iPhone User Guide for Beginners

Live Text

iPhone camera

Live text can help you quickly pick up text from pretty much anywhere. To get started, go to your iPhone camera and select Photo as though you want to take a picture. When your iPhone detects some text in the image, it displays a live text icon on the bottom right corner of your screen. You can capture the text by tapping the live text icon to start interacting with it (without taking a photo of it). You can then Copy All, (bottom left corner of the screen) to paste in any app (Apple Notes, for example).

A popup menu appears with options to Copy for pasting anywhere or Look Up a few words to search the web. This feature does not work when you pick too many words. You can also Translate to other languages, using the Translate feature in iOS 17 (more about it in a different episode). Share lets you export the text as a document to any app that can process text information.  So, that can be Messages, Mail, Apple Notes, etc. 

To interact with specific text, long-press to select it. You get similar options for your live text with a few differences. You can Look Up single words using the dictionary on your iPhone. You still have the option to search the web, but if you want to do that directly without going to Look Up first, you have a menu option to Search Web. Live text also works on handwritten notes as well.

Photos

You can also use live text on photos that are already in your Photos library. When an image contains text, the live text icon appears on the bottom right corner of the screen, and you have all the options for the feature. It also works on videos in your Photos Library. To use it, you have to pause or stop the video where the text you want is. When the live text icon appears, you can start interacting with the text on your screen.

Files app

In the Files app, live text also works on images. When you open an image, the app recognises the text immediately. Tapping the live text icon (bottom left corner) brings up all the options for the feature. Even without tapping the live text icon, you can long-press the text to interact with it.

Scans also can work with live text. Simply long-press the text to bring up the popup menu. Unique to scans, is the option to Highlight. You get five colours, underline and strikeout options for your selected text. Underline and strikeout also highlight the text. To remove a highlight, tap on it and go to (forward arrow) Remove. You can also choose to Add Note if you have any comments about the annotation you just made. Tapping on it simply opens it in a popup window. It’s difficult to tap on the comment because it is so tiny, but zooming in helps.

Apple Notes

In Apple Notes, live text works on images (tap to open) and videos. When you stop a video, go to the three-dots icon (bottom right corner) and Show Text to activate live text. If you want to interact with the text in your video, you have to open it in full-screen mode. That will allow you to select some text for the popup menu to show up.

Instead of typing out text, you can extract it using live text. Tap the camera icon (bottom toolbar) and Scan Text. The app will detect text that you can add to your notes. Tap Insert to add all the text the camera has just picked up. When you want to add specific text, tap the live text icon (bottom right corner), select the text you want, and Insert to add it to Apple Notes.

In any text field, you can scan text instead of typing it. In Messages, for example, tap the cursor to bring up the popup menu. Tap AutoFill and choose Scan Text. You can do this in most apps where you need to type (Mail, Safari, WhatsApp, etc). 

Stickers 

In iOS 17, you can create a sticker from your photos using the Photos or Messages app. Your stickers can either be from simple photos or live ones. Choose a photo you want to create a sticker from > long-press it to bring up the popup menu > go to Add Sticker and the app adds the new sticker to your collection, with a popup menu that had options for you to:

• Rearrange the stickers in your collection by simply dragging them around.
• Add Effect from five options available, Original, Outline, Comic, Puffy and Shiny.
• Delete the sticker. If the popup menu doesn’t automatically appear, you can bring it up by simply long-pressing the sticker you want to edit.

In this public beta, Live photos are still very difficult to make stickers out of. So we’ll cover them when iOS 17 is less buggy.

In Messages, you can create stickers while chatting in the app, tap the plus icon (bottom left corner) > go to Stickers > then the plus icon (under your custom sticker collection) > choose a photo from your Photos library > Add Sticker to add it to your stickers collection and it has the same popup menu options to Rearrange, Add Effect or Delete.

To use your stickers, you can tap on it, add a comment or message and then send it. You can also drag and drop the sticker to a specific message. To resize and rotate, use the pinching gesture before dropping it onto a message. A single message can have multiple stickers. 

Emojis, and memojis can also behave as stickers now, in iOS 17. Some apps come with stickers that you can find on the sticker collection toolbar. You can edit to rearrange them, or get more stickers from App Store. 

Data detection

Your iPhone can recognise different types of data in Apple Notes. It can recognise dates, email addresses, flight numbers, web links, amounts of money, numbers, physical addresses, and shipment tracking numbers. These can either be typed or handwritten. We’re only going to focus on the most common types of data you’re likely to encounter every day. Whenever data detection recognises some piece of data, it becomes underlined to indicate that you can interact with it.

Dates

Data detection can pick up future dates in your notes. Tap on it to bring up a popup menu with options to Create Event or Create Reminder. When you Create Event, you can add an event to your Apple Calendar without needing to go to the calendar app. The feature gives you all the details you would get in Apple Calendar for creating a new event. Once you’re done filling out all the information you need, tap Add to save your new event to Apple Calendar. To view the event in Apple Calendar, bring up the popup menu and go to Show in Calendar. This automatically takes you to the Apple Calendar to see the event you just created in Apple Notes.

If you choose to Create Reminder, you can add all the information needed for tasks in Apple Reminders. Tap Add to save your to-do. The only way to see this event is to open the Reminders app and go to the list you added your to-do. So, it’s not linked and automated like you get with Apple Calendar. Copy Event doesn’t copy the event or its details. It only copies the date, which you can paste anywhere.

