How to use the two onscreen keyboards on your iPod Touch


You'll find two onscreen keyboards on your iPod touch: the smaller one visible when you hold your iPod touch in a vertical orientation, and the larger landscape keyboard when you hold the iPod touch horizontally. You can easily choose the keyboard that works best for you, and switch whenever you want.

Typing on the Screen with Two Thumbs

When you first start out with your iPod touch, you'll probably find you can most easily type with one finger - usually your index finger - while holding the iPod touch with your other hand.

After a little while, try experimenting with thumb typing (like you see so many people doing on their phones). Once you practice a little, typing with two thumbs instead of one finger will really boost your speed. Just be patient, it does take some practice to become proficient with your thumbs.

You'll actually notice after a while that the keyboard touch sensitivity assumes you are typing with two thumbs. What this means is that the letters on the left side of your keyboard are meant to be pressed on their left side, and the keys on the right are meant to be pressed on their right side.

Saving Time with Auto-Correction

After typing for a while, you may to notice a little pop-up window directly below some of the words you're typing - this is called Auto-Correction. You can save typing time when you see the correct word guessed by just pressing the Space key at the bottom of the keyboard.

In an example I start typing the word "especially" and when I get to the c, the correct word appears below in a pop-up. To select it, I simply press the Space key on the keyboard.

Your first inclination might be to tap the pop-up word, but that just erases it from the screen. It's ultimately faster to keep typing or press the Space key when you see the correct word, as there will be more situations in which the word is either correct or will become correct as you keep typing - less finger travel in the long run.

Once you become accustomed to using the Space key this way, you'll find that this pop-up guessing can be quite a time-saver. After all, you'd have to type a space at the end of the word anyway. Sometimes the Auto-Correction word is incorrect; in this case, you can simply press the Backspace key and you'll see a pop-up appear with the original word before Auto-Correction changed it.

Hearing Auto-Correction Words Out Loud

You can set your iPod touch to say the Auto-text and Auto-Correction words as they appear. This might be helpful for selecting the correct word. To enable this feature: Tap the Settings icon. Tap General. Tap Accessibility near the bottom of the page (you need to swipe down). Set the switch next to Speak Auto-text to On.

Now whenever you're typing, you'll hear the Auto-Correction word that pops up. If you agree with the word you hear, press the Space key to accept it; otherwise, keep typing. Not having to look up at the keyboard can save you some time.

Spell Checker

Working together with Auto-Correction is the built-in spell-checker. Most of the time, your misspelled words will be caught and corrected automatically by Auto-Correction, but not always. When Auto-Correction thinks a word is misspelled, it underlines the word with a red dotted line. If you tap the word, you'll see some suggestions for what might be the correct word and you can simply select the correct one.

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This article was sent to us by: Trevor Reilly at 01052011

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