This Mac tip is provided by Mark Greentree and was originally posted on Mark’s blog – Everyday Mac Support. For more of Mark’s tips visit his site, follow him on Twitter, or browse his archive of posts here.
How To: iOS 5 Onscreen Buttons Via Assistive Touch
Despite being an accessibility feature this along with many other features can be used by everyone.
As you would be aware the iPhone and iPad have a series of physical buttons. Turning on assistive touch will allow you to perform their function directly on the display rather than pressing the buttons.
With excessive use of the home button you may find that after some time it becomes less than responsive. Well this gives you a solution until you can get the phone fixed or replaced.
Simply proceed to Settings > General > Accessibility. Then scroll down to the Physical & Motor section and you will notice AssistiveTouch. Simply Tap and you will be presented with the following view:
You will notice when you turn on AssistiveTouch that a small circle will be presented in the bottom right hand of the display. This is your activation button.
Please note this circle will be presented in the bottom right hand corner regardless of the orientation of your device.
When you tap this button you will be presented with the following menu:
Tapping the Home button will take you back to the home screen thereby performing the identical action as pressing the physical home button. Favourites allows you to save favourite gestures which can be selected to perform certain tasks. Gestures allows you to select common 2, 3, 4, and 5 finger combinations to perform a specific function with a single finger or multiple fingers.
Most importantly is the Device menu. Selecting this will present the following view:
As you can see from the image above the physical functions of your device can be performed by simply tapping on the individual icon associated with the action.
Please note the small round ball in the bottom right hand corner will move up the screen on the device when you are using the onscreen keyboard so you can type without interruption.
