Access the Multitasking Gestures toggle in Settings –> General. Turning this on will greatly increase the ease of use of the iPad.

In the last two renditions of Apple’s operating systems for the iPad (iOS 5 and iOS 6), there has been the inclusion of multi-finger gestures. Multi-finger gestures are by definition actions that you can perform on the screen using more than one finger. Most people are familiar with using two fingers to pinch and zoom on a photo which has been a core since the iPhone was first introduced. But the gestures I am talking about are 4 and five finger gestures. These are called, Multitasking Gestures. Here they are:

Swipe up on the iPad screen with 4 fingers to reveal the Multitasking Bar at the bottom. Tap on any app to quickly switch to that app.

1. 4 Finger swipe up on screen to reveal multitasking bar. When you swipe up on the screen with four fingers, the multitasking bar appears. This is the same function as double pressing the home button. From the multitasking bar you can switch between recently opened apps or even swipe to the left to access the audio controls as well as brightness and landscape/portrait lock. Swiping back down with 4 fingers or tapping anywhere on the screen above the multitasking bar will once again hide the multitasking bar.

Swipe left or right with 4 fingers to quickly switch between most recently used apps on the iPad.

2. 4 Finger swipe left or right will quickly switch between most recently used apps. This is especially helpful if you are writing an article in a Pages document and need to pull some information from the Safari web browser. Open both Safari and the Pages apps. Then, copy whatever you need from the internet and swipe with 4 fingers to the right to take you back to the Pages app. From there, you can paste the info right into your document.

Use 4 or 5 fingers spread open and draw them together in a pinching motion to close out of an app and return to the Homescreen.

3. 4 or 5 finger pinch from any app will take you to the home screen. Whenever you have an app open, you can easily go back to the home screen by pinching with 4 or 5 fingers. start with your fingers spread out over the screen and pull all your fingers in to the center. This will shrink the app down into nothing and reveal the Home Screen.

So, how do you turn this feature on? Simple. Navigate to Settings –> General –> and scroll down to Multitasking Gestures and make sure the toggle is switched on. That’s it. Enjoy your increased ease of use!