Keyboard Tips

Keyboard Tips

Those of you who are veterans of the iPhone may know this already.  For those who are new, these tips are great time-savers.

One of the frustrating things about the Apple device’s touch-screen keyboard is the need to switch to a separate keyboard screen to type a period, comma, question mark or other punctuation. Well, consider that a thing of the past.  Using this typing tip, you can add a period or other punctuation starting from and returning to the ABC keyboard using only one finger stroke.

Tip 1 - So here’s what you can do to type punctuation, all in one motion:

• Touch the “.123″ key, but don’t lift your finger as the punctuation layout appears.
• Slide your finger a half inch onto the period or comma key, and release.
• The ABC layout returns automatically. You’ve typed a period or a comma with one finger touch instead of three. In fact, you can type ANY of the punctuation symbols the same way.
• A similar approach can be used for capitalizing letters when typing.

Tip 2 - If you need to type an entire WORD in caps, tap the up-arrow (shift key) twice.  It will put you into caps lock mode.

Tip 3 – Keyboard Shortcuts (for iPad only.  I believe this no longer works for iPhone since the upgrade to iOS 6.  If you have an older iPhone still running an earlier operating system, it may work.  Some of you will let me know if I’m wrong, I’m sure!)

If you have a phrase or sentence that you type often, such as your email address, you can create a keyboard shortcut.  Here’s how to add shortcuts:

• In the Settings app, tap on General > Keyboard.
• From there, you have a couple of choices on editing and creating your shortcuts.
• You can tap on “Edit” in the top right or tap on “Add New Shortcut…” at the lower part of the screen.
• You can now enter shortcuts. One you may want to enter is your email address.
• In the “Phrase” section, type in your email address. For the short cut, type eml. Tap “Save.”
• Now, open notes or any other app and type “eml.” Your email address will replace the phrase eml.
• Obviously, you will need to pick a short cut that is not part of the beginning of words you may use because you will never be able to type those words without the shortcut kicking in.