Numbers

Numbers are recognised as phone numbers, so all the interactions that popup relate to the number as a phone number. You can do simple actions like Call, Send Message via Messages, FaceTime, or FaceTime Audio. When you tap Add to Contacts, you also get options to mail or pay via Apple Pay. You can also Create New Contact where you can add as much detail as you like (picture, name, email, etc). All without needing to open the Contacts app. Tap Done to save your new contact. If you have other details on the page, data detection automatically fills out your new contact’s details with all the details it can pick up on the page. So, that means, it will add email and physical addresses it picks up on the page. The other option you get for your numbers is to Add to Existing Contact, choose the contact you want to add the details to, and Update to save the changes. Edit Link lets you edit the number and add a name to it. You can also Remove Link.

Emails

When you tap an email, your iPhone automatically takes you to the Mail app, where you can start composing one. Your email app must be set up for this to work. Long-pressing an email address gives you options to create a New Mail Message, Send Message via Messages, FaceTime, or FaceTime Audio. You can also simply Copy Email to paste anywhere you like. You can also Edit Link or Remove Link.

Weblinks

Like with your emails, tapping a web link automatically takes you to the default web browser for your device. When you long-press, a popup menu appears with a website preview. You can Hide preview, to hide it or Tap to show preview to show it. You also get options to Open Link, Add to Reading List, Copy Link, or Share it out of the app. Edit Link and Remove Link. Web links are quite simple, with not a lot of options.

Scanning Documents

You can scan documents in Apple Notes to create digital copies of them. Go to the Camera icon (at the bottom of the toolbar) and Scan Documents to get started. By default, the iPhone setting for taking your scans is set to Auto. So, your iPhone detects the pages in your camera’s view, automatically scans, and gathers them at the bottom of your iPhone screen. You can scan multiple documents before saving them (tap Save on the bottom right corner).

For more control over your scans, you can choose to take them manually. In the scanning window (go to the Camera icon and Scan Documents), choose Manual (top right corner of the app), and your iPhone still recognises what you’re trying to scan, but you have to take the scan yourself, manually (tap the massive white icon for taking photos). For each scan you take, you can Retake (bottom left corner) if you don’t like it. You can also adjust the scan by dragging the corners to crop out parts you don’t want in your scan. Keep Scan (bottom right corner) to continue scanning more documents, and Save when you’re done.

You can adjust more options when taking your scans. The lightning icon controls your iPhone flashlight. You can set it on Auto for the iPhone to automatically decide when it’s needed or turn it On/Off depending on your preferences. The three-rings icon controls how your scan looks. It can be Colour, Greyscale, Black & White, or Photo. Remember to Save your scan.

Before saving your scan, you can also edit it a bit. To do that, tap on the scans at the bottom left of your screen to open them in an editing window. You can then crop the scan (tap the crop icon) and tap Done to save the changes. Even after you’ve taken your scan, you can still change how it looks using the three-rings icon: Colour, Greyscale, Black & White and Photo. You can also rotate the scan (tap the rotation icon or squared icon with an arrow on the corner), delete, or Retake. Tap Done (top left corner) to save the changes. Go to Save to save the scan to Apple Notes.

Text Input

Typing on the iPhone is similar to the experience you get with an iPad. But with the smaller screen and being a different device altogether, there are some differences that are worth noting. Between typing on the iPad, MacBook, and iPhone, I prefer typing on the iPhone the most. By far, my favourite feature is sliding the cursor somewhere I want to make a change (long-press till the keyboard keys disappear and slide the cursor). It’s more accurate than tapping on it.

Swiping

On the iPhone, you can swipe on the keyboard without using a floating keyboard. The screen is too small, so it’s already technically floating, unlike on the iPad. Swiping allows you to skip a few letters when typing, which, when you do a lot of, can save you quite a bit of time. You need to have this option turned on, of course, in your iPhone settings (iPhone Settings > General > Keyboard > Turn on Slide to Type).

One-hand Keyboard

To even work faster, you might prefer to use a single hand (or to multitask even). This is especially handy when you have small hands, but use a massive iPhone. (iPhone Settings > General > Keyboard > turn on One-Handed Keyboard). The disadvantage is that the keyboard and its keys are much smaller. Though I have small hands, my fingers are not so small. So that might be a problem. You can quickly change the side of the screen the keyboard goes to. Long-press the globe icon > choose a side. You can also exit this one-hand keyboard by going to the full-size one. So, even without going to your iPhone Settings, you can quickly activate and deactivate the one-hand keyboard.

Scanning Text

Scanning text into your text field is a lot easier on the iPhone because it is smaller and lighter than the iPad. The better camera is another bonus. Long-press cursor > AutoFill > Scan Text. I wish we had a bit more control over what the camera picks up. At the moment, your best shot is just moving it to where you want to extract the information. It’s still better than nothing. 

Dictation

Dictation (mic icon, bottom right corner of keyboard) also works very well. But we have heard reports of inaccurate recordings from some users. It is easy to use. All you have to do is turn on the option in your settings. (iPhone Settings > General > Keyboard. Turn on Enable Dictation and Auto-Punctuation. The punctuation was terrible, though. When you have several keyboards, you can also choose the languages supported for the dictation. To use a different language, first select it for the keyboard (globe icon).