2. Customizing Your iPad
In this chapter, you learn how to change some of the settings on your iPad such as your background images, sounds, passcode, and how some apps behave.
→ Getting Details About Your iPad
→ Password Protecting Your iPad
→ Protecting Your iPad with Touch ID
→ Setting Parental Restrictions
→ Setting Side Switch Functionality
→ Notification Center Settings
Like with any relationship, you fall in love with your iPad for what it is. And then, almost immediately, you try to change it.
It’s easier, though, to customize your iPad than it is your significant other because you can modify various settings and controls in the Settings app. You can also move icons around on the Home screen and even change how the Home button works.
Changing Your Wallpaper
The wallpaper is the image behind the icons on the Home screen and on the lock screen, so make sure it’s something you like.
Tap the Settings icon on your Home screen.
Choose Wallpapers & Brightness from the Settings on the left side of the screen.
Tap the Large Wallpaper button that shows previews of your lock and home screens.
If you want to use one of Apple’s dynamic wallpapers, tap here. Dynamic wallpapers are patterns that slowly animate.
If you want to select an image from your photo library—either of a photo you took with your iPad or one you synced from your computer—tap one of the groups of photos listed.
If you want to use one of Apple’s default wallpaper images, tap here.
Choose an image from the category you selected in step 4, 5, or 6.
You’ll see the full image in a preview covering the entire screen.
Choose Set Lock Screen to set this image as the background of your lock screen.
Choose Set Home Screen to set this image as the background for your Home screen.
Choose Set Both to make the image the background for both screens.
Tap Cancel at the bottom-left corner of the screen to go back to the wallpaper icons.
Adjusting the Wallpaper Image
You can touch and drag in a photo to move to other areas of the image so you can choose the part of the image you want as your wallpaper. You can also pinch to zoom in and out on your photographs.
Getting Details About Your iPad
One of the many things in the Settings app on the iPad is an About section, from which you can learn details about your iPad.
Tap the Settings icon on your Home screen.
Tap General from the list of settings on the left.
Tap About, the first item at the top of the list of General settings.
Tap Name to change the name of your iPad as it is seen in iTunes and iPhoto when you sync with your computer and various other instances.
See how many songs, videos, photos, and apps you have.
See the total capacity of your iPad and the amount of space available.
The version number tells you which version of the iPad operating system you are running. Check this to make sure you are running the latest version of iOS.
The model number tells you exactly which iPad you own if you happen to get it serviced or perhaps to report a bug to a third-party app developer.
The serial number, Wi-Fi address, and Bluetooth address are unique to your iPad. Apple may ask for your serial number if you are sending your iPad in for repairs. The Wi-Fi number is what you need if you are asked for a “MAC address” or “Ethernet address” for your iPad.
Why Am I Missing Space?
Notice in the example here that the capacity of the iPad is shown as 13.3GB. However, that particular model is advertised as a “16GB” model. The discrepancy between the two is because of space used by the operating system and other system files.
If you tap the Legal button and then the Regulatory button on the About screen, you are taken to another screen that lists another model number for your iPad. For the 4th generation iPad, Wi-Fi only model, this is A1458. The models A1459 and A1460 represent the AT&T and Verizon 3G models. When you are buying third-party accessories for your iPad, the specifications for those accessories may say “compatible with model X.” In that case, X may represent either model number.
Setting Alert Sounds
Your iPad can be a noisy device with various events that trigger alert sounds. Just typing on the on-screen keyboard can produce a series of clicks.
Here’ s how to adjust your iPad’s alert sounds.
Tap the Settings icon on the Home screen.
Tap Sounds from the list of settings on the left.
Adjust the volume of system sounds, like FaceTime ringtones and notification alerts. This does not affect the volume of music or video.
When this is turned on, the volume in step 3 can change by using the buttons on the side of the iPad. If you turn this off, you can still use the buttons to adjust the volume of music and video when those are playing, but otherwise the side volume controls won’t affect the system sound volume.
