iPhone For Dummies. Bob LeVitus

that appears. Alternatively, keep tapping the globe key until the keyboard you want takes over.

      Cutting, copying, pasting, and replacing

      Apple adds pizzazz to the usual cut, copy, and paste functions, and provides another helpful remedy for correcting errors: the aforementioned Replace pop-up option that appears when you double-tap a word. (A Look Up option is here too.)

Here’s how to exploit the copy-and-paste feature. Say you’re in the Notes app, jotting down ideas that you want to copy in an email message. Double-tap a word to select it, and then drag the grab points or handles to select a larger block of text, as shown in Figure 2-7, top. (You can use the handles to contract selected text too.) After you’ve selected the text, tap Copy. (If you want to delete the text block, tap Cut instead.)

      FIGURE 2-7: Drag the grab points to select text and tap Copy (top) and then tap Paste (bottom) to make the selected text appear elsewhere.

      Now open the Mail program (see Chapter 12) and start composing a message. When you decide where to insert the text you just copied, tap the cursor. Up pop commands to Select, Select All, and Paste, as shown in Figure 2-7, bottom. Tap Paste to paste the text into the message.

Here’s the pizzazz part. If you make a mistake while you’re cutting, pasting, replacing, or typing, shake the iPhone. It gives you the option to undo the last edit or action.

      

Apple also lets you undo the last action by double-tapping the screen with three fingers. It’s all about choices, friends, and this choice is simple too.

Or suppose that you notice a typo in what you’ve entered. Select the word, and you’ll see the Replace option we just mentioned along with the other options, as shown in Figure 2-8, top. Tap Replace and the iPhone serves up a few suggested replacement words, as shown in Figure 2-8, bottom. If the word you have in mind is shown as a substitute, tap it and the iPhone automatically makes the switch.

      FIGURE 2-8: Tap Replace and then tap a substitute word to make a switch.

      

Of course there’s a good chance that the iPhone will suggest the replacement word in the row on top of the keyboard as one of the three words it predicts you want to (or meant to) type.

      Meanwhile, if you want to know exactly what a word means, double-tap the word and choose the Look Up option instead. The first time you tap Look Up, you’re presented with the option to download the dictionary. Look Up also shows suggestions from iTunes and the App Store, along with movie showtimes and locations. It ties into the search capabilities of your phone, about which we have more to say shortly.

      

As part of a Live Text feature added with iOS 15, Apple can also look up objects and text it recognizes in a photo. We have more to say about this cool new feature in Chapter 9 and throughout this book.

Multitasking

      Multitasking simply lets you run numerous apps in the background simultaneously or easily switch from one app to another. For example, music from a third-party app such as Spotify can play in the background while you surf the web, peek at pictures, or check email.

      But that’s not all. If you use an internet voice-calling app such as Skype, you’ll be able to receive notification of an incoming call even if you haven’t launched the Skype app. The multitasking feature also lets a navigation app employing GPS update your position while you’re listening to an internet radio app such as Pandora. From time to time, the navigation app or Apple’s own Maps app will pipe in with turn-by-turn directions, lowering the volume of the music so you can hear the instructions.

      You can also take advantage of a picture-in-picture feature that will let you watch video or be on a FaceTime call while browsing Safari or engaging in other apps. See Chapter 10 for details.

      Multitasking couldn’t be easier — and it has become a lot smarter through the years. Now your iPhone can anticipate your needs. If it detects over time that you tend to turn to your social networking apps around the same time every morning, it will make sure the feeds are ready for you and suggest those apps.

      Double-press (not double-tap) the Home button on models with that button. On Face ID models, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and then pause for a moment.

In both instances, you’ll see preview pages, with icons and the names of the open apps associated with those preview pages, as shown in Figure 2-9, left. Scroll to the right or left to see more preview pages or the iPhone’s Home screen (see Figure 2-9, right). Tap the icon or preview screen for the app you want to switch to; the app remembers where you left off.

      Apple insists that multitasking will not drain the iPhone battery or exhaust system resources. The iPhone conserves power and resources by putting apps in a state of suspended animation. Your phone will schedule updates only during power-efficient times, such as when your device is connected to Wi-Fi.

      To remove an app from the multitasking rotation, swipe up the app’s preview. Poof, it’s gone.

      FIGURE 2-9: Scroll to see previews of the apps you’ve recently used.

Navigating beyond the Home Screen

      The Home screen, which we discuss in Chapter 1, isn’t the only screenful of icons on your phone. You will almost certainly have two from the get-go. After you start adding apps from the App Store (see Chapter 15), you’ll likely have multiple screens, including the App Library screen.

      Initially, you see two tiny dots above the Phone, Safari, Messages, and Music icons. Each dot denotes an additional screen, containing up to 20 additional icons on the original iPhone SE, and up to 24 on the iPhone 6 and later. The icons can represent apps, folders of apps, or (as you’ll learn later in this chapter) widgets. The middle dot, which is all white, represents the Home screen, or the screen you’re currently viewing. The next dot to the right, in gray, is the first additional screen on which you can park icons. You get to it by flicking right to left (assuming you’re on the first screen). You can have 15 screens in all; as you add screens, you add dots.

If you flick all the way with your finger left to right, you get to the today screen, which used to be part of Notification Center but is now out on its own. Flicking all the way right to left takes you to the App Library, which we also get to later in this chapter.

      The four icons in the bottom row — Phone, Safari, Messages, and Music