Hidden feature: fast way to type a period (punctuation)

[MrMighty]

So here’s what you can do, all in one motion:

1. Touch the “.?123” key, but don’t lift your finger as the punctuation layout appears.

2. Slide your finger a half inch onto the period or comma key, and release.

Incredibly, 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.

http://missingmanuals.com/pogues_awe...g_shortcut.csp

[davechen]

Very cool!

[iKwick7]

Sounds pretty cool- let's see if this is a solid speed improvement for me when typing.

[David R]

Thank You!

[elistan]

It works! Sweet!
You can multitouch it too if you prefer. Use your left thumb to hit the .?123 button, and use the right to touch the period button. As soon as you release either button, you get your period on the screen, and the keyboard goes back to the alpha layout. This only works with the period, not the comma from what I can tell.

[plumbingandtech]

NICEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.....

thank you so much.

[dagger55]

Thank God. This is an acceptable solution.

I wish Apple would have showed us this!

[iSee]

let's see...

Yah, it works!

In fact it works for all the punctuation! [edit: oops, this was mentioned in the original post]

- /GH

IT WORKS WITH THE SHIFT BUTTON TOO!!!

[cwedl]

I should imagine he sits down with an apple engineer and asks them questions and also asks for tips about the iPhone.

[worldwearyeyes]

great news! and it works well too!

[Yankees 4 Life]

this is pretty tight

[plumbingandtech]

I'm really starting to like this "hold down and slide your finger and we don't consider it a keystroke until you lift up." thing.

[QuarterSwede]

Originally Posted by plumbingandtech

I'm really starting to like this "hold down and slide your finger and we don't consider it a keystroke until you lift up." thing.

Interesting that Apple brought and OS X menu feature to the iPhone.

In OS X you can either click on a menu the usual Windows way and then mouse down the list and click again to select an option or you can click and hold then mouse down the menu and release the button and it selects the option.

[tobefirst]

In the absence of having it on the main keyboard screen (which was a terrible decision), this will have to do. It's at least a little quicker.

[nbs2]

Originally Posted by QuarterSwede

Interesting that Apple brought and OS X menu feature to the iPhone.

In OS X you can either click on a menu the usual Windows way and then mouse down the list and click again to select an option or you can click and hold then mouse down the menu and release the button and it selects the option.

Now that you mention it, I just tried it on my work computer. It works in Windows too.

I suppose Apple did say that thay wanted the experience to be as desktop-like as possible...

[Shagrat]

Originally Posted by tobefirst

In the absence of having it on the main keyboard screen (which was a terrible decision), this will have to do. It's at least a little quicker.

...and unlike a "real" keyboard could be changed just by amending the code!

[Subiklim]

Originally Posted by QuarterSwede

Interesting that Apple brought and OS X menu feature to the iPhone.

In OS X you can either click on a menu the usual Windows way and then mouse down the list and click again to select an option or you can click and hold then mouse down the menu and release the button and it selects the option.

I'm pretty sure you can do the same in windows.

[tobefirst]

Originally Posted by Shagrat

...and unlike a "real" keyboard could be changed just by amending the code!

Which would hopefully be a software update and not a "New Feature!!!" of iPhone 2.0. d-:

[iSee]

On further reflection,

This is a really interesting feature as compared to physical keyboards.

This drag-shift typing is only workable with a touch screen.
On a physical keyboard, you'd either have to suffer with a laborious shifting mechanism (nasty for one-handed typing), an even more laborious mode switching mechanism, or a gigantic keyboard--most of which you don't use that often.

This is really, really nice.

[Noumenon]

Wow great, think of all the tenths of a second this will refund me back from EDGE. (j/k)

[joelk]

acceptable work around ... although after using a BB for so long there is something satisfying in the deeper regions of my brain when double spacing for a period. it's some reptilian instinct i find hard to let go.

[MadDog31]

Great tip! I love all of these hidden features...should almost be a sticky full of them for easy access. I read of a URL bar shortcut yesterday that works like a charm too.

[v-ault]

pressing space will get it back to the ABC screen, too

[St. Germain]

That is awesome. I wonder how many other little usability things has hidden away for us.

[whooleytoo]

Originally Posted by QuarterSwede

Interesting that Apple brought and OS X menu feature to the iPhone.

In OS X you can either click on a menu the usual Windows way and then mouse down the list and click again to select an option or you can click and hold then mouse down the menu and release the button and it selects the option.

Once upon a long time ago, that was the only way Mac menus worked - you couldn't click to show the menu and click again to select.