Learning stuff about my ipad

I am sure there are plenty of web sites out there explaining all the great features you find on your ipad, so I am not going to cover everything in great detail, but just a few things I learned about today that I had not discovered on my own.

You may have been wondering how folks can send emoticons and other icons from their iOS devices.  Turns out this is one of the keyboards you can select.  You find the keyboard called Emoji under Settings, General, Keyboard, Keyboards.  Select any and all languages you think you may use at some point, including Emoji.  Now, when you are in an app, like Notes or email, and you want to change the keyboard to, say, German for an Umlaut, or Emoji for an icon, click the globe key on your keyboard (you will only have this as an option if you have more than one keyboard selected) to toggle to the next keyboard layout.  And then emote away.

You may have also been wondering about how you can have your iOS device read to you.  Under Settings, General, Accessibility, you have Voiceover that allows you to have the device read to you.  You also have Speak Selection in this area that, when enabled, will highlight a word when it is spoken.  This may be useful for folks with reading difficulties

For the ones among us who need to be able to increase the size of items, you have two choices.  If you simply want to adjust the default size of text displayed, you will find an option for adjusting Text Size under Settings, General, Accessibility, called Larger Text.  Under Accessibility, you also have the ZOOM functionality, though it may take some getting used to this one.

If you want to delete something you have written, a vigorous shake will Undo.

If you want to be able to dictate notes, make sure you have Siri turned on.  Siri can also be customized under Settings, General -- you can change accent, Gender and a couple of other things about Siri.

If you have too many apps on your iOS device, remember that a swipe from the top brings up the Search bar - -and this is a search that also looks at content, not just at the name of the app.  Also, if you have too many apps, you can pull them into categories - -and you can have multiple screens within one category.

You may have heard that you need to close your apps in order for the ipad not to lose its battery life so quickly.  This is a myth. Apps do not use any power unless they are on the screen.  The only exceptions are the Music app and some mapping apps.  However, if one of your apps does not behave the way you want it, closing it out completely will force the app to restart.  To do this, double-click on the home button (the button that allows you to shift between apps), and when you see the apps that are open on your screen, drag the misbehaving one to the top to see it disappear out of the list.