Tap any of these settings to set the sound that plays when an event occurs. You can choose ringtones, alert tones, or custom tones for any of the events. Ringtone refers to FaceTime calls and Text Tone refers to the Messages app.
Switch the Lock Sounds on or off. When this setting is on, a sound plays when you unlock the Lock screen.
Switch Keyboard Clicks on or off.
How About Custom Sounds?
Any sound event can play a ringtone rather than a plain alert sound. You will see a list of “Alert Tones” that are built into iOS, as well as a list of ringtones, which include the built-in ringtones and any custom ringtones. You can add your own custom ringtones in iTunes on your Mac or PC and then sync them with your iPad. After the sync, you will see them listed when selecting an alert sound. See “Syncing Music,” in Chapter 3. By obtaining or creating your own custom ringtones, you can set your alert sounds to anything you want.
Password Protecting Your iPad
Password protecting your iPad is a great way to make sure that someone else can’t access your information or use your iPad.
Tap the Settings icon on the Home screen.
Tap General from the list of settings on the left.
Tap Passcode Lock.
Even More Security
To lock your iPad automatically when you aren’t using it, choose Auto-Lock from the General Settings and set your iPad to automatically lock at 2, 5, 10, or 15 minutes. You can also choose to never have it auto-lock. Of course, you can manually lock your iPad at any time by pressing the Wake/Sleep button at the top.
Tap Turn Passcode On to activate this feature. You then are prompted to enter a passcode.
Type in a four-digit passcode that you can easily remember. Write it down and store it in a safe place—you can run into a lot of trouble if you forget it, most likely needing to erase your iPad and restore it from your last backup.
You will be asked to re-enter your passcode.
Tap the Require Passcode button and choose the delay before a passcode is required. If you choose anything other than Immediately, someone else using your iPad can work on it for that period of time before needing to enter the code.
Tap Simple Passcode to switch from using a 4-digit number to a longer password that can include both letters and numbers, if you want additional security; otherwise, your password will consist of 4 digits. Tap Turn Passcode On.
Turn off Siri to disable the ability to use Siri from the Lock screen.
Turn on Erase Data if you want to erase the iPad data after 10 failed passcode attempts.
Press the Wake/Sleep button to confirm your new settings work. Then press the Home button and Slide to Unlock. The Enter Passcode screen displays.
You Forgot Your Passcode?
Well, it wouldn’t be secure if there were a way to get around the passcode, so you’re out of luck until you can connect your iPad to your Mac or PC and use iTunes to restore it. Hopefully, this never happens to you.
Setting Parental Restrictions
If you plan to let your kids play with your iPad, you might want to set some restrictions on what they can do.
Tap the Settings icon on the Home screen.
Tap Restrictions.
Tap Enable Restrictions to turn restrictions on.
Type in a four-digit code and then re-enter the code when prompted. Remember this code, or you can’t turn off or change restrictions later.
To remove the Safari, Camera, FaceTime, iTunes and iBooks Store apps from your Home screen, turn the switches to off. The user of the iPad will not be able to access these apps.
The Installing Apps switch prevents new apps from being installed.
Turn Deleting Apps on to prevent the user from removing apps.
Another way to access information on the Internet is to ask Siri. Turn this switch off to prevent that.
Turn AirDrop off to prevent the use of AirDrop for transferring photos and other data to or from this iPad.
The Allowed Content settings enable you to restrict access to various content based on ratings systems and filters. Each works slightly differently depending on the type of content and the way that content is rated. But you can also turn off each of these completely.
You can choose to turn off the In-App Purchases switch completely, or require a password for each purchase, or require the password once every 15 minutes. These settings help parents by preventing kids from making purchases from within an app, such as a game, using their iTunes account.
Tap Location Services to enable or disable location-based functions of all apps, including Find My Phone.
All of the Privacy settings control the use and editing of stored information. For instance, you can set it so Contacts can be accessed fully, allowing changes, or accessed without allowing changes. Each subcategory gives you a list of apps that use the information, and you can turn each app’s access to that information on or off. For instance, you can allow Pages and Keynote to access your photos, but not the Facebook app.
