Table of contents for Issue 28 in iPad User Magazine

The iPad is so versatile and handy, it’s all too easy to just get on and use it. But it is possible to make your iPad perform a little more effectively… And it doesn’t take a lot of time to find out some of the really useful features that’ll help you make the most of your device. Firstly, we take a look at the latest iOS release – there are some handy new improvements in iOS 9.3. You might think these are minor tweaks, but once you start using things like Night Shift, your eyes will never want to go back to the harsher blue light in the evenings again! When it comes to friends and family, sometimes you want everyone in the loop. So for those sharing, caring moments,…

If you forget your Restrictions passcode you’ll be locked out of key parts of your iPad IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to switch on and configure Restrictions on your iPad YOU’LL NEED The Restrictions feature works with any iPad When it comes to sharing your iPad with others, things aren’t as straightforward as they might be. Your iPad – and iOS in general – don’t support the concept of user profiles, so if you want to give others access to your iPad, they’ll be doing so through your own user account. This is linked to your Apple ID, so one basic restriction should already be in place – the ability to restrict access to certain parts of your iPad (specifically paying for content and apps) through…

You can access your camera, messages, reminders and more from the Lock screen IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to access items even when your iPad is locked YOU’LL NEED An iPad Your iPad’s Lock screen provides direct access to key features. You can unlock your iPad straight to the camera, for when the moment won’t wait. You’ll see new messages, reminders and so on appear on-screen, and you can swipe right to left across one to deal with it, or swipe the other way, and enter your passcode if you’ve set one up, to go directly to the relevant app. You can also take control of your music here, without having to unlock your iPad. See your notifications Tap Settings > Notifications, scroll down and select…

IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to make the most of gesture control in Mail YOU’LL NEED iOS 8 or later The iOS version of Mail includes a number of features that make it easier to manage the daily barrage of emails. One of the most useful is the ability to use gestures – a simple finger swipe either left or right across an email in the list provides options to quickly delete it, mark it as read or unread, or to perform a number of other tasks, without even having to open or read the message. Those two basic gestures work well for dealing with new messages, and you have the ability to customise the actions they perform. (It’s no surprise that Microsoft’s iOS version of…

Status Board is essentially a digital pinboard to which you drag widgets IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to set up Status Board to show clocks, feeds and other personalised data YOU’LL NEED iPad running iOS 9 or later, Status Board, web connection, Twitter account (optional) We love the iPad and are fully convinced of its capabilities regarding creativity and productivity. But that doesn’t mean the second you buy one, you’ll never need a Mac or PC again. There will still be times you’ll need to be focused on the desktop, while your iPad sits temporarily unused. Fortunately, though, your iPad can prove useful even when just sitting in a stand — if you install the right app. Status Board (Free) is perfect for making use of…

With the magic of the cloud, you may well be flinging docs between your Mac and your iPad IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to get third-party fonts from your Mac onto your iPad YOU’LL NEED Mac running iTunes, fonts to transfer, an iPad running iOS 8 or later, AnyFont app In the early days of computing, you were limited to a tiny selection of fonts, many of which had edges so jagged you were concerned they’d give you a nasty cut if you accidentally brushed against the screen. Today’s computers typically come packed with loads of much nicer fonts. The only snag is that what you get on one system may not match what’s on another. For example, even if you’ve never added to your Mac’s…

Night Shift counteracts the disruption caused by blue light from your device’s screen IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use the key features introduced or improved in the latest version of iOS YOU’LL NEED iPhone 4S or newer, iPod touch (5th or 6th generation, or an iPad 2 or newer. OS X 10.11.4 (optional) Don’t be fooled into thinking that iOS 9.3 has little to offer on the grounds of its relatively small bump in version number. Yes, it fixes and tweaks some existing features, but it also adds some significant new ones to your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad as well. Its headline feature is Night Shift, which reduces the amount of blue light emitted by your device’s screen. Research says this kind of light…

The trick to getting more out of Calendar and Reminders is to set up sharing IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to keep your family up to date with your plans YOU’LL NEED iPad and iCloud Account, Friend with iOS device (and iCloud account) We use the Calendar and Reminders apps on our iPad, all the time. From setting up day trips through to arranging holidays and planning parties: we’d be lost without iOS sharing. The trick to getting more out of Calendar and Reminders is setting up sharing with family and friends. Once sharing is enabled, you can add events to Calendar, and they’ll appear on all the shared iOS devices (so that’s any Macs, iPhones or iPads that your friends use). If you change an…

Pages has an uncanny ability to know what you’re trying to do and to help you do it IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to make professional looking Pages documents YOU’LL NEED Pages, an iPad, some text and some images In the 1980s, Apple transformed publishing. Macs running desktop publishing software made it possible to design every dot of a printed publication on computer – and because the software was WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) you could see exactly how it would look on the page. It was amazing, revolutionary stuff – and compared to today’s Pages app on the iPad, incredibly primitive. Pages is often described as a word processor – even by Apple – but word processing is just part of what…

Street View is a great way to visualise key landmarks on your journey IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to plot routes by car, public transport, bike or on foot YOU’LL NEED iOS 7 or later, Google Maps app Want a comprehensive mapping tool that doubles as a route planner and makes it easy to access local amenities and places of interest? Google Maps for iPad is the perfect app for the job. It trumps Apple Maps in a number of ways: first, there’s comprehensive support for UK public transport, so you don’t need to be a car driver or living in London to get the most from it. Just tap on a station or stop for a list of services, departure times and even stops for…