Simple iPadOS26 Annoyances — What Am I Missing?

Tech Support
1

With iPadOS26, I am running into a handful of daily annoyances that I tell myself maybe I am missing something?

(1) I used to be able to type a word like “WOW” or “HORSE” or “FRUIT” and I would get potential emoji’s as part of predicative text. This seemingly has gone away?! Now I must always use the Global key and search for an emoji.

(2) With iPadOS26, I can have multiple windows open within an app — such as emails, documents, etc. How can I quickly switch between windows within the same app with having to go up and use the menu?! I’ve tried CMD + ` like on the Mac but that does not work. There must be a way!

(3) I have always liked to be able to hold down the CMD key and see the potential keyboard shortcuts that are available as I sometimes forget — is it CMD + Control? Option? Shift? Now I can see keyboard shortcuts in the menu, but that means I have to stop and then access the menu with the mouse. Or maybe there is a way to use a keyboard shortcut to access the menu?

I’m wanting in all these cases to minimize my hands leaving the keyboard. These were all natural to me before iPadOS26 and now more effort. I love the new iPadOS26 changes, but it’s the little things …

Hoping I am simply missing something. I have done my research and get no answers that work.

2

I believe that (3) is gone. in lots of ways it’s better and more discoverable, but I get you not wanting your hands to leave the keyboard.

3

  1. Emoji-picker is readily available with Ctrl-Cmd-Space.

  2. View all windows if Fn-Down Arrow on my keyboard.

4

Command-` works to switch between the windows of an app for me, just like it works on a Mac.

5

This has been replaced by the Menu system. Globe-M to show the menu and then each item in the menu will have the keyboard shortcuts (if they exist).

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6

Ooooh! Thanks for that. Weirdly, it only works in “multi-tasking mode”. Hopefully they fix that when the next upgrade version comes out, and hopefully that’s very very soon.

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7

:thinking: It does not work consistently for me. In Mail, it “sometimes” takes me to the main Mail window but it does NOT rotate through my other messages in windows.

8

:exclamation: Very helpful!

I discovered a fix to another annoyance that I stumbled across this morning. You may all know this, but I did not. When reading Mail I did not like that the Mail message window was constrained by having the left side of the screen the various Mailboxes. So on an iPad Mini or 11” iPad in portrait mode, the Mail message was narrow and hard to read. Then this morning I accidentally discovered that if I double-tap the message, it appears in a new window by itself that I can resize! Doh!

Sometimes “powers users” miss the seemingly obvious. ツ

3 Likes
9

Weird. It does work foe me in Mail.