Tap Accounts to disallow adding or changing Internet accounts, such as email, contacts, and calendar events.
Turn Background App Refresh off to stop apps from updating in the background.
The Volume Limit settings allow for a maximum volume limit to be set and adjusted.
Select options in the Game Center functions you want to allow. This will only affect games that use Game Center to communicate with other players. Some apps use their own system of communication or other systems, like Facebook.
The permission settings in step 14 are also available outside of parental controls. You can select Privacy on the left side of the Settings app and then view all the apps that have requested access to contacts, events, reminders, photos, and your location. You can review and deny access to these apps. See “Privacy Settings” later in this chapter.
Setting Side Switch Functionality
The switch on the side of your iPad can be used for one of two things: muting the sound or locking the screen orientation. Whichever one you choose for the switch, the other will then appear in the Control Center as a button. See “Using Control Center” in Chapter 1. So either way, you have fairly quick access to both functions.
Tap the Settings icon on the Home screen.
Tap Lock Rotation if you want your side switch to be an orientation lock switch.
Tap Mute if you want the side switch to mute the volume on the speakers and earphones.
Setting Your Date and Time
You can set the date, time and time zone for your iPad and even choose whether to display the time in 12- or 24-hour mode.
Tap the Settings icon on the Home screen.
Scroll down to the bottom of the General Settings list and tap Date & Time.
Turn the 24-Hour Time switch on to show the time in 24-hour format (military time). Turn it off to revert to 12-hour format.
Turning Set Automatically on syncs the date and time with the Wi-Fi network or cellular network that the iPad is connected to.
Tap the Time Zone button and then enter the name of your city, or a nearby city, to set the zone.
To manually set the time, tap the date and time shown to bring up a set of controls underneath.
The controls are four “wheels” that you can spin by dragging up and down. You can set the day, hour, minute, and AM or PM.
Modifying Keyboard Settings
If you use your iPad for email or word processing, you will use the on-screen keyboard a lot. The keyboard does several things to make it easier for you to type, but some of these might get in the way of your typing style. Use the following steps to modify the keyboard settings to your preferences.
Tap the Settings icon on the Home screen.
Tap General.
Scroll down to the bottom of the General Settings list and tap Keyboard.
Turn Auto-Capitalization on to automatically make the first character of a name or a sentence a capital letter.
Turn Auto-Correction on to have mistyped words automatically corrected.
Turn Check Spelling on or off to control whether possible misspellings are indicated.
Turn Enable Caps Lock on or off. By default, this is off. When Caps Lock is enabled, you can double-tap the shift key to lock it.
Turn on the “.” Shortcut if you want a double-tap of the spacebar to insert a period followed by a space.
Use the Keyboards button to choose a different keyboard layout. In addition to keyboards commonly used in other countries, you can switch to a Dvorak keyboard or one of several other alternatives to the traditional QWERTY keyboard.
If you want to lock the keyboard so it can never be split and moved up vertically, then switch this to off. See, “Using the On-Screen Keyboard,” in Chapter 1.
You can add your own shortcuts. For instance, you can set it so when you type “omw,” it will instantly expand to “On my way!” Add your own shortcuts for things you commonly type.
After you add a second keyboard in step 9, you now see a special key that lets you switch between keyboards. So, you can have both an American English keyboard and a Dvorak keyboard selected in Settings, and tap here to switch between them.
>>>Go Further: Smile!
Do Not Disturb Settings
Your iPad is trying to get your attention. It beeps and rings with notifications, FaceTime calls, messages, and event alarms. In fact, it might be hard to have it nearby when trying to sleep or enjoying some time “offline.”
Do Not Disturb is a mode where your iPad quiets down. Most audible alerts are silenced. You can set your iPad to enter this mode manually with the Do Not Disturb settings, or set a predefined block of time each day.
Tap the Settings icon on the Home screen.
