add to a smart list On the left pane, tap the Smart List – Today, Scheduled, All, or Flagged – to which you want to add the reminder. Tap next to the…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to make written and audio notes YOU’LL NEED You’ll need an iPad and ‘Notebook - Take Notes, Sync’ from the App Store There are lots of really great notes apps in the App Store, plus the one built into iPadOS, of course. Unfortunately many of those in the store are aimed at business users and priced accordingly. Wouldn’t it be good if there was a really great notes app that didn’t have such a hefty price tag, and went way beyond what Apple offers? Enter Notebook, which is free. That’s free as in free, not as in ‘free with screaming ads’ or ‘free but nothing works without in-app purchases’. Notebook comes from the same stable as the very good and free…

1 Pick a template Open Punchbowl (the app only works in portrait) and tap Invites at the bottom left. Pick a design: ours was from Seasonal > Christmas. In the preview, swipe up to see the ‘envelope’ that the recipient will see first. 2 Enter details Tap Personalize. Only the title, date and location of your event will go on the card, but recipients will see any extra information alongside it. UK users can substitute a county for ‘State’ and postcode for ‘Zip’. 3 Edit the text Tap Continue to edit the card. Pinch to zoom in and tap to select any text item. Tap the ‘A’ icon and tap ‘+’ or ‘-’ to adjust the text size. Tap the ‘F’ icon to choose a font. Tap the keyboard to…

From £349 FROM Apple, apple.com/uk FEATURES 10.2in Retina display, A10 Fusion chip, 32GB or 128GB storage, Wi-Fi (add £130 for mobile connectivity) The most important thing about Apple’s new cheap iPad is that it doesn’t feel cheap in any way. Not only is it nearly physically identical to the more expensive iPad Air, it’s also an extremely slick and fast tablet. For a lot of people, it has everything you’ll need – a sharp 10.2-inch screen, a speedy Apple A10 processor and tons of apps. But the iPad Air still offers an upgrade in almost every area, for £130 more, so the question whether this really is enough for you overall, or whether you’d be better off with its big brother, or the iPad mini. Let’s start with the most…

1 Set the size iPadOS gives you a choice of two icon sizes. Go to Settings, then scroll down and choose Display & Brightness. More makes the icons smaller so you can get more on the screen, including your Today View. 2 Swipe right for dates If you swipe right on the Home screen, the Today View will appear alongside the icons or above them if you selected the Bigger view option. It’s handy, isn’t it? Let’s make it stay there permanently. 3 Make it fixed If you haven’t set the layout to Bigger, the first time you swipe to get the Today View you’ll see a message asking if you want to add it to your Home Screen. We do, so let’s select Add To Home Screen. 4 Edit…

IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to manage Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections, switch audio outputs and share passwords with AirDrop YOU’LL NEED iOS 11 or later The release of iOS 11 in 2017 made some changes to the way Wi-Fi and Bluetooth worked on iPad and iPhone devices, and it  led to some confusion. When is off really off? How does it affect AirDrop and AirPlay? Why did they switch back on when I went out? A simple rule of thumb is that using Control Centre to turn Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off is enough to drop any existing connections for the rest of the day, but the system remains available. If you want to turn them off more permanently, you’ll need to use Settings, or put the…

1 See your stuff At first glance Files doesn’t look any different from before. It opens in Recents view, which shows you the most recently used files in your iCloud Drive. You’ll see there’s also a Browse option down at the bottom of the screen. 2 See all your storage When you tap Browse you’ll get this view, with a sidebar showing all your available locations – including attached drives and any cloud storage options – and the main window showing you the currently selected folder. 3 Scan directly to Files iOS’s document scanner is now in Files, so you can scan without having to launch a third party scanner or camera app. Simply tap on the three dots immediately to the right of Browse and select Scan Documents. 4…

IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to tweak charts, make text headings pop and add internal or external links YOU’LL NEED iOS 12 or later with Numbers installed and updated on your iPad There’s some evidence that brain teasers can ward off cognitive decline, so anyone who uses both the Mac and iOS/  iPadOS versions of Numbers should be grateful that Apple keeps you exercised by arranging the same features in completely inconsistent ways. Several useful enhancements to the iPadOS app this summer (see bit.ly/numios13) continue the trend, matching existing options in the Mac app, but leaving you guessing where they might be in the differently organised Format panel. Whether you’re a Numbers veteran or new to the whole thing, we’ll save you a bit of head-scratching…

1 See your stories When you open Notebook you’ll see a list of your various notebooks; if this is your first time, you’ll see just one – the blank My Notebook you see here. You can add another by tapping the plus icon – it’s good to have several on the go. 2 Make a new note Tap the New icon at the bottom left to create a note. You can now start typing. As you can see, there’s a shortcut bar immediately above the keyboard for adding formatting, images and other content to this note. 3 Decide what to do Tap the triple-dot More icon on a note to see the options for things to do with a note. For example, you can copy the note to the Zoho…

1 Similar files Tap here to display files that feature similar subject matter, so you can pick the best and delete the rest 2 Seeing double If duplicate files clutter up your library use Gemini to hunt down and delete digital doppelgängers 3 Fat footage Video clips can hog a large chunk of photo library space, so let Gemini locate the biggest contenders for deletion 4 Taking notes Photos of text (such as snaps of letters or receipts) are gathered automatically for you to keep IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to give your photo library a huge spring clean YOU’LL NEED iPadOS, Gemini Photos: Gallery Cleaner Gemini scans your photo library to detect shots that you probably won’t want to keep Thanks to your ever-present iPhone…