The best of iOS 11 - the iPad Dock

**The New iPad Dock Feature in iOS 11: A Comprehensive Guide**

**Introduction**

In the world of iPad innovation, Apple's iOS 11 introduces a significant upgrade with the enhanced dock feature. This article delves into the intricacies of this new tool, exploring its functionalities and benefits.

**Understanding the Dock Basics**

The dock, a familiar concept from previous iOS versions, now undergoes a transformation in iOS 11. Unlike before, it's no longer confined to just the home screen. Now accessible from anywhere—whether you're on the home screen, using the app switcher, or within your favorite apps—the dock offers immediate access to your most used applications.

**Accessing Apps Instantly**

The key advantage of the new dock is its accessibility. By simply swiping up from the bottom edge of the screen, users can reveal the dock and tap on any app they've added. This feature eliminates the need to navigate back to the home screen, making app switching faster and more efficient.

**Expandable Functionality**

One of the standout features of the iOS 11 dock is its expandability. Starting small, it grows as you add apps, potentially holding up to 15 apps. Imagine having all your favorite tools just a swipe away, enhancing productivity without hassle.

**Adding Multiple Apps with Ease**

The process of adding apps to the dock is straightforward. By dragging an app from your home screen or another location directly into the dock, you can customize it to suit your needs. Whether it's for quick access or organizing similar apps, the dock adapts to your workflow.

**Folder Support: Organizing Made Easy**

For users who prefer a tidy interface, iOS 11 allows adding folders to the dock. These folders can contain multiple apps, providing an organized way to manage various functions. Accessing these grouped apps is seamless, as they appear just like any other app in the dock.

**Recent and Suggested Apps Enhancements**

iOS 11 introduces a feature that populates the dock with recently used or suggested apps not already stored there. This intelligent addition leverages Apple's Continuity features, including Handoff and location-based suggestions. For instance, opening Safari on your iPhone may prompt its appearance on your iPad, ensuring continuity across devices.

**Customizing Your Experience**

Under "Settings > General > Multitasking & Dock," you can enable the "Show Suggested and Recent Apps" toggle. This tweak enhances usability by suggesting apps based on usage patterns and location, offering a personalized experience.

**Maximizing Productivity with Settings Tweaks**

By exploring settings related to multitasking and the dock, users can fine-tune their experience. These adjustments allow for greater customization, ensuring the dock works optimally for each individual's needs.

**Conclusion**

The iOS 11 dock is a game-changer for iPad users, offering unparalleled convenience and efficiency. Its expandable nature, folder support, and intelligent app suggestions make it an indispensable tool in daily productivity. As you explore its features, you'll find yourself relying on this innovation more than ever, making the transition to iOS 11 well worth it.

