Basics
Using apps
You interact with iPhone using your fingers to tap, double-tap, swipe, and pinch objects on the touchscreen.
Opening and switching between apps
To go to the Home screen, press the Home button.
Open an app: Tap it.
To return to the Home screen, press the Home button again.
See another Home screen: Swipe left or right.
Go to the first Home screen: Press the Home button
View recently used apps: Double-click the Home button to reveal the multitasking bar.
Tap an app to use it again. Swipe left to see more apps.
If you have a lot of apps, you might want to use Spotlight to locate and open them. See Searching on page 27.
Scrolling
Drag up or down to scroll. On some screens, such as webpages, you can also scroll side to side.
Dragging your finger to scroll won't choose or activate anything on the screen.
Flick to scroll quickly.
You can wait for the scrolling to come to a stop, or touch the screen to stop it immediately.
To quickly scroll to the top of a page, tap the status bar at the top of the screen.
Lists
Depending on the list, choosing an item can do different things—for example, it may open another list, play a song, open an email, or show someone's contact information.
Choose an item in a list: Tap it.
Some lists have an index along the side to help you navigate quickly.
Return to a previous list: Tap the back button in the upper-left corner.
Zooming in or out
Depending on the app, you may be able to zoom in to enlarge, or zoom out to reduce the image on the screen. When viewing photos, webpages, mail, or maps, for example, pinch two fingers together to zoom out or spread them apart to zoom in. For photos and webpages, you can also double-tap (tap twice quickly) to zoom in, then double-tap again to zoom out. For maps, double-tap to zoom in and tap once with two fingers to zoom out.
Zoom is also an accessibility feature that lets you magnify the screen with any app you're using, to help you see what's on the display. See Zoom on page 125.
Portrait and landscape orientation
You can view many iPhone apps in either portrait or landscape orientation. Rotate iPhone and the display rotates too, adjusting to fit the new orientation.
Lock the screen in portrait orientation: Double-click the Home button, swipe the multitasking bar from left to right, then tap .
The orientation lock icon appears in the status bar when the screen orientation is locked.
Adjusting brightness
You can manually adjust the brightness of the screen, or turn on Auto-Brightness to have iPhone use the built-in ambient light sensor to automatically adjust the brightness.
Adjust the screen brightness: Go to Settings > Brightness & Wallpaper, then drag the slider.
Turn Auto-Brightness on or off: Go to Settings > Brightness & Wallpaper.
See Brightness & Wallpaper on page 139.
Customizing iPhone
You can customize the layout of your apps on the Home screen, organize them in folders, and change the wallpaper.
Rearranging apps
Customize your Home screen by rearranging apps, moving apps to the Dock along the bottom of the screen, and creating additional Home screens.
Rearrange apps: Touch and hold any app on the Home screen until it jiggles, then move apps around by dragging them. Press the Home button to save your arrangement.
Create a new Home screen: While arranging apps, drag an app to the right edge of the rightmost screen, until a new screen appears.
You can create up to 11 Home screens. The dots above the Dock show the number of screens you have, and which screen you're viewing.
Swipe left or right to switch between screens. To go to the first Home screen, press the Home button.
Move an app to another screen: While it's jiggling, drag an app to the side of the screen.
Customize the Home screen using iTunes: Connect iPhone to your computer. In iTunes on your computer, select iPhone, then click the Apps button to see the image of the iPhone Home screen.
Reset the Home screen to its original layout: In Settings, go to General > Reset, then tap Reset Home Screen Layout. Resetting the Home screen removes any folders you've created and applies the default wallpaper to your Home screen.
Organizing with folders
You can use folders to organize the apps on your Home screens. Rearrange folders—just as you do apps—by dragging them around your Home screens or to the Dock.
Create a folder: Touch an app until the Home screen icons begin to jiggle, then drag the app onto another.
iPhone creates a new folder that includes the two apps, and names the folder based on the type of apps. To enter a different name, tap the name field.
Open a folder: Tap the folder. To close a folder, tap outside the folder, or press the Home button.
Organize with folders: While arranging apps (the icons are jiggling):
Add an app to a folder: Drag the app onto the folder.
