Looking for simple tips to help improve your iPad efficiency? Look no further! Here are a few shortcuts and tricks from our education technology experts for faster and more effective iPad use.

Turn off auto rotation. While the screen rotation feature for viewing information on your iPad at different angles is convenient, sometimes it’s unneeded. Activate lock rotation by going to Settings, then click General and scroll to “Use Side Switch to Lock Rotation.” Next, simply slide the switch on the side of your iPad to turn off auto rotation.

Quickly assign pictures to your contacts. Open the Contacts app and choose a contact. Next, press Edit and tap “add photo.” This will allow you to either choose a picture from your gallery or take a new picture with your iPad’s camera function.

Tap four times to highlight whole paragraphs. It’s that simple! After you’ve highlighted your selection, you can quickly copy and paste the paragraph into an email, document or elsewhere.

Sync your Mac to color code your calendar events. This ability is only available for Mac users, but it’s a great one! If you’d like to distinguish your calendar events from one another by making them different colors, first open up iCal on your Mac. Create a mulit-colored set of new calendars and assign names to each calendar for individual events. Sync your iCal calendars and iPad Calendar app by connecting your iPad to your Mac. On your iPad, go to Info, then click Sync iCal Calendars. Press Apply and you’re done!

Skip the periods and just double space. To speed up your typing speed, avoid typing periods and just tap the space bar twice at the end of sentences. Your iPad will autocorrect, inserting the period for you.

Tags: iPad, iPad efficiency, iPad Tips, Technology, Tips, Useful Tips