**Summary**

In summary, Apple's new dock feature in iOS 11 represents a significant leap forward in iPad usability. With its enhanced accessibility, expandable capacity, and smart app suggestions, it stands out as a must-utilize tool for optimizing your device experience. Embrace this innovation and unlock the full potential of your iPad with iOS 11.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthe iPad dock in iOS 11 is one of my favorite new features to come in Apple's new software update it really does change the way you use your iPad and we're going to talk about it right now of course the concept of a dock is not new but what is new is that you can access the iOS $11 on your iPad from anywhere from your home screen from the app switcher and from your favorite apps that means that any app that you have located in the dock is immediately accessible just by swiping up like this so what does this mean well it means no longer having to go back to the home screen in searching for your favorite apps now just store all of your favorites in the dock and the great thing about the dock is that it's expandable it starts off a little small but it can grow quite a bit as you add apps in fact I'm going to add ten additional apps to the dock right now for a total of 15 apps so let's do it okay 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 yes 15 apps at once folks so if we try to add another it's not gonna let you because you've already reached capacity with 15 apps in the dock already now you may be wondering Jeff why in the world would I need this many apps in the dock at once the question well remember you can access the dock from anywhere so that means you can access all those 15 apps instantly from any app just swipe up to reveal the dock even if you're in another application and it just so happens that's what we're gonna talk about right now switching between apps using the dock so let's go ahead and open up an application there Safari just swipe up to reveal the dock you know to switch to another app just tap that app in the dock to switch to another app just tap that app in the dock and so on so you can see how easy it is by means of that dock that can be accessible within any app that is really awesome so you can see how fast it is to switch between apps just by swiping up to reveal the dock and then tapping the application that you want to switch to but what if you honestly have more than 15 apps that you want to launch or what if you want to just group all those apps in particular folder well the good news is that you can store folders inside the dock on iOS 11 and I'm gonna create one right now and simply drag that over to the dock you can store it wherever you like just like that okay so let's test this out let's open an app and then swipe up to reveal the dock and then tap the folder in the dock and there you go folks so now I can access all the apps inside just as if they weren't on the dock itself pretty awesome so when you consider the fact that a folder can hold multiple applications there really is no limit to the amount of apps you can store by extension in the iOS 11 dock now there is one last thing I'd like to talk about today and you can find it in the Settings app under general multitasking and dock at the bottom there you'll notice a show suggested and recent apps toggle you just turn that little switch on to enable this new iOS 11 feature so this will allow you to access recent apps right from the dock but there is one stipulation and that is that the app can not already be in the dock because it doesn't make sense because the apps already available in the dock no need to show it in recent apps so I don't have the podcast app in the dock so when I open up the podcast app and close it out guess what's going to appear append it to the end of the dock right there the podcast app icon so that allows me to access the podcast app from anywhere within iOS thanks to recent apps I can do the same thing with OmniFocus because it's not already in the dock it shows up in my recent app section in one last app the home app and because this app is not already in the dock it shows up right in the recent apps section as well so I have to be apps for a total of 18 different apps at once right there on the iOS 11 dock but this section isn't just for recent apps it also works with suggested apps by means of continuity which includes handoff and location-based app suggestion so I'll go ahead and open up Safari on my iPhone and you can see it suggests Safari on my iPad so I opened it up which allows me to continue browsing 9:00 to 5:00 Google right where I left off so ladies and gentlemen that has been a look at the new and improved dock for the iPad on iOS 11 let me know what you guys think down below in the comments section this is Jeff with nine-to-five Mackthe iPad dock in iOS 11 is one of my favorite new features to come in Apple's new software update it really does change the way you use your iPad and we're going to talk about it right now of course the concept of a dock is not new but what is new is that you can access the iOS $11 on your iPad from anywhere from your home screen from the app switcher and from your favorite apps that means that any app that you have located in the dock is immediately accessible just by swiping up like this so what does this mean well it means no longer having to go back to the home screen in searching for your favorite apps now just store all of your favorites in the dock and the great thing about the dock is that it's expandable it starts off a little small but it can grow quite a bit as you add apps in fact I'm going to add ten additional apps to the dock right now for a total of 15 apps so let's do it okay 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 yes 15 apps at once folks so if we try to add another it's not gonna let you because you've already reached capacity with 15 apps in the dock already now you may be wondering Jeff why in the world would I need this many apps in the dock at once the question well remember you can access the dock from anywhere so that means you can access all those 15 apps instantly from any app just swipe up to reveal the dock even if you're in another application and it just so happens that's what we're gonna talk about right now switching between apps using the dock so let's go ahead and open up an application there Safari just swipe up to reveal the dock you know to switch to another app just tap that app in the dock to switch to another app just tap that app in the dock and so on so you can see how easy it is by means of that dock that can be accessible within any app that is really awesome so you can see how fast it is to switch between apps just by swiping up to reveal the dock and then tapping the application that you want to switch to but what if you honestly have more than 15 apps that you want to launch or what if you want to just group all those apps in particular folder well the good news is that you can store folders inside the dock on iOS 11 and I'm gonna create one right now and simply drag that over to the dock you can store it wherever you like just like that okay so let's test this out let's open an app and then swipe up to reveal the dock and then tap the folder in the dock and there you go folks so now I can access all the apps inside just as if they weren't on the dock itself pretty awesome so when you consider the fact that a folder can hold multiple applications there really is no limit to the amount of apps you can store by extension in the iOS 11 dock now there is one last thing I'd like to talk about today and you can find it in the Settings app under general multitasking and dock at the bottom there you'll notice a show suggested and recent apps toggle you just turn that little switch on to enable this new iOS 11 feature so this will allow you to access recent apps right from the dock but there is one stipulation and that is that the app can not already be in the dock because it doesn't make sense because the apps already available in the dock no need to show it in recent apps so I don't have the podcast app in the dock so when I open up the podcast app and close it out guess what's going to appear append it to the end of the dock right there the podcast app icon so that allows me to access the podcast app from anywhere within iOS thanks to recent apps I can do the same thing with OmniFocus because it's not already in the dock it shows up in my recent app section in one last app the home app and because this app is not already in the dock it shows up right in the recent apps section as well so I have to be apps for a total of 18 different apps at once right there on the iOS 11 dock but this section isn't just for recent apps it also works with suggested apps by means of continuity which includes handoff and location-based app suggestion so I'll go ahead and open up Safari on my iPhone and you can see it suggests Safari on my iPad so I opened it up which allows me to continue browsing 9:00 to 5:00 Google right where I left off so ladies and gentlemen that has been a look at the new and improved dock for the iPad on iOS 11 let me know what you guys think down below in the comments section this is Jeff with nine-to-five Mack\n"