Paul McFedries - iPad and iPad Pro For Dummies

I thought you'd never ask.

Welcome, therefore, to iPad and iPad Pro For Dummies, 2022-2023 Edition. This book is designed to take you beyond the basics of your iPad and show you what your tablet can do. iPads aren't cheap, so you owe it to yourself to get the most out of your investment by learning not only the iPad's ABCs but also its XYZs. From mail to messaging, from Siri to settings, from contacts to calendars, this book covers all major iPad and iPadOS features (and quite a few minor ones, too).

I need to get one thing out of the way from the get-go. I think you’re pretty darn smart for buying a Dummies book. To me, that says you have the confidence and intelligence to know what you don’t know. The Dummies franchise is built on the core notion that everyone feels insecure about certain topics when tackling them for the first time, especially when those topics have to do with technology. The iPad is no exception.

This book is chock-full of useful tips, advice, and other nuggets that should make your iPad experience more pleasurable. I'll even go so far as to say you won’t find some of these nuggets anywhere else. So keep this book nearby and consult it often.

Although I know what happens when one makes assumptions, I’ve made a few anyway. First, I assume that you, gentle reader, know nothing about using an iPad or iPadOS, that you want to understand your iPad and its operating system without digesting an incomprehensible technical manual, and that you made the right choice by selecting this book.

I do my best to explain each new concept in full and loving detail. Perhaps that’s foolish, but … oh, well.

One last thing: I also assume that you can read. If you can’t, please ignore this paragraph.

Little round pictures (or icons ) appear in the left margin throughout this book. Consider these icons as miniature road signs, telling you something extra about the topic at hand or hammering a point home. Here’s what the icons in this book look like and mean.

These juicy morsels, shortcuts, and recommendations might make the task at hand faster or easier.

This icon emphasizes the stuff I think you ought to retain. You may even jot down a note to yourself on the iPad.

Put on your propeller beanie hat and insert your pocket protector; this text includes truly geeky stuff. You can safely ignore this material, but if it weren’t interesting or informative, I wouldn’t have bothered to write it.

You wouldn’t intentionally run a stop sign, would you? In the same fashion, ignoring warnings might be hazardous to your iPad and (by extension) your wallet. There, you now know how these warning icons work, for you have just received your very first warning!

I wrote a bunch of things that just didn’t fit in the print version of this book. Rather than leave them on the cutting room floor, I’ve posted the most useful bits online in a cheat sheet for your enjoyment and edification.

To find them, go to www.dummies.com and type iPad and iPad Pro For Dummies cheat sheet in the Search field. Here's what you'll find: info on using the iPad’s buttons and icons, tips for mastering multitouch, and where to find additional help if your iPad is acting contrary.

Why, go straight to Chapter 1, of course (without passing Go).

Note: At the time I wrote this book, all the information it contained was accurate for all Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + Cellular iPads that support iPadOS. The book is also based on version 15 of the iPadOS operating system. Apple is likely to introduce new iPad models and new versions of iPadOS between book editions, so if the hardware or user interface on your new iPad looks a little different, be sure to check out what Apple has to say at www.apple.com/ipad . You’ll no doubt find updates on the company’s latest releases.

Part 1

IN THIS PART …

Get basic training for getting along with your iPad.

Enjoy a gentle introduction to your iPad.

Peek at your iPad hardware and software and explore the way it works.

Discover the joys of synchronization and how to get your data — contacts, movies, songs, podcasts, books, and so on — from a computer (or iCloud) to your iPad.

Chapter 1

IN THIS CHAPTER

Looking at the big iPad picture

Examining the outside of the iPad

Checking out the Home screen and dock

Are you familiar with the old proverb that says, “Well begun is half done”? Some say it comes from Aristotle, so if you mumbled to yourself that the phrase is “Greek to me,” you'd be spot on! The proverb's meaning is straightforward enough: If you start a project well, the rest of it will proceed so swimmingly that it'll feel like you need to expend only half the effort to get it done.

This chapter is your chance to get your relationship with your iPad off to such a good start. Sure, you can dive right in and start tapping and scrolling stuff willy-nilly. If that's your style, go for it; I won't judge. However, one thing I've learned over the years is that if you approach a new piece of technology slowly and curiously, you'll end up with a solid grounding in the basics that will pay back your initial time investment manyfold.

To that end, in this chapter, I offer a gentle introduction to all the pieces that make up your iPad, plus an overview of its most useful hardware features and a few software features that come with iPadOS.

iPadOS is the software that runs behind the scenes to control just about everything that happens on your iPad. The OS part of iPadOS is short for operating system, which tells you that iPadOS is the iPad equivalent of macOS on a Mac or even Windows on a PC.

In this book, I cover all iPad models that run iPadOS:

iPad: iPad fifth generation (2017) and later; iPad Air 2 (2014) and later

iPad mini: iPad mini 4 (2015) and later

iPad Pro: iPad Pro first generation (2015) and later

Because the first four generations of iPad, the first generation of iPad Air, and the first three generations of iPad mini can't run iPadOS, they're not covered in this book. If you’re the owner of one of those models, you can still find a lot of handy information here, but some things might look or work differently.