If you have upgraded your iPad to run iOS 4 or later (or have purchased an iPad that already comes with it), you will have the ability to create folders to organize your apps and avoid icon overload galore. This iPad tutorial will give you a thorough overview of the lifecycle of folders, from creating them, renaming them, managing their content, to deleting them altogether. By the end of this tutorial, you will know how to: Create a folder - Rename a folder - Remove apps icons from a folder - Change folder's sort order - Delete a folder.
Tip: to know which version of the iOS operating system you are currently running on your iPad, you can either tap on the "Settings" icon and go to "General" - what is installed will be shown next to "Version" on the right hand side; otherwise, look at the main information screen of your iPad when you plug it into your computer and iTunes opens (this shows what version you have, not whether it is the latest version).
Create a folder
When you think about a folder on your computer, it is simply a collection of files conveniently grouped into a single entity; iPad works the same way, and all you need to do to create a folder is start stacking an app icon onto another:
- Press on an icon on the screen, and hold your finger down for about two seconds.
- As soon as all icons start "wiggling" and moving around, drag one app, and drop it above another one.
- Your iPad will automatically recognize the special gesture, and create a new folder: you will now be looking at a thin horizontal band containing two icons (the one you dragged, and the destination icon on which you dropped it).
- Also notice that a folder name has automatically been picked by your iPad, based on what it could find in common between these to apps; to pick another folder name, just tap on it, and the on screen keyboard will pop under: press the Delete / Backspace key, and type another name; then, tap the "Done" key.
- Now tap anywhere else on screen, and your iPad will exit from "in folder mode": you have successfully created your first folder, and will now see two mini icons inside it, reflecting the folder's current content.
Click on the iPad's Home button (physical round button on device) to exit "wiggly mode" - you are done!
Tip: to add more app icons to the iPad folder you just created, simply tap outside to return to the Home screen you came from, and drag-and-drop other apps onto the folder.
Rename a folder
Renaming iPad folders after the fact is just as easy: press and hold the folder in question (or any other app) until your icons start shaking. Then, release your finger and tap on the folder whose name you want to change. When it opens, tap on the text of its name, and use the on screen keyboard to choose a new name (either press the "x" button inside the text field to clear the current folder name, or tap on the Delete / Backspace key. Finally, tap on the "Done" key, and click on the Home button.
Remove apps icons from a folder
The process of removing icons from an iPad folder is just as intuitive: first, press and hold an app or folder until they start shaking. Then, tap on the folder in question; once inside, simply drag the icons you want to remove, and drop them outside the black background of the folder. The applications you remove from the folder will be placed on the same Home screen as the folder, or the next available one if all "slots" are already taken by other apps.
Change the sort order of a folder
By default, the apps icons inside a folder will be ordered from top left to bottom right, based on when you happened to add them to that folder. But, just like a regular Home screen on your iPad, you can change the order in which they are displayed.
Delete a folder
When you think of iPad folders for what they are, "stacks" of apps, but a folder still exists when you have just one app left; so, to "delete" a folder, all you need to do is remove app icons from that folder one at a time, until you are left with just one app: at that point, removing the last one will "cancel" the folder, so to speak. Unlike Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux, where you can have empty folders, iPad will currently not let you do that (which isn't much of a drawback, since folders' purpose is to consolidate and store items).