56 MACWORLD AUGUST 2021
iOSCENTRAL i PAD’S INEVITABLE MAC-LIKE FUTUREfew years now. For example, Slide Over is
a floating window attached to one side of
the screen. Picture in Picture floats above
apps but must be placed in a corner. Two
years ago, Apple introduced the concept
of multiple app windows—but they were
really just multiple instances of an app,
running in existing app frames: for
instance, a Microsoft Word file in full
screen and a different Word file in a
different Split View.
But with iPadOS 15, things are getting
more interesting on the windowing front.
Yes, the iPad’s new Globe-key shortcuts
(fave.co/3w6JHo8) seem to point to more
sophisticated multitasking to come, but
what really caught my eye is a more
old-fashioned Command-key shortcut that
Apple has imported from the Mac: next
App Window, executed by holding down
Command and the tick-mark (`) key.
This is the Mac’s “cycle through
windows” keyboard shortcut that became
a part of my muscle memory in the early
days of Mac OS X, and I still use it all the
time. On iPadOS 15, pressing Globe-tick
will move focus among different visible
apps when in Split View and Slide Over, so
you can choose which app will receive
keyboard input. Pressing Command-tick
cycles through multiple windows within a
single app.
Add to that the introduction of the
iPad’s newest interface element: the
Shelf, a visual representation of an app’s
currently open windows. This feels like
Apple adding complexity in order to add
clarity, and I’m not entirely sold on it
conceptually. Regardless, the Shelf’s very
existence shows that Apple is trying to
find ways to make multiwindow interfaces
in iPad apps discoverable and usable.
And then there are iPadOS 15’s new
additions to the growing family of iPad
windows. First off, there’s the new
“floating center window,” which appears
(among other places) when you create a
new message in Mail. It’s a window that
initially shows up hovering above the
app that spawned it, but it has Apple’s
new three-dot windowing interface at the
top, allowing you to drag it around the
screen (hmm, I wonder why you would
need a drag area for iPad windows) or
move it to its own full-screen, Split View,
or Slide Over location.
What separates the floating center
window from just being a window from a
Mac app? Only iPadOS acting as a
policeman, limiting where you can place
it. Otherwise, it’s a floating window of the
kind Mac users have known for decades.
Which brings us to Quick Note, a new
feature coming to iPad, iPhone, and Mac
this fall that is implemented in iPadOS as...
a floating window. Yes, it behaves like a
Picture in Picture window–you can only
place it in the corners, or you can park it