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The Secret PDF Feature in iOS and iPadOS 15

As you may know, Apple has always made the PDF format a first-class citizen in its operating systems going back to the original Mac OS X. In fact, OS X was the first operating system that used PDF technology within the operating system itself. Apple called this technology ‘Quartz’. Quartz is a layer of software that runs on top of Darwin, the core (or kernel) of the Mac OS X operating system, and is responsible for the rendering of all 2D objects.

As is now customary, Apple held their World Wide Developer (WWDC) conference in June where they announced iOS 15 and iPadOS 15. These software updates come with a plethora of new features however, one that is not mentioned in any highlight reel, is some new functionality when it comes to processing PDF files. Using the built-in Files app, you can now handle the following PDF functions:

- Rotate PDF pages

- Insert blank pages into a PDF document

- Insert a PDF from file

- Scan Pages into an existing PDF

- Delete pages from a PDF

Here is how this works in iOS and iPadOS 15:

- Start by opening a PDF document in the Files app

- From the left edge of your iPhone or iPad, swipe to the right to expose the page thumbnails

- Press and hold on a page or double-tap a page to open its edit menu

- You can now select the PDF function you would like to invoke from the menu. Handy right?

Have you found any other PDF function hidden in iOS or iPadOS 15? Let us know on Twitter @allaboutpdf

How To Convert And Save Email Messages To PDF

There are many reasons a person would want to save an email to PDF including archiving purposes or sharing an entire email thread in a more readable form. Lets also not forget the options that become available once the email has been saved to PDF such as password-protecting the PDF for security.

With so many platforms and email applications available to us, what are the best ways to save email messages to PDF?

Windows

If you are using Microsoft Windows, the best way to save email messages to PDF regardless of the email client is to use a PDF Print Driver. The latest versions of Windows come with a PDF Printer so you don't even need to download a third party solution. For older versions, there is a plethora of PDF Print drivers online and once one has been installed, saving the email to PDF is just a matter of going to the print menu and selecting the PDF Printer.

The Print Dialog in Microsoft Outlook

macOS

If you are using the default mail client, Apple Mail, in macOS, you can save an email message to PDF by selecting "Export to PDF" from the File menu.

Export Email To PDF in macOS Mail.png

If you are however using another application that doesn't have a dedicated function to export email messages to PDF, you can use “Save As PDF” from the system print dialog.

Saving an Email to PDF From the Print Dialog.png

Android

Similar to Windows, exporting email to PDF is just a matter of printing the email to PDF and then selecting where you would like it saved.

iOS/iPadOS

Some mail apps in iOS have dedicated functionality to export messages to PDF where as others don’t. For those that don’t, such as the default Mail client, you need to select Print from the Share menu. Once the print preview is displayed, use the 2 finger pinch-out gesture to expand the first page; this action automatically converts the email to a PDF which can then be shared or saved.

How To Create Personal Automations Using iOS 13.1

Yesterday, Apple released iOS 13.1 for iPhone and iPadOS for iPad. The feature that has me really excited in this release is Personal Automations.

In past versions of iOS, you could set up Home Automations using the Home or the Shortcuts apps so that your HomeKit enabled accessories could react to changes in conditions around the the home. For example, you could have your garage lights come on automatically at sunset or change the temperature on your thermostat whenever you leave your house.

Personal Automations take this basic concept and applies it to conditions affecting your iPhone or iPad. For example, you can now set your iPhone to being playing a specific music playlist whenever you arrive at home. Or you can automatically send an iMessage at a certain time of the day.

I travel a lot between the UK and the US so when I am away, I have a Personal Automation that sends my children a goodnight message every day at 3PM EST (8PM UK) time.

I also love to fly drones so I have another Personal Automation that turns on Do Not Disturb as soon as I open the DJI GO app. The potential of these automations are only limited by your imagination and can include features such as creating or marking up PDF documents.

So how do you create a Personal Automation in iOS 13.1?

First, find the Shortcuts app that now comes preinstalled with iOS 13 and open it. Next, at the bottom of the app, select the "Automation" tab and then hit the "+" button at the top right to begin asdding a new Automation.

Select "Personal Automation" and you will be presented with a list of trigger types to pick from. These vary from events such as time of day or alarms to phone setting changes such as when you join WiFi or you open a specific app.

Each choice of trigger will give you further options to tweak just the way you want before you are presented with a screen to add the Actions that will occur when the trigger is fired.

There are so many Actions that I couldn’t possible list all of them in this article and more are being added by third party developers all the time. You can also also chain together different actions together into complete workflows!

Once you are satisfied with your setup, hit the "Done" button to save your Personal Automation.