iOS 11 – Six New iPad Features You Need to Know
Many of the new features in iOS 11 are incredibly useful for increasing productivity for teachers and students. Unfortunately these feature are easy to overlook. Here are my top six iOS 11 features teachers and students need to know about.
A Huge Keyboard Improvement
You might have noticed that the keyboard looks a little different. You no longer have to go to a separate keyboard to simply type numbers and punctuation. Just touch a key and pull down to type the gray number/punctuation mark. It’s a huge time-saver.
Record Your Screen
No more tethering to your MacBook to record your screen using QuickTime. Screen recording is now built in to your iPad. You’ll have to add it to your control center by going to Setting > Control Center > Customize Controls and selecting Screen Recording. Swipe up on your screen to bring up the control center and locate the screen recording icon to start your recording. All screencasts are conveniently saved to your camera roll.
Screenshots Just Got Better
You still have to hit the Power and Home buttons simultaneously to take a screenshot, but editing and annotating just got a whole lot easier. A thumbnail now appears in the bottom corner of your screen immediately after you take a screenshot. Tap on the thumbnail and you’ll see your screenshot with the same annotation tools you find in the Notes app. You’re just two taps away from sharing options, saving to your photos, or deleting the screenshot.
Offload Unused Apps
I’m willing to bet you have at lease a few apps on your iPad that you’ve completely forgotten about. Adjust this setting once and have your unused apps automatically removed to free up storage without fear of losing your data. Just go to Settings > iTunes and App Store > Offload Unused Apps. Your data will show back up if you decide to reinstall an app at a later time.
Scan QR Codes with Your Camera
It’s a small thing but because of the need for a special scanner app, QR Codes have always struck me as inconvenient. Now you can delete those QR Scanners and just point your camera at a code. So far it doesn’t seem as quick to pick up a code as my favorite scanner (i-Nigma) but one less app and the conveniences of my camera app make it a worthy competitor.
Scan Documents Using the Notes App
In my never-ending quest to reduce the amount of paper I have to manage, I’m all for anything that quickly and easily scans documents. Now the notes app gives you the option to Scan Documents when you hit the + sign above your keyboard. Hover your screen over the document until it is entirely outlined in yellow and Notes will automatically snap a picture. You can also manually take the picture for hard-to-scan documents. You can crop and rotate the image or access annotation tools by pressing the sharing arrow at the top of the screen. Annotation and the signature feature (previously only available on Mac) make this really handy for signing documents. While it’s a great feature to have built into Notes, I’m not yet ready to delete Scannable for scanning documents.
What Are Your Favorite New iPad Features?
Do you have any favorite features that should have made the list? Please share it in the comments below or on Twitter..
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