Remove an app from a folder: Open the folder if necessary, then drag the app out.
Delete a folder: Move all apps out of the folder. The folder is automatically deleted.
Rename a folder: Tap to open the folder, then tap the name and enter a new one.
When you finish, press the Home button
Changing the wallpaper
You can customize both the Lock screen and the Home screen by choosing an image or photo to use as wallpaper. Choose one of the supplied images, or a photo from your Camera Roll or another album on iPhone.
Change the wallpaper: Go to Settings > Brightness & Wallpaper.
Typing
The onscreen keyboard lets you type when you need to enter text.
Entering text
Use the onscreen keyboard to enter text, such as contact information, mail, and web addresses. Depending on the app and the language you're using, the keyboard may correct misspellings, predict what you're typing, and even learn as you use it.
You can also use an Apple Wireless Keyboard to type. See Apple Wireless Keyboard on page 24.
To use dictation instead of typing, see Dictation on page 25.
Enter text: Tap a text field to bring up the keyboard, then tap keys on the keyboard.
As you type, each letter appears above your thumb or finger. If you touch the wrong key, you can slide your finger to the correct key. The letter isn't entered until you release your finger from the key.
Type uppercase: Tap the Shift key before tapping a letter. Or touch and hold the Shift key, then slide to a letter.
Quickly type a period and space: Double-tap the space bar.
Turn on caps lock: Double-tap the Shift key . To turn caps lock off, tap the Shift key.
Enter numbers, punctuation, or symbols: Tap the Number key 123. To see additional punctuation and symbols, tap the Symbol key.
Enter accented letters or other alternate characters: Touch and hold a key, then slide to choose one of the options.
Set options for typing: Go to Settings > General > Keyboard.
Turn shortcuts on or off: Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Shortcuts. Shortcuts are available for:
Simplified Chinese: Pinyin
Traditional Chinese: Pinyin and Zhuyin
Japanese: Romaji and 50 Key
Special input methods
You can use keyboards to enter some languages in different ways. A few examples are Chinese Cangjie and Wubihua, Japanese Kana, and Facemarks. You can also use your finger or a stylus to write Chinese characters on the screen.
Build Chinese characters from the component Cangjie keys: As you type, suggested characters appear. Tap a character to choose it, or continue typing up to five components to see more options.
Build Chinese Wubihua (stroke) characters: Use the keypad to build Chinese characters using up to five strokes, in the correct writing sequence: horizontal, vertical, left falling, right falling, and hook. For example, the Chinese character 圈 (circle) should begin with the vertical stroke |.
As you type, suggested Chinese characters appear (the most commonly used characters appear first). Tap a character to choose it.
If you're not sure of the correct stroke, enter an asterisk (*). To see more character options, type another stroke, or scroll through the character list.
Tap the match key (匹配) to show only characters that match exactly what you typed.
Write Chinese characters: Write Chinese characters directly on the screen with your finger when Simplified or Traditional Chinese handwriting formats are turned on. As you write character strokes, iPhone recognizes them and shows matching characters in a list, with the closest match at the top. When you choose a character, its likely follow-on characters appear in the list as additional choices.
Some complex characters, such as 鱲 (part of the name for the Hong Kong International Airport), 𨋢 (elevator), and 㗎 (particle used in Cantonese), can be typed by writing two or more component characters in sequence. Tap the character to replace the characters you typed.
Roman characters are also recognized.
Type Japanese kana: Use the Kana keypad to select syllables. For more syllable options, tap the arrow key and select another syllable or word from the window.
Type Japanese romaji: Use the Romaji keyboard to type syllables. Alternative choices appear along the top of the keyboard, tap one to type it. For more syllable options, tap the arrow key and select another syllable or word from the window.
Type facemarks or emoticons: Use the Japanese Kana keyboard and tap the ^_^ key. Or you can:
Use the Japanese Romaji keyboard (QWERTY-Japanese layout): Tap the Number key 123, then tap the ^_^ key.
Use the Chinese (Simplified or Traditional) Pinyin or (Traditional) Zhuyin keyboard: Tap the Symbols key, then tap the ^_^ key.
