This is why I like sites like Screencasts Online and podcasts like Mac Power Users. Lots of little tips to learn which seem impossible to learn without someone telling you. Surely they must be documented somewhere?
You know you can move the cursor on the iPhone by long pressing on the space bar, right?
Yeah, so I gather. Given that texting selection for editing has been one of the biggest gripes from reviews focusing on pro usage, it seems to be a rather poorly distributed bit of arcana.
Given how inconsistent it is in various apps, it also appears to suffer from a lack of QA testing.
Thank you for this! Just moved to an XR from a 7, and the only thing I missed was force-touching the keyboard to move the cursor, and with a little muscle memory retraining this will solve it.
Really? I have not used a text based app that doesn’t support it. Anything that doesn’t, I would argue isn’t worth using.
Are you using a clipboard manager like Gladys as well? That could help with editing on iOS.
Even with the iOS text selection tools it can be a pain for selection though. It’s still way too jumpy for me. When I was in school I would usually use the iPad for quick edits and proofreading. Anything major and I want a mouse and a huge screen.
It’s inconsistent when used in text entry boxes in Safari. I was playing around with it when writing that post — just trying to move the cursor, tap somewhere else, move it again. It’s not uncommon to see the size jump indicating that you can move it, only to have the entire screen move when you do.
Just editing this post, trying to select text to delete for narrowing down the quote, I eventually gave up and used the stupid tiny selection widgets to select the text.
Part of it is that I need practice, I’m sure. But it is also inconsistent, and commonly behaves as I described above.
I do most of my writing on iPad using Drafts, and then send it to where it needs to go. It doesn’t fix the weird text selection problems, but it’s certainly better, and easier, than editing in web page selection boxes.
Is anyone else have issues with the gesture to close an app, bring up the dock, or bring up the app selector? I mess it up constantly. I want to close an app and bring up the dock or app selector instead all the time. I don’t quite get what the threshold is for dock vs close is.
If you swipe straight up at least 1/4 of the way up the screen and immediately release, you go home. If you swipe straight up just a smidge, that’s the dock. If you swipe straight up 1/4 of the way then move a bit to the side or hold it for a moment, that’s the multitasking screen.
On an older iPad, swiping up a little bit and then immediately to the right and releasing in one curved motion will switch to the previous app. This is analagous to swiping the little bottom bar to the right on iPhone X/XS and the 2018 iPads. Very useful.
I do find bringing up the dock to be a little bit touchy sometimes, and I used that functionality all the time in iOS 11. But now in iOS12 the gestures work very much like an iPhone X/XS, much smoother, and I don’t use the dock as much.
Note all the above is from my experience on non-2018 iPads; I didn’t get one of those.
I picked up a 12.9" from the local Apple store yesterday.
My main use case is bedtime browsing and reading, and, of course, this ipad is absurd overkill for that. I was perfectly well served by last years 10.5" pro, and, if I felt the need for a new one, should’ve probably gone with the 11"…but the big one is sooo beautiful, and it tasks me…
I can definitely feel the difference in weight and balance point as I hold it in bed, and the years spent strengthening wrists and forearms with the 12 oz curls is really paying off. I’ll get use to it, but it’s definitely noticeable.
Something that’s a major plus is how good graphic novels and other ebooks with pictures and drawings look on this size. I’ve got a bunch of O’Reilly head first books that I’ve picked up in Humble bundles, and this is the perfect device for them, with all their cartoons and sketches and whatnot…
As far as the “real work” debate goes, I can’t really say ,as it’s generally recognized that I don’t do any real work, but I can say that just having this device near me makes me feel like a better person, so there’s that…
Try and explain that process to a average office worker and watch their eyes glaze over. There’s a reason the mouse is still around and will be for many many years to come.
Any Apple user want a free year of 1Password? They are offering a free year to give to a friend/family, and I don’t know anyone who would appreciate it. Since it’s best on Apple products, figure here is the best place to post it. PM me your email address if interested.
No bent iPad rage here? I saw the articles today on the various Apple website. Figured it’s just another bendgate I wouldn’t care about. Saw the Reddit post where everyone is completely outraged. Still can’t say I care much. I looked at mine, I don’t see anything. I would rather mine not be bent, but with the camera bump and the fact I have really enjoyed it so far, I just can’t get upset about it.
Apple needs to get their crap together though. They shouldn’t let this kind of thing get by.
