3D Touch text select (via trackpad feature)

[jamesryanbell]

One of the coolest things about 3D touch seems to be the text select feature where you press harder on the keyboard and it becomes a trackpad to select text (press harder on keyboard, it becomes a trackpad; put cursor over word, then press a little harder, and it selects the text).

But something is confusing to me. If want to COPY that text, there's no pop-up for that. Once the text is selected, all you can do is delete it. When you highlight text the old way (pre 3D Touch), little "cut", "copy", "paste" etc balloons pop up. When I use 3D touch to highlight text, I can't seem to do anything with the highlight except delete that text. If I click on the highlight with my finger, the highlight on the text goes away.

Am I missing something?

TL;DR: How do you copy/cut text once it's selected if you do it with the 3D Touch trackpad feature?

 

[DJLC]

Just tested this and it seems to work as you describe... select text from trackpad, tap lightly on highlighted text, and the familiar Cut / Copy / Paste balloons pop up. I'm on a 6S with iOS 9.1 PB2.

Not to be a jackass, but did you tap on the highlight just right? Or maybe it's something they fixed in 9.1?

 

[jamesryanbell]

Just tested this and it seems to work as you describe... select text from trackpad, tap lightly on highlighted text, and the familiar Cut / Copy / Paste balloons pop up. I'm on a 6S with iOS 9.1 PB2.

Not to be a jackass, but did you tap on the highlight just right? Or maybe it's something they fixed in 9.1?

Finally, yes, but most of the time, tapping the text (unless it happens to be a VERY perfectly placed tap) just deselects the text.

What I was trying to suggest was "is there a way to make the cut/copy options pop up without ever taking your finger off of the trackpad? (i.e. was some 3D touch option available that I wasn't seeing)

I was trying to select text AND cut/copy from one fluid motion.

 

[stulaw11]

Yes there is. I had to watch a youtube demo as I couldn't figure it out either and there's no indication anywehre how to use it.

3D touch on the keyboard to bring up trackpad mode. Now lighten the pressure to just touching the trackpad area how you would normally swipe on the screen type pressure (let off the 3D touch pressure). Now press in again. It should activate text selection.

 

[redman042]

My experience is you have to tap the highlighted text to bring up those options. There doesn't appear to be any other way. As a side note, the only way to bring up UNDO is to shake the phone (unless you have a Plus and turn it sideways for the wider keyboard). I wish they would come up with something else there too.

As far as using the trackpad, what I have found is that you need a pretty firm press to initiate it (just a quick "stab" will do), but then you can take the pressure off right away and still use it. Just need to keep your finger in contact with the screen the whole time. Then to change to select mode, add pressure again (then you can let off right afterwards). Repeat to toggle modes.

So the sequence is like this:

Initiate trackpad: Quick firm press followed by continuing to lightly rest thumb on display. Move thumb around to position cursor.

Initiate select mode: With your thumb still touching the display, give a quick stab of firmer pressure then let off (but don't lift thumb off of display). Move around to select. If you change your mind, a quick stab of pressure will toggle the select mode off.

Copy/paste/etc: Tap the selected text.

 

[jamesryanbell]

Yes there is. I had to watch a youtube demo as I couldn't figure it out either and there's no indication anywehre how to use it.

3D touch on the keyboard to bring up trackpad mode. Now lighten the pressure to just touching the trackpad area how you would normally swipe on the screen type pressure (let off the 3D touch pressure). Now press in again. It should activate text selection.

It does. I was asking if you could cut/copy *without* lifting your finger and trying to tap the text after it's selected. I wanted to do what you described above AND have a cut/copy option by pressing deeper.