With improved external display options in iPadOS, I would like to be able to leave the left sidebar open, and be able to switch from draft to draft using the arrow keys. Basically to have the same workflow that I have on the Mac.
Q) Is this different to pinning the side bar, which is an option today?
A couple of things:
- I’m using the beta iPadOS 26, and I’m not able to pin the side bar. I could be wrong, but this might be because I’m using the new windowing option, rather than full screen apps
- But my memory from when I was able to pin the left sidebar, I couldn’t select a draft, and then move up and down the list of drafts easily with the arrow keys
The availability of sidebar pinning is a function of the window width. You can certainly use it with mulitple windows on iPad, but the window has to be at least roughly double the width of the sidebar for it to be enabled.
If you want to browse through items in the list, you are best off using “next/previous” buttons at the bottom of the editor - especially in a contrained space. Navigation with just arrow keys does not work on iPad. I’ve tried to implement it a number of times, but with editable content in the detail pane, there are a lot of issues with iOS not handling focus properly and messing up use of the arrow keys in the editor.
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Thanks for the explaining how to pin the sidebar, and the constraints on navigation using the arrow keys