Techie Mum: Add your contact details to the iPad lock screen

Setting up your child's iPad for school

It's all very well having a passcode on your child’s iPad so no one but them can access it, but what if it gets lost? Sure, you can use Find My iPhone, but if it's just been left somewhere at school and needs to find its way back to your child you need to make sure it is identifiable.

Your identification choices are:

Add their name and a contact number to the iPad case/cover – great as long as the iPad stays in the case
Engrave their name and a contact number on the iPad back (a permanent option, but hidden if the iPad is in a case)
Add their name, year, class number, contact number (or any other information you want) to the lock screen, so it's the first thing that is seen when the iPad opens. This is the easiest option, and it’s also one you can change whenever you need to, ie. change of year, change of phone number etc.

How to customise the iPad lock screen

You don't need to install an app to add your choice of information to the lock screen. You can use any method you like to create an image that you can save as a photo which can then be chosen as the lock screen image. You could even handwrite it and then take a photo of the paper with your child's iPad.

Alternatively, and the method I used for my boys’ iPads, was to create an image in PowerPoint. It is likely that one of the apps you needed to download was either PowerPoint or Keynote, so why not use what you already have. Just select a nice theme and create one slide with the text you want. Run the slide show and take a screen shot of that one slide.

I’ll run you through the instructions using the PowerPoint app, although it’s almost identical with Keynote:

1. Open PowerPoint and select a theme your child likes

2. Double tap each placeholder (text box) and type your text. You can move the position of each placeholder by tapping it once so you see the solid frame around it, then dragging it to its new position.

TIP: If you’re using Keynote, the first slide doesn’t always feature the theme you chose, so add a second slide and use that one to create your lock screen image.

3. Once you are happy with your slide, tap the play button, in the top right corner

4. Wait a second for the tool bar at the top of the screen to disappear so your slide takes up the full iPad screen, then take a screen shot. To take a screen shot on the iPad just simultaneously press the home and power buttons.