Basic iPad Lessons to Teach You the iPad

Get a solid start with your new Apple tablet

Are you thinking about buying an iPad and want to learn more about it? Or do you own an iPad and want to put it to better use? These lessons are designed for beginners and cover the basics from what that round button at the bottom of the iPad does to how you can move or delete an app. There is even a lesson with tips that will help you get the most out of the iPad and perhaps even teach your friends a neat trick or two.

A Guided Tour of the iPad

iPad home screen

The first lesson deals with the actual iPad, including what comes in the box and what that circular button at the bottom does and the basics of the iPad's user interface. You will also learn how to find the web browser so you can surf the Internet, how to play music on the iPad, how to buy music and movies from Apple and how to boot up the App Store so you can start downloading apps. 

iPad Training 101: A New User's Guide to the iPad

iOS App Store
iOS App Store.

 Hoch Zwei/Getty Images 

This lesson builds upon the first, teaching you how to navigate the iPad and how to organize and arrange the apps on the screen. Did you know you can create a folder and fill it with apps or that you can delete an app that you no longer use? You'll even learn how to find the best apps in the App Store by using top charts, customer ratings and locating the featured apps. 

Downloading Your First iPad App

App Store on iPad

If you're still a little overwhelmed with the App Store—and with nearly two million apps, it's easy to get overwhelmed—this lesson guides you through downloading the iBooks application, which is Apple's reader and store for ebooks. This is a great app to have, and once you are finished with the lesson, you should find downloading apps to be a breeze. 

The First 10 Things You Should Do With Your iPad

A young man setting up his new iPad

Public Domain / Tinh Te Photos

If you are looking for a quick start guide and want to hit the ground running, check out the first things you should do with your iPad. This guide takes you through some of the tasks the experienced tablet user should do on day one with their new iPad such as connecting to Facebook, downloading Dropbox for cloud storage and setting up your own radio station on Pandora.

Spotlight Search on iPad

The beginner courses in navigating and organizing your iPad are perfectly fine for most people, but power users have all sorts of little tricks they use to find apps quicker and get the most out of the iPad experience. If you want to take it to the next level, this guide will teach you some of these techniques. 

The Best Uses for the iPad

iPad with recipes

The iPad has a lot of cool uses that most of us might not ever think of on our own such as using it as a portable TV, as a photo album or even as a GPS for the car. This lesson is designed to spark your creativity in different ways that you might use the iPad both around the house and on the go.

20 Ways Siri Can Help You Be More Productive

Siri lock screen

Siri can sometimes be overlooked by those new to the iPad, but once you really get to know the voice-recognition personal assistant living inside your tablet, it can become indispensable. Perhaps the easiest way to use Siri is to tell it to open an app by saying "launch [app name]" or play music by saying "play The Beatles." But it can do much, much more than that if you know how to ask.

The Best Free iPad Apps

iPads in three sizes

This collection of apps covers topics including streaming high-quality movies, an app that lets you create your own radio station, NS a collection of fantastic recipes. There's an app for almost everyone in this list, and best of all, these apps are absolutely free. So even if you don't like one of these recommendations, it won't cost you a dime. 

Great Tips Every iPad Owner Should Know

iPad folders

You can download free books to read in iBooks and lock the orientation of the iPad. You can also find apps quickly using Spotlight Search. There are a number of different tips and tricks you can do with your iPad, but sometimes it's not so easy to figure them out. This lesson will cover a number of tips that can help you get more out of the iPad.

How to Organize Your Life Using the iPad

Reminders app containing to-dos and lists

The iPad can be a wonderful organizational tool capable of assisting you with your daily tasks. It can remind you to take out the trash, keep up with your busy schedule, and help you keep your tasks organized by quickly making to-do lists.

How to Childproof Your iPad

Child with ipad

Whether you are buying an iPad for a child or if your kid is simply going to be using your iPad, it is important to know how to lock down the device. 

Protecting your iPad might be as simple as disabling in-app purchases to ensure you don't get a nasty surprise with your iTunes bill or restricting the Safari web browser from bringing up adult websites, both of which can be great protections for your child and still allow you to use the iPad without much notice of the restrictions. 

Childproofing can be as thorough as only allowing "G" rated apps, music and movies, completely disabling the App Store, blocking apps like FaceTime and iMessage, and even using Screen Time to limit how long kids can use the tablet per day.

How to Reboot Your iPad

iPad slide to power off

The final lesson teaches the number one most used troubleshooting step used by tech support analysts all over the world: rebooting the device. This lesson was covered briefly in the tips lesson, but it is so important, it is mentioned here to make sure everyone has the opportunity to learn how to reboot their iPad. It doesn't matter if you're suffering from an iPad that is frozen, one that is having trouble loading web pages or an iPad that is simply acting slow, rebooting the iPad could be the key to solving your issue.

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