Chapter 3. Using Your iPad’s Physical and Virtual Controls
The iPad represents a minimalist design, so you won’t see ugly ports or extra buttons protruding from every side like a typical laptop or netbook. Instead, the iPad offers only four physical buttons: Sleep/Wake, Volume Mute, Volume Up/Down, and the Home button. By learning how to use these buttons, you can control how your iPad behaves.
Besides these physical controls, the iPad also provides a virtual control for locking the screen orientation. By learning to use the iPad’s physical and virtual controls, you can control the major features of your iPad.
What You’ll Be Using
To learn how to control your iPad via its physical buttons, you need to use the following:
Viewing the Home Screen
The Home button appears at the bottom of the iPad on the front. No matter what app you may be using at the time, pressing the Home button immediately displays the Home screen, which displays icons that represent all the apps you can run on your iPad, as shown in Figure 3-1. (Try it now!)
Adjusting the Volume
To make it easy for you to increase or decrease the volume, the iPad includes Volume Up and Volume Down buttons on its right side (shown earlier in Figure 3-1).
You can adjust the volume by pressing one of the volume buttons or by holding it down. When you adjust the volume, the iPad displays a ringer icon with a horizontal bar underneath that visually displays the current volume level, as shown in Figure 3-2. When you press and hold the Volume Mute button, your iPad will be immediately muted.
Note
Many apps, such as the iPod or YouTube app, also let you adjust the volume with a volume slider that appears on the screen. By moving this volume slider left or right, you can lower or raise the volume without touching the physical Volume Up/Down buttons on the side of the iPad.
Another way to adjust the volume is through the volume slider on the screen, which you can display and adjust by following these steps:
Press the Home button twice. A list of icons, representing different apps, appears, as shown in Figure 3-3.
Swipe this list of icons to the right. You may need to do this several times until you see the volume control slider, as shown in Figure 3-4.
Slide the Volume Control slider left or right.
Press the Home button when you’re done.
Muting the Volume
If you need to turn down the volume in a hurry, you could simply adjust the volume all the way down. However, a much faster solution is to mute your iPad’s volume entirely. Muting the volume doesn’t change the volume level; it simply stops all audio temporarily. The moment you turn the Volume Mute switch back on again, your iPad will start playing any audio at the volume level previously set.
To mute, slide the Volume Mute switch up or down (shown earlier in Figure 3-1). An icon appears on the screen that shows whether the volume is muted or not, as shown in Figure 3-5.
Multitasking with the Home Button
Initially, the iPad could only run one app at a time. The moment you wanted to run another app, you had to stop your currently running app to switch to the other app. But now you can run two or more apps simultaneously and switch between them at the touch of the Home button.
To switch between multiple apps, follow these steps:
Press the Home button twice. A list of icons, representing different apps, appears (shown earlier in Figure 3-3.)
Tap the icon of the app you want to switch to using.
Locking the Screen Rotation
If you’re holding the iPad at an angle, it may constantly try to shift between displaying an image in portrait and landscape mode. To keep this image from flipping back and forth, you can lock the screen rotation so the iPad always displays an image in its current display mode (portrait or landscape).
To lock the screen rotation, follow these steps:
Press the Home button twice. A list of icons appears (see Figure 3-3).
Swipe this row of icons to the right until you see the Screen Rotation Lock/Unlock icon, as shown in Figure 3-6.
Tap the Screen Rotation Lock/Unlock icon to lock or unlock the screen rotation.
Adjusting the Screen Brightness
Since you can take your iPad anywhere you go, you’ll probably use it in different lighting conditions, such as out in the bright sunlight or in a dark room while someone else is giving a boring presentation. In case you need to adjust the screen brightness, you can drag a brightness slider to make your iPad’s screen easier to see.
To adjust screen brightness, follow these steps:
Tape the Home button twice. A row of icons appears at the bottom of the screen.
Swip the icons at the bottom to the right until the controls appear (shown earlier in Figure 3-4).
Drag the Screen Brightness slider to the left or right.
Press the Home button once.
Additional Ideas for Controlling Your iPad
The two most commonly used buttons are the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button. Since you’ll be using the Home button often, take the time to practice returning to the Home screen by pressing the Home button once. If you press the Home button twice in rapid succession, you can lock the screen rotation, adjust the volume, or switch to another app.
Locking the screen rotation can be handy if you like curling up in a chair or sofa with your iPad. Without locking your screen, the image might flip back and forth between portrait and landscape mode.
Switching between apps can be handy when you don’t want to end an app but want it to retain its current state, such as letting you play a game while temporarily checking your email.
Finally, don’t forget that the Volume Up/Down buttons can help you crank up your music or lower it so you don’t disturb others. Physically adjusting the volume through the Volume button is easy, but you can also adjust the volume by pressing the Home button twice and then swiping your app icons to the right to view the volume control slider.
If you really need to quiet your iPad down in a hurry, just use the physical Volume Mute switch instead.
By acquainting yourself to the purpose of these physical and virtual controls, you can quickly control your iPad. Once you know how to control your iPad with these physical and virtual buttons, the next step is to start learning how to control it using touch gestures on the screen.