Jul 26 2012
Undock And Unlock Your iPad’s Potential
If you’re lucky enough to own an iPad you’ll know how awkward it can be to hold and type at the same time when you’re using it. The other day, whilst struggling to perform this exact same mission, my girlfriend noticed me frustratingly bashing about on the screen. After a few minutes observing my caveman style she grabbed my iPad from my shaking hands and within 3 taps had undocked my keypad and split it in half on my screen. No don’t worry, she hadn’t broken it, for those of you who don’t know it’s a new feature found in the iOS 5. I’ll run through the steps for you below so you can do the same and trust me it’ll revolutionize your notes, blogging and whatever other writing tasks you use your iPad for.
So how did she do it and why is it so easy to do?
1) After she had grabbed the iPad off me, she pressed and held the small keyboard icon at the bottom right hand side of my keyboard.
2) This brought up an Undock and Split menu.
3) She explained that this will give you two options here 1) Undock will keep the keyboard whole but will hover in the middle of the screen. I don’t find this particularly useful for typing as it’s still difficult to hold and type however this is the next step as she had to Undock the keyboard first and then split the keyboard next.
4) She then proceeded to hold down the small keyboard icon again which brought up the menu once again to Undock and Split. This time she chose the Split option.
5) This will keep the keyboard hovering around the middle of your iPad however it will have now split in half so you can see the middle area of the iPad screen but you should find that you can hold your iPad naturally as well as type for longer periods more effectively.
As I do a lot of written work on my iPad this has really made life easier for me. It’s not only more comfortable, it’s more practical and natural which means I can just get on with my creative writing. Try it!
If you don’t like this new split keyboard, for any reason, simply hold on the small keyboard icon and select Dock and Merge. This will return your keyboard back to normal.
Written by Alan Gregory writer for Appliances Online by day, chill-out expert by night. You can follow me on Twitter @AlanJGregory. When I’m not advising customers on the best dishwashers and fridges, I like drinking coffee, blue skies and travelling.
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Aug 29, 2012 @ 06:46:54
This is great! I could use my thumb with the keyboard and not far away from each other.