Typing on an on-screen keyboard like the iPad is slower than typing on a regular physical keyboard. If you’re going to use the iPad to type for extended periods of time, getting a bluetooth keyboard is not a bad idea. But if a bluetooth keyboard is not in your plans, there are ways to speed up your typing with the onscreen iPad keyboard. Here are some tips for using the iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch keyboard.
- If you’re typing and hit the wrong letter you can slide your finger across to the correct letter and not skip a beat. This is much better than letting go of the key, pressing the delete key then tapping the correct key.
- Type in landscape mode rather than portrait mode. When you do, the keyboard will be larger which will minimize mistakes. This tip is more geared toward the iPhone and iPod Touch.
- If you’re holding the iPad as you type, split the keyboard by pressing and holding the keyboard button in the bottom right hand corner. Now you can hold the iPad with both hands and type with your thumbs.
- When you’re done with a sentence tap the spacebar twice. A period will be added. This may or may not speed up your typing but it’s another alternative to pressing the dot key.
- As you type iOS will offer suggestions to auto-complete your words. When the system guesses the correct word you can hit return, the spacebar or a punctuation mark so you won’t have to type the rest of the word.
- When typing a URL in the address bar you’ll see a “.com” on the keyboard. When you press and hold it you will be shown other suggestions such as .net or .org.
- If you’re typing an email address tap and hold the period to see .com, .net and other options to complete the email address.
- Need to delete a word quickly? Double tap the word to highlight it then hit the delete key to get rid of it.
- If you want to delete a lot of text you can hit the delete key and hold it. It will remove letters for a couple of seconds, then words, then lines and finally it deletes the whole thing.
- Another way of deleting a lot of text is to double tap any word. Then move the blue dot (on the upper left hand corner of the word) upward to select all the text above it and the other blue dot (on the lower right hand corner of the word) to select all of the text below it, then press the delete key.
- Don’t bother typing apostrophes when you’re writing words like “dont”, “wont” or “cant”. Your iPad will automatically correct them for you as you type.
- If you need to edit text you wrote a few sentences ago, tap and hold the section you want to edit. A magnifying glass will appear which will let you specifically place the cursor where you want to make changes.