Revealing the Dock While in Apps

The Dock is always present on the home screen of your iPad, but you don’t have to leave the app you’re using to open it. You can access the Dock at any time. Here’s how:

Swipe up from the bottom of the screen (in earlier versions of the iOS, this gesture revealed Control Center). If you’re using an external keyboard with your iPad, you can bring up the dock by clicking Command (or ⌘) + Option + D at the same time.

How to Add Apps to and Remove Apps from the iPad Dock in iOS 11 and iOS 12

Since you mostly use the Dock to launch apps, you’ll probably want to keep your most-used ones there for easy access. Just follow these steps: Use the same process to remove an app from the dock.

Managing Suggested and Recent Apps

While you can choose which apps are in your Dock, you can’t control all of them. At the end of the Dock, you’ll see a vertical line and three apps to the right of it. These three apps are the most recent ones you’ve used. If you’d prefer not to see those apps, you can turn them off by following these steps:

Access Recent Files Using a Shortcut

The built-in Files app lets you browse the files stored on your iPad, in Dropbox, and elsewhere just like you would browse items on a desktop or laptop computer. Using the Dock, you can access files you’ve used recently without even opening the app. Here’s how:

How to Multitask on the iPad: Slide Over

Prior to iOS 11, multitasking on the iPad and iPhone took the form of being able to run some apps, like those that play music, in the background while you do something else in the foreground. In iOS 11 and up, you can view, run, and use two apps at the same time. There are two ways to do this. The first is called Slide Over, which puts one app on top of the other. Here’s how to use it.

How to Multitask on the iPad: Split View

The other way to multitask on the iPad is by using Split View. Rather than putting one app on the top of the other, Split View divides the screen up into two sections, one for each app. This is best for when you’re working and need to see content in two apps or move text or photos back and forth between them. Here’s what you need to do to use Split View: You can pair apps that you use together often and then switch between those pairs when working on different tasks. Split View multitasking lets you keep two apps running together in the same “space” at the same time. If you have two apps open in Split View and then double-tap the Home button to open the app switcher, the programs will still appear in the same window.

How to Drag and Drop Between Apps

You can use the Dock to drag and drop some content between apps. For example, imagine you come across a passage of text on a website that you want to save. You can drag that into another app and use it there. Here’s how: