Using Drag and Drop On the iPad

You can drag and drop on the iPad like you can on a Mac to move files and perform other actions. The trick is to use Split View or Slide Over so you can see the origin and destination at the same time.

Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Today let's look at how you can use drag and drop on your iPad.
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So recently I did a video on how to use Slide Over and Split View on your iPad so you can view multiple apps at the same time on the same screen. One of the main reasons to do that is so you can use drag and drop to move objects between apps. Drag and Drop is one of the most fundamental skills for using a Mac. But thanks to Split View and Slide Over, since we can see two apps on the screen at the same time, we can also use Drag and Drop there and you can accomplish a lot.
So let's start off with something really basic. I'm going to go into the Files app. So I have it here. Moving your files around is one of the primary ways to use drag and drop. You can do that here in Files but of course it helps if you can see more than one location at a time. So you can use Split View for that. So I go to the bottom of the screen here and bring up the Dock. I can bring up the Files app again and simply move it to one side of the screen. So now I have the Files app twice. It's going to ask me to choose recent locations and I'm going to end up here in a different folder. So actually here on the left I have the main level on my iPad. So locally stored files. On the right here I'm in iCloud Drive deep down in a folder called Temp and I have a bunch of files there. Now I can drag and drop files between these locations just like I can on the Mac. So if I want to move this file onto iCloud Drive into this folder I could simply tap it, drag and drop it here. I will make a Copy of it. Likewise I could move one of these files over to this folder the same way. So that's all really useful and a lot more like a Mac experience for organizing your files.
But I could also do this using Slide Over. I'm going to get rid of the Split View here and instead bring up the same location but as Slide Over. So I'll go down to the bottom here, grab files, drag it up. Instead of going all the way to the right I'm just going to leave it here where it's going to be a Slide Over window instead. Then I can select the recent location there. Now I could see the same thing and I could drag and drop the same way between these two but now I have the added benefit that I could actually move this window around from left to right. I can toss it off to the side to dismiss it and bring it back when I need.
Now you can do more than just go from one location in Files to another location. I can go into other apps as well. So, for instance, let's bring up Safari here and put that here in Split View. I was already at a page where it was asking me to drop an image for an upload. Now on a Mac you would quite naturally drag and drop to that location. But here on the iPad you might be used to just clicking there and then selecting a file. But thanks to Split View here and drag and drop I can do the drag and drop from the Files window into Safari over here and do the upload just like I would on the Mac. We can do the same thing with Mail. So normally you would drag and drop to attach something to an email on the Mac. You can do it here on the iPad as well. I'll bring up Mail. I'll have it be in Split View here. I'll go to compose a new message and I can drag and drop a file directly into that message just like I could on the Mac. 
So here's another example. We could go into the Photos App. Let's say we want to Export one of these images to a File. On the Mac you could drag and drop out of Photos and guess what? You could do the same thing on the iPad now. So I'm going to bring up the Files app here. In Split View I'm going to go to this folder here and I can select one of these photos. Drag and drop it here and it will export it from Photos into a file. As you can imagine I can do the same thing in the opposite direction. So I can drag and drop this into Photos. Now you would think it would work also going directly from Photos to say a Mail composition window. But it doesn't quite work. We place Files over here with Mail. We're already composing a message. Then it will go here, drag and drop this in, and it seems to work. It gives you a little plus. Drop it in and it doesn't quite happen. So it's not perfect. Maybe you'll have better luck with that. On the other hand if we try it with the Messages app and we drag and drop it in as part of a new message you could see it does actually go in there. 
You can also take a file or a photo and drag and drop it into Pages. I've got a blank document and I can drag and drop this image directly into Pages. You'll find it works in lots of other situations as well. For instance I've got Safari here on the right, Files here on the left. I could drag this image over here to download it and place it as a file in iCloud Drive and in this case it will work in On My Mac. I could also select text and I can drag and drop the text as well over. What I'm going to get is kind of this Rich Text clipping here. I can open it up and see what's inside. So lots of versatility and it's very Mac-like. 
So once you've mastered Split View and Slide Over, the next thing to do is to start to use them to drag and drop just like you would on a Mac. You'll find out you can do so many different things in a very Desktop like manner but on your iPad.

Comments: 3 Responses to “Using Drag and Drop On the iPad”

Barrie

3 years ago

FYI - I am able to drag from photo app to an email. Perhaps Apple has fixed the glitch you experienced.

Joseph Grillo

2 years ago

I am trying to follow your instructions but when I open the file app it opens full screen whereas your opens half. How do I reduce the file app to half screen

Gary Rosenzweig

Joseph: First master using Split View, that's how you get it to do half the screen. Then you can add drag and drop on to that. https://macmost.com/how-to-use-ipad-split-view-and-slide-over.html

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Using Drag and Drop On the iPad

Comments: 3 Responses to “Using Drag and Drop On the iPad”

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