Tap Do Not Disturb on the left.
You can turn on Do Not Disturb mode manually with this switch.
Tap Scheduled for Do Not Disturb mode to automatically start and end at a specific time. For instance, you can set it to start at 10 p.m. and end at 7 a.m. so you aren’t disturbed while sleeping.
Tap here to use time and date controls to set the start and end times.
Tap Allow Calls From to allow FaceTime calls and messages from specific people by selecting a group in your contacts list.
Turn on Repeated Calls so that someone can reach you in an emergency by calling twice within three minutes.
Do Not Disturb can work at all times, or only when you have your iPad locked. Tap the desired setting so that a blue checkmark appears next to it.
Privacy Settings
Information on your iPad can flow between apps. For instance, your Mail app will use email addresses from your Contacts app to allow you to easily address messages.
You may not want all apps to have access to all your information. Sure, sharing email addresses between Contacts and Mail makes sense, but does that game you just downloaded really need access to your contacts, or photos, or calendar events? Privacy settings allow you to see which apps have access to what and to turn off those connections, if you like.
Tap the Settings icon on the Home screen.
Tap Privacy on the left.
The list includes different sources of information, such as your contacts, location, reminders, and even your Twitter and Facebook accounts. Select any one to see which apps have access to that information.
After you select an app, you see the list of apps that have permission to use the data.
Tap the switch to turn access on or off for each app.
Notification Center Settings
Apps communicate with you through the Notifications Center. See “Using Notifications Center” in Chapter 1. There you receive alerts telling you all sorts of things: incoming email, new messages, game events, news items, and so on.
The Notification Center settings is where you decide how important each type of notification is, and how it should be displayed, if at all.
Tap the Notifications Center category in Settings.
Use these switches to configure whether notifications and the summary of today’s events should be shown in Notifications Center while you are on the lock screen. This information would be available to anyone holding your iPad, even if they have not entered your passcode to get past the lock screen.
Use these switches to configure what information should be available in the Today View portion of the Notifications Center screen.
You can have all the items in the Notifications Center sorted by time, or sorted manually in an order you specify, by tapping one of these options.
If you choose the manual option in step 4, tap Edit at the top right of the screen to be able to arrange the apps listed on this screen. Set them in the order you want them to appear in Notifications Center.
Tap an app to edit its settings.
Choosing the None alert style means that neither a banner nor alert will appear.
Choosing Banners means that a drop-down banner will appear when the app has a message, and it will go away on its own after a few seconds. These do not interrupt your work when they appear.
Choosing Alerts means that a box pops up in the middle of the screen when the app has a message, and you must dismiss it to continue.
Turning on Badge App Icon means that the icon will show a number over it when there is a message.
Many apps let you set the specific sound used. Tap Alert Sound to specify the sound the app uses.
Turn off Show in Notifications Center to exclude these alerts from the Notifications Center screen completely. You will still see the alert when it happens, but it will no longer be in the list when you access Notifications Center.
Tap Include to choose how many alerts appear in the list in Notifications Center.
Show on Lock Screen means that alerts from this app appear, even when the iPad is locked.
Turn off Show Preview so that the small preview of the message does not appear with the alert.
Tap Repeat Alerts to configure whether the alert will repeat after a few minutes, and how many times. It is useful to have an alert repeat in case you missed it the first time.
Tap Show Alerts from My Contacts to remove the blue checkmark beside Show Alerts from Everyone. For the Messages app, this turns off alerts for those not in your contacts list.
Each app has its own set of settings, so take a few minutes to go through them all and see what options are offered. As you add new apps to your iPad, any that use the Notifications Center will be added to this list, so it is a good idea to review your settings occasionally. When a new app wants to send you notifications, it first must ask you for permission. This is where you can go to revoke that permission later on.
Adding More and More Apps
The Settings app adds new items as you add new apps to your iPad. Some third-party apps do not add a component in the Settings app, so don’t be alarmed if you don’t see an app you added in the Settings list.