How to Search with the iPad's Maps App
The Maps app on your iPad wouldn’t be very useful if you couldn’t use it to find things. You can search for places you want to go and people you want to see — including people you have stored as contacts.
How to find a person, place, or thing
To find a person, place, or thing with Maps, follow these steps:
Tap the Search field in the upper-right corner of the screen to make the keyboard appear, and then type what you’re looking for.
You can search for addresses, zip codes, intersections, towns, landmarks, and businesses by category and by name, or combinations, such as New York, NY 10022; pizza 60645; or Auditorium Shores Austin, TX.
(Optional) If the letters you type match names in your contacts list, the matching contacts appear in a list below the Search field; tap a name to see a map of that contact’s location.
Maps is smart about it, too; it displays only the names of contacts that have a street address.
When you finish typing, tap Search.
After a few seconds, a map appears. If you searched for a single location, it’s marked with a pushpin. If you searched for a category (pizza 60645, for example), you see multiple pushpins, one for each matching location.
You can tap the little circle with three horizontal lines on the right in the Search field, and a drop-down list of matching locations appears.
How to connect maps and contacts
Maps and contacts go together like peanut butter and jelly. For example, here are two helpful tasks that illustrate maps and contacts at work.
To see a map of a contact’s street address, follow these steps:
Tap the little Bookmarks icon to the left of the Search field.
Tap the Contacts button at the bottom of the overlay.
Tap the contact’s name whose address you want to see on the map.
Alternatively, just type the first few letters of a contact’s name in the Search field, and then tap the name in the Suggestions list that appears below the Search field whenever what you type matches one or more contact names.
If you find a location by typing an address into the Search field, you can add that location to one of your contacts or create a new contact with a location you’ve found. To do either one, follow these steps:
Tap the location’s pushpin on the map.
Tap the little i in a blue circle to the right of the location’s name or description (as shown next to Gullivers).
That contact’s Info screen opens.
Tap the Add to Contacts button to create a new entry for the location in your contacts list.
Tap Create New Contact or Add to Existing Contact, whichever is applicable.
Fill in the new contact information and tap Done. Or, select an existing contact from the list that appears.
You work with your contacts by tapping the Contacts icon on your Home screen.
Don’t forget that you can swipe across your iPad screen with four or five fingers to switch apps. So if you’re in Contacts, a four or five-finger swipe from right to left should bring you back to the Maps app.
And don’t forget you could also use a four-finger swipe upward to reveal the multitasking bar at the bottom of the screen.
If nothing happens when you swipe with four or five fingers, tap Settings→General, scroll down to the Multitasking Gestures On/Off switch, and make sure it’s set to On.
You can also get driving, walking, and public transit directions from most locations, including a contact’s address — to any other location including another contact’s address.
