5 iPad Settings You Should Change Right Out Of The Box

So, you’ve just unboxed your new iPad and are excited about all the possible things you can do with it. For starters, it’s great for writing and reviewing notes, sketching art, and of course, watching shows and movies. It’s also the perfect size to be a more portable laptop or a second monitor for your computer. When paired with some nifty iPad accessories, the tablet becomes even more powerful. Some users turn it into a tool for music production and podcast recording, while others use it as a smart home hub to control their smart home devices.

There are endless possibilities for what an iPad can do, especially since the modern ones are running on the same chip as the MacBooks. But before you get way ahead of yourself, you have to make sure your iPad is set up and ready for whatever project you have in mind. It might be fully functional by default, but there are several customizations you can do to further improve your user experience.  Tweaking how iPad staples like Control Center, Home Screen, and Apple Pencil work can let you make the most out of your device. Here are five of the settings to consider changing on your iPad.

Just like on the iPhone, you can also customize how your iPad’s Control Center looks. To do so, swipe down from the top right, long-press anywhere, then hit Add a Control. You’ll find a host of controls here, but three of the top must-haves include Keyboard Brightness, Multitasking, and Quick Note. Keyboard Brightness comes in handy when changing the backlight brightness of a supported keyboard that you’re connected to. Multitasking lets you switch between Windowed Apps, Stage Manager, and Full Screen Apps. Finally, Quick Note is for when you want to open a quick note but can’t access it via gestures — maybe you don’t have an Apple Pencil and the windowing system you’re on doesn’t support finger gestures (like Windowed Apps).

Here are other controls you might find useful: 

• Screen Mirroring – Mirrors your screen to a supported device like a smart TV, ideal for when you’re using your iPad for presentations and viewing photos together.
• Text Size – Adjusts the text size system-wise, especially since the iPad’s large screen can make some text harder to read.
• Vehicle Motion Cues – Displays floating dots on the screen when using your iPad inside a moving car, designed to help reduce motion sickness.
• Reduce White Point – Drops the screen’s brightness level when you want to read or use the iPad in a dark room.
• Color Filters – Sets the iPad’s colors to greyscale (or any other preferred filter), handy if you want to turn your iPad into a colorless Kindle.
• Open App – A Shortcut that launches your app of choice straight from the Control Center.
• Focus – Switches to a different focus mode if you want to use your iPad for different purposes, such as reading, working, or doomscrolling.

When you connect your iPad to a mouse, dedicated trackpad, or keyboard with trackpad, a cursor will show up on screen. It’s one of those features that make your iPad look like a touchscreen MacBook. While it already works pretty well out of the box, you can still change how it looks to your liking. Here’s how to do so:

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Select Accessibility.
3. Under Accessories, tap Pointer Control.
4. To make the pointer more visible, toggle on Increase Contrast at the very top.
5. To set a border color for the pointer, go to Color and pick from the available options (white, blue, red, green, yellow, and orange).
6. To adjust the width of the border color, tap Color and drag the Border Width slider to the left or right.
7. To increase the size of the pointer, adjust the slider for Pointer Size.

Other than changing the pointer appearance, the iPad lets you configure the mouse controls too. You can set the mouse/trackpad buttons as ordinary clicks or have them take a screenshot, launch the Camera app, or enable Background Sounds from the Accessibility features. You can find these customization settings right in the Settings app. Follow this guide:

1. In Settings, head over to Accessibility.
2. Navigate to Touch > AssistiveTouch.
3. Enable AssistiveTouch if you haven’t already.
4. Tap Devices.
5. Choose your Bluetooth or USB mouse/trackpad.
6. Hit Customize Additional Buttons.
7. Press one of the buttons on your mouse/trackpad. It should then appear on the screen.
8. Tap Button 1.
9. Set it to your preferred action.

If you have more buttons to assign, just press Customize Additional Buttons and repeat the process. Now, try clicking the buttons on your mouse/trackpad to test them out.

