Are you the type of person that likes your possessions organized? Do you keep all types of containers around to store your belongings so they are not spread haphazardly throughout one room, or maybe even the whole house? Well, the iPad has containers, just like you do, to keep things organized and make it easier to find what you are looking for.
Many screens on the iPad, from the home screen to settings, are divided into sections called containers. The screen is divided into two, or in some cases three or four, sections. You can jump from one area to the other with a flick of your finger, using containers. What each container has in it, and where each flick of your finger takes you as you navigate through the containers, depends on the screen you are on at the time.
The first step in the process is to make sure containers is one of the elements in the rotor. This is the only way for you to be able to use this feature. To select containers to be on the rotor, do the following:
1. Double tap settings.
2. Flick through the choices on the left-hand side of the screen until you find general, and double tap.
3. Place your finger at the top of the screen, on the settings heading, and slide it to the right until you hear general heading.
4. Right flick until you come to accessibility, and double tap.
5. You will be focused on Vision heading. Right flick once to VoiceOver on button and double tap.
6. Right flick until you get to the rotor button, and double tap.
7. Place your finger on the Settings heading, then slide your finger to the right until you hear VoiceOver back button.
8. Right flick through the list of items that you can select to be on the rotor until you come to containers.
9. If it does not say selected, double tap to change it to selected. It is a toggle. When you have done this, or if it says it is selected, you are finished here.
10. Press the home button to leave settings and return to the home screen.
Now you are ready to see just how containers work. The first thing you need to do is to set the rotor to containers. Once this is done, the rotor element will not change even when you go into and out of apps. However, you may not find it there if you are in a place that does not contain, well, containers.
So, let’s use containers in a couple of places, so you can see just how they work. We are going to begin on the home screen. You did remember to set your rotor to containers, right? Okay, then, here’s what to do:
1. Place your finger on the top left, on the first app, or on an app somewhere in the middle of the screen if you’d like.
2. Flick down once, and you should hear VoiceOver say, dock, and the name of the first app you have in the dock.
3. Flick up. You should hear the name of the first app on this screen.
4. Flick down again, you’re back in the dock.
That is a quick way to get to the dock and back to the beginning of the apps list on the page of the screen where you are, isn’t it? A great place to show you how containers work is in contacts. We all have contacts, and go into that app quite a bit I’ll bet. I know I certainly do, and containers make it easier to navigate. So, double tap contacts, and here we go:
1. When you open contacts, you will be focused on either show groups, or on all contacts if you have no groups.
2. Flick down, and you’ll land in the list of your contacts, usually focused on the contact you selected last.
3. Flick down again, and you’ll be within the info for that contact.
4. You can flick left or right to find the rest of the info for the contact.
5. You must once again set the rotor to containers to move between the sections, as it will have moved from containers to actions. This is so that an up or down flick will give you the option to delete the item of info you are focused on at the moment.
Get out of contacts with a press of the home button, and we will go into the mail app. Containers work in the mail app in the following way:
1. Open an email with a double tap.
2. The message will begin to read.
3. Flick up once, and you will hear the word from.
4. Flick up once more, and you will hear the mailbox name you are in, such as all inboxes.
5. At this point you can double tap this button to go back into the list of the emails.
6. If you want to hear the message again, flick down once, you’ll hear from, then again, and you will hear, message. The message will begin once again.
7. Flick up to from, then flick left. You will find, in order of appearance:
compose
reply
delete
move
mark message
next message
previous message
8. Right flick once and you’ll find out from whom the email came.
These are just some examples of how you will be able to use containers in so many places on your iPad. It certainly makes it easier, faster, and more efficient when you can get around the screen this way. Have fun exploring all the places and ways you can use containers, and how they will help you every single day.
If you found today’s tip to be helpful, perhaps even something you didn’t know how to do before, stay up to date with these blogs by not missing a single one. Subscribing is easy, and you can do so in just moments.
