The iPad doesn’t come with a manual, although you can download one from Apple’s website – but how many of us actually do that? The iPad has always been an easy device to pick up and use, but it’s also packed with all sorts of cool features you might not know about.

The easiest shortcut isn’t always the most obvious, and that’s no different on the iPad. Did you know you can put up to five of your favorite apps on the dock at the bottom of your screen? This is a great shortcut to quickly launch the app, no matter where you are on your iPad. You can even put a folder on the dock, which can be really handy if you have a lot of apps that you use regularly.

Speaking of launching apps, you can quickly find one without having to search through pages and pages for an icon thanks to Spotlight Search, which you open by sliding your finger to the right while on the Home screen. Spotlight Search will find and launch an app no matter where it is located on your iPad. Type its name or press the microphone and speak it, then tap the app's icon when it appears in the list of results.

Control Center provides access to some of the iPad’s most common settings. You can access it by swiping down from the top of the iPad running iOS 13 or iOS 12, or up from the bottom of the iPad where the screen meets the beveled edge in earlier versions of the operating system. Starting from this edge, swiping your finger up brings up Control Center.