If you just bought an iPad, there’s a very good chance you got an Apple Pencil too. This is easily among the iPad accessories you’ll use every day, especially if you’re into drawing and note-taking. The best part about the Apple Pencil is that it’s customizable. To optimize the Pencil for your needs, here’s what you need to do:

1. Go to the Settings app.
2. Tap Apple Pencil.
3. Under Actions, choose Double Tap.
4. Choose a new action for double tap.
5. To prevent accidental double taps when your Pencil is inches away from the screen, turn on Allow Double Tap Only with Hover. Hover only works when your Pencil is 12mm away.
6. Back in the Apple Pencil settings, select Squeeze.
7. Pick one of the actions.
8. If you went with Shortcut, hit No Action.
9. Select one of the available shortcuts from the Shortcuts app. Some are premade, but you can create one yourself — maybe a shortcut to go to the Home Screen, open Apple Notes, or trigger the Spotlight.
10. To set how much you need to squeeze the Apple Pencil to trigger the action, move the Sensitivity slider.

You can also find an Effects section in the Apple Pencil settings, where you can toggle on and off Hover, Tool Preview, Shadow, and Haptics. It’s important to note, though, that the Apple Pencil customizations will depend on what model you have. Squeeze and Haptics are exclusive to the Apple Pencil Pro, while Double Tap is available on both Apple Pencil (2nd gen) and Apple Pencil Pro. If you have the Apple Pencil (USB-C), the customization settings are limited to the basics, such as turning on or off Hover Effects, Tool Preview, Only Draw with Apple Pencil, and Scribble.

One of the first things you’ll do after getting an iPad is organizing the Home Screen and Dock with essential iPad apps and widgets. You’d want your frequently used apps to be a tap away, and pinning them to the Home Screen and Dock is the best way to do so. But every time you download a new app, you might notice that it automatically appears in your Home Screen and messes up your organized setup. Your Dock can also show some apps you didn’t add before, making it look more chaotic than you’d like. To solve this, follow these steps:

1. From your Settings app, go to Home Screen & App Library. 
2. Under Newly Download Apps, select App Library Only. This means the apps will show up just in your App Library, not your Home Screen. 
3. Under Dock, turn off Show Suggested and Recent Apps in Dock. 
4. If you’d rather not have the App Library in the Dock too, toggle it off. 

You can also make your Home Screen and Dock look less crowded by changing the system display zoom. Here’s how:

1. In the Settings app, navigate to Display & Brightness. 
2. Under Display, tap Display Zoom. 
3. Change it from Default to More Space. 
4. Hit the checkmark. 
5. In the popup, press Use More Space. 

Your iPad will turn blank for a while before loading again. Now, the apps on your Home Screen and Dock will look slightly smaller. The More Space option also reduces the size of the text system-wide, which means more content can now fit on your screen compared to before. If you prefer bigger text for easy reading but like to keep the size of the apps small, you may adjust the text size in Display & Brightness in the Settings. 

Without a physical keyboard or Apple Pencil connected, typing on the iPad can easily be your worst nightmare because of its large screen. As an alternative, Apple offers the floating keyboard. On the onscreen keyboard, press and hold the keyboard icon, and select Floating. This shrinks the keyboard to a more manageable size. Some iPad models like the iPad mini (5th gen and newer), iPad mini A17 Pro, iPad (6th to 9th gen), and iPad Air (3rd gen) also come with the option to split the keyboard. But both approaches still won’t feel as smooth and easy as typing on a phone, though. They’ll be awkward to type on at first and will take some getting used to.

Lucky for you, there’s a quicker way to make typing easier on the iPad: using text replacements. Text replacements are shortcuts, so you won’t have to type the entire phrase or sentence you’d like to say. For instance, you can have “tbh” as a text replacement for “to be honest” and “@@” as a text replacement for your personal email address. Here’s how to set up text replacements on your iPad right out of the box:

1. Open Settings on your iPad and go to General.
2. Select Keyboard Settings.
3. Open Text Replacement.
4. Hit the plus icon to add a new text replacement.
5. In the Phrase field, enter the entire phrase/sentence you want a shortcut for. For example, type “to be honest.”
6. In the Shortcut field, type your preferred shortcut. It can be any combination of letters or numbers.
7. Press Save.

You can delete any of your text replacements anytime. Just navigate to Text Replacements in the Keyboard Settings and click on Edit.