After a few days of even minimal calendar, email, and app use, you’ll need to find something on your iPad. Here’s how to use the Spotlight page to search for it.
I have my Google calendar synced to my iPad, and with a busy family and business, I’m sure I tax the Google servers. I know there smoke coming from the iPad from my prolific use. Add in three email accounts and new app additions almost daily, not to mention my notes, and my need to find things on my iPad is frequent.
Simple Searching
There’s no need to spend precious time looking blindly for what I need when the iPad search function makes things easy.
If you’re working/playing within an application, or on your second or subsequent page of apps, you’ll need to tap the home button until you’re on the Spotlight page. If you aren’t in an app, you can slide or flick to the right until you reach it.
Spotlight is what Apple calls their iPad search function. Getting there is easy, searching just as simple.
From Spotlight, you can search for several things; app titles, email (To, From, and Subject fields), calendar events, titles on iPod, and your notes.
Getting in the Spotlight
As you can see from the image, I started to type the word “magazine” into the search field. My results returned the Project Magazine app, a note (which I apparently left for myself back in January, but have yet to act upon), an email, and the option to search the web and Wikipedia with Safari.
In the left column is the icon for app where the result is located. The right column is a further description. For example, next to the email icon is the email sender and a portion of the subject line. There’s no mention of “magazine” in the text shown, but it’s there in the full subject-line text.
Spotlight is an essential tool. If you’re attempting to use the iPad as a go-to device, it’s indispensable. It has some limitations, like searching for specific files within many applications, but iPad searching is much more user-friendly than the trusty, or rusty, ol’ PC.
