Gestures, Split View, and More make the iPad even more useful.

Most of this information covers IOS 13 – so if you have not updated, GET IT DONE tonight at home. Some of it also applies to IOS 12 and 11, which is as far as some of the older iPads on campus can go. In any case, give these features a try – they just might work!

VIEW APP DOCK

Swipe up from the bottom of the screen, roughly an inch. The dock will appear – and then you can switch apps. You can also drag app icons to either side of the screen to split your screen and use 2 apps at a time.

NOTIFICATION CENTER

Swipe down from either the Center top to quickly access your Notifications. A suggestion from MDS Tech: fewer notifications are better than having more. YOU have control over what you get – check in the Settings App.https://www.cnet.com/how-to/16-gestures-that-will-make-you-love-using-your-ipad/

Control Center

Swipe down from the Top right corner to see the Control Center. That’s a good way to check wifi settings [is wifi REALLY on?], change your screen brightness, change volume. pause and start playback, and the like.

By the way – you can customize Control Center to show exactly what YOU want. See settings –> Control Center and pick what settings you’d like to have, and even what order you want them in.

Today View

Swipe from the left to the right as if switching screens. When you get all the way to the left and swipe once more, you’ll see the Today View. YOu cna load several widgets into that view.

You can customize what widgets are on the today view by clicking on the Edit button at the the bottom of Today View.

Quickly get back to the desktop

When you have an app running, you can quickly get back to the desktop by swiping up from the bottom of the screen.

App Switcher

The App Switcher is the equivalent of Alt-Tab on Windows or Command-Tab on Macs. On those operating systems you get a list of icons or windows showing you all of the open apps running at that moment.

On IOS, swipe up from the bottom of the screen AND THEN HOLD YOUR FINGER for a second. You might have to swipe left or right – but you’ll see windows with every running app.

You can also force-close apps by swiping up on the app window. This even works when swiping several at the same time.

MORE MULTITASKING / MULTIPLE APPS TRICKS

There are details on

• using Slide Over,
• Moving and changing screensize of your apps,
• switching between apps,
• getting rid of a Slide Over window,
• and using Split view

in the CNET article. It’s worth a look!