Did you know that there is an analog Stopwatch hidden inside the Clock app? While it might not be life-changing, its cool factor certainly grabbed my interest and made me look for other iPhone tips and tricks that I never knew existed.
Here are my recent discoveries that I should’ve known earlier. I’ll share with you some cool text replacements that will save you tons of time. Warming up by moving things around while holding. Although iOS is a multi-touch platform I often forget about it, especially the fact that I can hold things and navigate in and out of apps and UI to later drop them. Instead of copying a message to paste to someone else, for example, I can simply hold that message and drop it to the recipient.
What I didn’t realize is that I can hold and keep adding to the stack of text that I want to paste. To do that, just grab and hold to a text and move it around to detach it and then use the yoga move to keep adding to the stack. Keep in mind, that you can add a message multiple times even by accident. While on the topic of grabbing and holding, the same principle can be applied to pretty much any other scenario like in files for example. Grab a file, move it a bit to detach it, and then keep adding to the pile of things that you want to move around.
If you go to photos, you can use the same and grab a bunch of photos to move around and place somewhere else. It is important to note that whatever you hold, whether that is a stack of photos, documents, or text you can place it pretty much anywhere. I can grab a bunch of photos and paste them into a note. The same goes for files, in case I want to embed them into the same note. This comes in very handy if you want to take photos from your photos app and organize them into a folder in Files.
So whenever I want to copy something, I am used to tapping and selecting the text to reveal the copy button or tapping and holding on a file for example to essentially summon the secondary menu where I can find the copy option. Although I’ve accidentally seen this before, a three-finger tap almost always brings out a quick copy-paste menu that I can use pretty much anywhere. Let’s say I am in Safari and I am selecting an excerpt of text that I want to preserve somewhere. I have few choices.
I can go to notes or any other word processing app and paste it there by using a three-finger tap on an empty space and selecting the paste icon. Alternatively, I can do the same in Files where if I three-finger tap and click on the paste icon, I witness iOS creating a text document for me that holds my text. Essentially, the three-finger tap menu is something that can be summoned throughout the system and not only for copying and pasting. There is the cut action and more importantly, the undo-redo icons which will save you the embarrassing moment of having to shake your iPhone publicly.
Moving on to another thing I never knew existed and that is the ability to put someone on hold. You can do that by holding the mute button long enough and the other party will be placed on hold. Depending on where you are, the other party might hear a nice song or in my case an annoying voice saying that I’ve placed them on hold. The experience is similar to answering the second line while on a call but available on demand. It would’ve been nice to be able to choose the hold message or music, but this is a carrier feature.
Moving on to something I should’ve known a long time ago. When taking a screenshot for the means of showcasing something, I’ve always just drawn ugly ellipses trying to emphasize something. The more stylish and professional way to do that I to click on the “Plus” icon and chooose a magnifier. Now, with the help of the blue dot, I can increase the size of the magnifier while using the green dot to zoom in as far as it’s necessary. Pair that with the opacity option and you’ll elevate your status amongst your circle. I see a lot of people recommending the iPhone scan feature in the Notes app where you can press on the 3 dots to scan a document. The way I use it 99% of the time however is in the Files app. When dealing with invoices, I find this an invaluable feature in my accounting workflow. In the Files app, I navigate to the folder that I want to store the scan in and click on the 3 little dots on the top right to summon the menu and select Scan Documents. Once I scan an invoice, for example, I rename it, and then later, I can email all the files to my accounting agency. This wouldn’t be possible if I were to scan everything in the Notes app.
Now go over some quick tips that I recently discovered and then move to some text replacement shortcuts that you should incorporate. Ready? When changing your volume, press the up or down to summon the volume menu and then gently hold and push it out for some more precise volume control. In “settings”, go to “Safari”, and scroll down to Open “Links”. Change it to its default state to In Background. This way, as you browse in Safari, you can tap and hold on a link to open in the background without leaving your current page.
Extremely time-saving when wanting to open a bunch of links for work purposes. Just like on the Mac, you can sign PDFs using your synced signatures and annotations. To sign a document, open a “PDF”, click on the top right pencil icon, then on the bottom right hit the plus icon and choose signature. Next is something cool. Let’s say I want to send a file to a friend. Instead of locating that file and then dragging and dropping it, summon Spotlight, search for it and hold to reveal the secondary menu. Press Copy and then paste it in messages or wherever else you desire.
Next is a tip that saves you a gesture or two. When in the App Library or the sidebar widget page, instead of swiping out, simply tap on an empty space between the UI elements and you’ll be back to the homepage. Next, in the calculator app, swipe on the digits to delete one if you’ve accidentally pressed it.
Now let’s talk about the most time-saving iPhone feature – text replacement. If you don’t know how it works, head over to your Settings, General, Keyboard, and Text Replacement. In a nutshell, you can create your custom text or symbols or text and symbols to replace a certain text for the sake of having to type it. For example, the most used text replacement when filling out online forms might be your email address.
Click on the plus icon to create your shortcut. In the phrase type in your email address. For example yourlongemailaddressgoeshere@yourdomain.com. In the shortcut field type “@ @”. From now on, whenever your type “@ @”, your super long email will be inserted saving you precious time. By the way, those shortcuts are synced with your iCloud account so you can use them throughout your Apple devices.
Source : https://youtu.be/y38P29pVvus
