On-screen keyboards
Type faster, write better and send images with Apple’s on-screen keyboard
It’s easy to take for granted now, but when the iPhone was launched many people were unsure about the prospect of tapping on glass. “Typing is done by pecking on the screen with thumbs or fingers, something hardly anyone outside of Apple has experienced yet,” the New York Times reported, while also describing the virtual keyboard as “the biggest worry” about Apple’s yet-to-be-launched smartphone.
“There has never been a massively successful consumer device based solely on a touchscreen,” warned one network CEO; unlike the iPhone, his company disappeared over a decade ago… While it’s easy to mock, the iPhone and iPad keyboard hasn’t always been perfect, and the feature has seen improvements bit by bit over the years.
Letters, numbers and more
The latest version is arguably Apple’s best yet, and the chances are you might not be aware of all its features – or that you can expand them even further with third-party keyboard apps. In this tutorial we’ll look at the most useful features and customisation options, as well as some of the apps you can add to give your fingers even more power.
In most cases the tips and features here will work on both iPad and iPhone, but there are some exceptions. Some third-party keyboard apps aren’t available for iPad, and the swipe keyboard of the iPhone only works on iPad if you put the keyboard into floating mode. Don’t worry, we’ll show you how to do that too.
HOW TO Use alternative keyboards
On both iPhone and iPad, pressing and holding the Space bar makes the keyboard labels disappear and turns the keyboard area into a trackpad. Swipe around to move the cursor to the place you want it, then remove your finger.
You can expand the keyboard in several ways. Pressing and holding a key brings up accents for different languages, and on iPad you can swipe from
