Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

samcraig

macrumors P6
Original poster
Jun 22, 2009
16,779
41,982
USA
I can understand on the iPhone. But no tab key on the iPad? Weird. I am assuming that Pages doesn't magically add one either. Hmmm
 

ndriver182

macrumors 6502a
Jun 26, 2007
569
4
I can understand on the iPhone. But no tab key on the iPad? Weird. I am assuming that Pages doesn't magically add one either. Hmmm

Yes this was kind of a bummer. I naturally went to use the tab button a few times yesterday only to find that it didn't exist. Maybe it would be nice if they made the return key slightly smaller so that they could fit a tab key on the left side.
 

samcraig

macrumors P6
Original poster
Jun 22, 2009
16,779
41,982
USA
You'd think with pages now they would have done it. How do you tab in pages? Move around in numbers?
 

Eso

macrumors 68020
Aug 14, 2008
2,026
919
Please don't tell me you got one, Sam!

I'd also like to see how well manipulating the cursor in Pages pans out in real use. Moving the cursor to a particular point, selecting a chunk of text and moving it around in the document, and selecting a large amount of text that requires scrolling across the screen (very hard to do with the iPhone). Tasks like this are very common for rearranging paragraphs, editing punctuation, and changing font style/size and paragraph spacing.

Good luck.
 

dave1812dave

macrumors 6502a
May 15, 2009
858
0
Please don't tell me you got one, Sam!

I'd also like to see how well manipulating the cursor in Pages pans out in real use. Moving the cursor to a particular point, selecting a chunk of text and moving it around in the document, and selecting a large amount of text that requires scrolling across the screen (very hard to do with the iPhone). Tasks like this are very common for rearranging paragraphs, editing punctuation, and changing font style/size and paragraph spacing.

Good luck.

he didn't SAY he bought one. he was just asking questions. perhaps he did, but I think you are inferring something that he didn't state.
 

rdowns

macrumors Penryn
Jul 11, 2003
27,397
12,520
In the Chase app (iPhone version), the keyboard the iPad brings up has no decimal point. Makes paying a bill rather difficult. :rolleyes:
 

samcraig

macrumors P6
Original poster
Jun 22, 2009
16,779
41,982
USA
I did get one. You can read why in my thread confessions of an impulse ipad buyer
 

qpid360

macrumors 6502a
Apr 23, 2009
548
116
Pasadena, CA
In the Pages app, you have to turn into portrait mode and press an icon which lets you tab. This is stupid and needs to be addressed asap. Makes no sense for me to be typing, pick up the iPad to turn it, press the icon, select to tab, then place iPad in horizontal mode again to continue typing.
 

HBEE

macrumors newbie
May 9, 2010
1
0
Indenting a bullet point in Keynote on the iPad

I haven't seen this posted anywhere, but I just figured out how to indent a bullet point in Keynote using the touch screen.

If you double click on the bulleted text, you get option to cut, paste etc. If you then touch between the bullet point and the text, the whole line gets highlighted and you can move it wherever you like. You can indent it or move it up or down.

I hope this isn't obvious to others 'cause I'll feel like a dork.
 

ovrlrd

macrumors 65816
Aug 29, 2009
1,384
146
There is nothing I hate more than editing someone elses document that they wrote up that has spacing in it that was created using the tab key. If you do not know how to use margins in Pages then you should go learn how. Using the tab key is like typing on a typewriter from old days, you have a word processor that is capable of creating excellent margins and advanced spacing but you choose to screw up the entire formatting of your document by using the tab key? You are ridiculous, such an awful habit to reinforce, I am glad Apple did not include a tab key.
 

antiprotest

macrumors 68040
Apr 19, 2010
3,950
13,670
There is nothing I hate more than editing someone elses document that they wrote up that has spacing in it that was created using the tab key. If you do not know how to use margins in Pages then you should go learn how. Using the tab key is like typing on a typewriter from old days, you have a word processor that is capable of creating excellent margins and advanced spacing but you choose to screw up the entire formatting of your document by using the tab key? You are ridiculous, such an awful habit to reinforce, I am glad Apple did not include a tab key.

What about paragraph indents?

I haven't used paragraph indents for years, even though I write books, since it is now acceptable to do without them.

But I wonder how people do it nowadays, if not with the tab key?
 

ovrlrd

macrumors 65816
Aug 29, 2009
1,384
146
What about paragraph indents?

I haven't used paragraph indents for years, even though I write books, since it is now acceptable to do without them.

But I wonder how people do it nowadays, if not with the tab key?

There is a proper way to do indents by either using margins or inserting an indent, which Pages also has a button for.

Again, the tab key is improper these days because it leads to bad formatting and no easy way to correct it without painstakingly going through a document line by line.
 

steel magnolia

macrumors regular
Jan 12, 2008
105
0
South Florida/ N.C.
There is a proper way to do indents by either using margins or inserting an indent, which Pages also has a button for.

Again, the tab key is improper these days because it leads to bad formatting and no easy way to correct it without painstakingly going through a document line by line.

Wow, learn something new all the time on here, I never thought about this and use tab frequently, thanks for making me think about this :)

Patty
 

derekgreer

macrumors newbie
May 23, 2010
3
0
I tried to edit a wiki earlier which required the use of tabs to indicate indents, but discovered there wasn't one. Tabs aren't just used for navigation and indentation in text documents.
 

Lipplog

macrumors newbie
May 25, 2010
5
0
There is nothing I hate more than editing someone elses document that they wrote up that has spacing in it that was created using the tab key. If you do not know how to use margins in Pages then you should go learn how. Using the tab key is like typing on a typewriter from old days, you have a word processor that is capable of creating excellent margins and advanced spacing but you choose to screw up the entire formatting of your document by using the tab key? You are ridiculous, such an awful habit to reinforce, I am glad Apple did not include a tab key.

The tab key is useless... Unless you're a screenwriter. In the Final Draft software, the tab key is used to jump from action to character to dialogue to slug line. For us, the tab key is essential. Which may be one of the reasons why they are taking so long to release a version for the iPad. It's been in the testing phase forever.
 

Fry-man22

macrumors 6502
Nov 25, 2007
455
26
There is nothing I hate more than editing someone elses document that they wrote up that has spacing in it that was created using the tab key. If you do not know how to use margins in Pages then you should go learn how. Using the tab key is like typing on a typewriter from old days, you have a word processor that is capable of creating excellent margins and advanced spacing but you choose to screw up the entire formatting of your document by using the tab key? You are ridiculous, such an awful habit to reinforce, I am glad Apple did not include a tab key.

Fanboy post of the day winner - so essentially, if it doesn't do it then you're wanting to do the wrong thing.

The device shouldn't decide the proper form for my interaction, I should decide that...
 

xgfx

macrumors member
Sep 7, 2008
60
0
Although I can see the argument for not using tabs in word processing, and I can kind of agree with that, I would still expect a tab key. My reasoning? Well when typing an email, or filling in a form online it can be quite a pain to keep repositioning my hands from typing mode, to having to touch somewhere on the screen to go to the next field.

eg. typing an email; going from the 'to' field, to the subject, then the message body would be so much quicker with a tab, or even create a new button, calling it something like 'next'?

That's really my only larger gripe with the iPad right now.
 

kaelell

macrumors 6502
Nov 16, 2009
346
0
perhaps the thinking is, for any serious typing, youll be using the physical keyboard. And why not , its great.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.