Tech Tip - November - Using Scribble and Widgets in the new iPadOS 14
I am always looking for new ideas and improvements to help me use my mobile devices more productively. This is especially true for the iPad. When Apple moved to create a separate operating system (OS) for the iPad last year, I was excited about the possibilities it would bring. A year later with their annual update, Apple has created some nice enhancements. Earlier this year, the move to include full mouse and trackpad support was probably the biggest improvement the iPad has had since its inception. It has made the iPad a true portable computer. While I still prefer to do some things on a desktop or laptop computer, that is now more about the software process than the hardware. Working on the iPad is simply a joyful option for me.
With the release of iOS and iPadOS 14 this year, Apple added two functions that I believe are specifically driven to improve productivity and how we use our devices. The Scribble feature is unique to the iPad and allows for new functionality with the Apple Pencil. The bigger news for the iOS ecosystem overall was the addition of widgets for home screens. This is a much bigger deal on the iPhone than on the iPad. I can only hope that it will get better in time on the iPad and be as handy as it can be on the phones. We’ll look at each of these in more detail below.
Scribble
I have always found that the Apple Pencil is a very useful tool. I don’t use it a lot, but some very specific instances allow me to have a digital version of what would normally be paper and pen. I have written about how I use this with Good Notes - and I still find this to be one of the most useful functions of the iPad, Pencil, and software to date. They work great together and allow me to work in a very productive and fun way. The addition of scribble only makes that easier.
Scribble lets you easily convert pencil written words and notes into text in almost any application. This is extremely handy for filling out forms where you need text responses, but it would be easier to write directly on the screen of the iPad. The benefit of scribble is the ability to use both functions without reliance on the specific application. You can quickly jot down notes anywhere on the page and then have it convert to text inline with the rest of what you are working on. This probably works best with the Apple Notes application.
Other apps have allowed for converting written words to text - Good Notes and Notability are some of the best at doing this. But now you can do that in almost any application. The update makes it easier to do and put to productive use. Since scribble works in almost every app, wherever there is a text field you can work seamlessly with many different apps and not require a keyboard. For example, I could be reviewing email with just the iPad - and not have a keyboard attached - yet still jot in a quick response to an email without having to pull up the on-screen keyboard and lose the flow of reviewing. It works well when annotating and there is a need for more than just handwritten notes - adding in a comments box can still be done by writing the information with the pencil and then converting to text. It is different enough that it does take some getting used to and practice. But I have found that it makes working on almost everything easier and I do not have to worry about whether I use the onscreen keyboard or need to attach to the magic keyboard.
The other function that comes from scribble is the ability to draw freehand shapes and have them turn into neat, straight lined shapes. Draw a square, hold for a moment when you connect to the starting point, and your hand drawn square becomes a perfect system drawn square. This is great when you are quickly taking notes and want to clean it up to look professional. This saves a lot of time from having to do that after the fact.
Widgets
Widgets are one of those things that Apple has dabbled in a little bit with the ‘Today’ screen that I do not think many people even realized existed. With iOS 14, true widgets that can be placed on home screens became a thing. Android users have had this for years and touted this as a big benefit over the Apple environment. Widgets are designed to give you access to more information at a glance than just an app icon ever could. Apple has introduced multiple sizes of widgets and they can contain different types of information.
Trying to explain everything about widgets here is not possible. In the future, as they begin to mature a little, it will possibly be worth taking a deeper dive. However, the biggest benefit that I believe comes from having widgets introduced is the idea of re-thinking how you set up your phone. Widgets, while available for iPad, are primarily for iPhones right now. Unfortunately, iPad users cannot place widgets directly on the Home Screen where app icons typically appear. You can use widgets on the side panel of the main Home Screen, but that is the only option for iPadOS. I expect in the future this will change, but as you start to see how widgets are integrated into the iPhone home screens, you can see how it might become an issue for the iPad. They would be huge. My guess is they would look silly, and since you cannot interact dynamically with widgets, it would be a waste of space on the iPad’s larger screen.
On the phone, widgets are the biggest change since Apple introduced folders for apps. This has the ability to completely change how you use and set up your phone’s home screen. For example, my first Home Screen does not have any apps shown except those that appear in the dock.
Instead, I have 3 widgets - 2 small (across the top) and 1 large. These are all what are referred to as smart stacks, meaning each can have different information displayed by swiping through the widget itself. Pressing the widget opens the app. You cannot, for example, interact with the information directly (with some exceptions). What I mean here is that if I had a ‘to-do’ list widget, I could mark the check box as complete directly from the widget. This is definitely a productivity limiter. But I expect in time this will be changed.
Widgets are already creating an ecosystem of their own and I expect this will continue to grow. There have been multiple new applications introduced by developers to allow people to customize their widgets and home screens in ways that had not been possible before. There are now endless images on Pinterest, YouTube videos, and Twitter entries that showcase different widget-based home screens to provide inspiration if you are looking to transform the look, feel, and function of your iPhone. When fuller functionality is introduced in the future (I speculate and hope) for the iPad and we gain the ability to dynamically interact with each widget - these will become a bigger boost to productivity and will change the way our bigger screens look.
These just scratch the surface of what the new scribble feature and widget functionality can do. As developers explore further into what these offer, I expect we see these both become even greater productivity boosters for everyday users.
How can you put the new scribble feature or widgets to work for you?
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