Chapter 2
Basic Training
IN THIS CHAPTER
Getting your iPad ready for action
Mastering multitouch
Cutting, copying, and pasting
Multitasking with your iPad
Getting comfortable with the keyboard
Everybody and their sister say that you can do useful — perhaps even amazing — things with an iPad “right out of the box.” Everybody and their brother say that an iPad “just works.” I have a couple of problems with these pronouncements. First, it’s not true that you can start using an iPad immediately after removing the shrink wrap, nor is it in any way obvious how you’re supposed to interact with a screen that lacks buttons and switches and any other bell or whistle. Second, the notion that the iPad is both easy and intuitive can make the rest of us feel like real dummies when we can’t figure out how to get our iPad to do something useful, or when we end up in a weird iPad place and can’t figure any way to get out of it.
The iPad is awesome and fun, but it’s not without a learning curve. Happily, ...