Do you use Slide Over on iPad as you study the Bible? If not, you should because it can increase productivity. Take a look at the following tips for effectively using Slide Over on iPad as you study the Bible or do other tasks on your iPad.
Switching back and forth from your Bible study app to your word processor or other mobile apps, while prepping sermons feels laborious. However, thanks to Slide Over with iPadOS digital Bible students can productively work with two apps at a time on larger iPad screens.
What is Slide Over on iPad?
When Apple released the first version of iPadOS more than a year ago, they perfected a feature called Slide Over. Think of it as two apps on the screen at the same time. Apple didn’t do it first, but iPad users found it cumbersome to use in previous releases.
The iPadOS will show you two apps at once. You can view them with both apps taking up half the screen or you can view them with one covering two thirds and the second app covering another third. The smaller window can sit on the left or the right side of the screen.
How do You Turn On Slide Over?
To open an app in Slide Over the app has to show up in your iPadOS dock. The dock sits at the bottom of the screen and holds all of your favorite or most-used apps plus three of the most recently used apps.
I keep my most-used Bible study app in the dock. But if you want to use another Bible study app that you don’t have in the dock, then open it first. Now slide up from the bottom of the screen slightly. You see a black line just above the bottom edge of the screen start swiping from that line and swipe about half an inch or so until you see the dock. Tap and hold a second app from the dock and drag it up to the right or left side of the screen. If a menu pops up then keep dragging up and over to the side of the screen.
The screen will show your two apps each taking up half the screen. If you want to adjust the size of the apps, drag from the line in the middle of the screen to the right or left to make one app smaller than the other.
When do I Use Slide Over in Bible Study?
I own a few Bible study apps that I regularly use in my sermon and Bible study prep. Sometimes, I want to read books in one app, but keep all my notes attached to the passage I’m studying in the same app. So, I open the app where I want to keep my notes and then I open the other app. That way I can read the second app while writing notes in the first.
During the sermon or Bible study writing phase, I’ll open Microsoft Word and my Bible app where I’ve kept all the study notes. That way I can easily refer to the notes as I write my sermon or Bible study.
Sometimes I want to research some idea on the web in order to come up with an interesting sermon illustration. I keep Word and Safari open at the same time. Sometimes I’ll open a video in YouTube or some other streaming app to quote the video in my sermon. Any app you might use it prep a sermon that supports Slide Over can be opened.
If I’m presenting while preaching or teaching, I’ll open Keynote and my sermon in Word at the same time. Or, I open Keynote and Safari to drag and drop images from the web as I put the presentation together.
Tips for Using Slide Over
You can master Slide Over with the following tips:
- Open apps not in your dock before trying to use Slide Over so they will appear in the recently used section of the dock on the right where your three most-used apps show up.
- If one app doesn’t need half the screen, give more screen inches to the other app by sliding the center adjustment line over a little.
- Set up multiple app combinations for Slide Over and use the switching feature to switch between these multiple app combinations.
- You change one of the two apps into a floating window by dragging from a small dark line at the top of the active app by pulling down slightly and hold it till it pops from the side to a floating window. Grab the line and pull down and to the right to put it back.
- While in the floating view, you can remove the window by swiping up or down to swipe it away.
- Move an app from one side to another by dragging it from the tiny black bar at the top and then slide it over to the other side of the screen until it snaps into place.
- Create multiple pairs of windows and swipe between them the same way you would swipe between apps.