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“Apple Support” app - blue icon with apple in top-right corner

Padcatt

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I’ve tried using this app a few times, thinking it would short-cut me to helpful Apple articles.

Today, I typed in: iPad OS 13 gestures

the results included: Installing OS X Yosemite

I would expect the tippy-top result to say either, “iPad OS 13 gestures” or some combo of those words.

anyone else?
 

twerppoet

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There is a dearth of articles about gestures in general, so getting top hit with those words is unlikely. You can somewhat narrow the search by changing “Filter by:” at the top left to iPad (after the search).

It won’t get you the articles you want, but you’ll at least get rid of the Yosemite result.

In my experience searching the support app is very hit or miss. If you can’t guess (or know) the right name of the feature you want, it’s very miss. And there are a lot of subject about the basic UI that are not present. Perhaps they expect you to have read about them in the User Guide?
 
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Padcatt

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A worthy idea but i assumed that the iPad user guide was about using iPad and not specifically about iPad OS 13.

also on the search tool shouldn’t it be able to put that together, the way google figures it out even if you misspell?
 

twerppoet

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I don’t see how you can cover the basic use of the iPad without covering the current version of iOS. It’s darn near the same thing, short a few hardware features.

As far as the search, no idea. I suspect it’s mostly that there aren’t that many support articles, so when there’s nothing to match it goes off the deep end guessing. Google search does the same thing if you totally confuse it, but less often because it’s got the entire internet of content to choose from.

Also, Google’s entire livelihood depends on it’s search engine. Love or hate them, it’s the best in the industry. At least the consumer industry.

I just glanced at the iPad User Guide for iPadOS 13.1. The basic gestures are covered in the chapter Basics, and the more advanced ones scattered thoughout the rest of the book, where they apply. If you grab the iBooks version, you can do searches.

Also, I’ve mentioned the MacStories iOS 13 & iPadOS 13.1 review before. It covers the new gestures and multitasking in excruciating detail.

While it may feel like the Support app should have stuff like this in it, and it has some, I don’t think that’s what Apple intended it for. Rather it’s supposed to help when things don’t work. That’s how I normally use it. For more general how too’s, I depend on the user guide, or just a general (Google) search. Apple is probably the best covered company in tech, usually with multiple articles (or videos) published for any subject you can think of.

Also also, if you have not gone through the Tips app, you might find it useful.
 
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Padcatt

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Solid points, twerppoet... I grabbed it and will read.

Thank you!
 

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