I'm amazed how many features Apple builds into iOS, and then it just leaves them hidden for me to find. Here is a crop of tips and tricks for working with words and images on your iPad.
All of these also work on the iPhone, but because of the limited screen size, they can be trickier to use on the smaller handsets (and near impossible if you have big, meaty paws as I do).
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Text selection
iPadOS 13 gives you very fine control over text selection using just screen taps:
- Double-tap: Select a word
- Triple tap: Select a sentence
- Quadruple tap: Select a paragraph
Undo and redo
Remember the "Shake to Undo" feature in iOS? While that's still present, picking up an iPad and giving it a shake to undo something is hardly convenient given the size and weight of the tablet. iPadOS 13 has some gestures that are a little less energetic:
- Swipe left with three fingers to undo
- Swipe right with three fingers to redo
- You can also use a three-finger double-tap to undo, which feels a little bit awkward initially but soon becomes second nature.
Copy, cut, and paste
Now we're getting advanced. I recommend practicing these on some scrap text before using them for real, as they can take some getting used to.
- Pinch in with three fingers to copy
- Pinch in with three fingers twice (moderately quickly) to cut
- Pinch out (or un-pinch!) with three fingers to paste
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Moving the cursor about
Want to move the cursor about the page? Just place your finger on the cursor and move it.
Think of it as picking it up and dropping it down somewhere else. So simple, yet it took me a while to figure it out (I was jabbing at the screen too hard).
See also:
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