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Bigger spacebar in 4.3!!!!

anthonymoody

anthonymoody

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Aug 8, 2002
3,186
1,311
Sorry if this seems like much ado about nothing to many of you, but as an all day every day user of the iPad (see my signature...) this is a huge deal. Another user posted a screenshot in a different thread, but I'm so excited about this that i wanted to bring it to everyones attention in its own thread.

The spacebar now extends one key further to the right, all the way under the ! Key. This is a BIG DEAL for me. I use my right thumb for spacebar. All the time. And i all-too-frequently accidentally tap the 123 key to the right of the spacebar, rather than the spacebar itself. And apples autocorrect isn't smart enough to parse the resulting shifted gibberish when that happens.

It's the little things in life I guess! I've moaned about this (specifically asking for a way to configure the size of the spacebar) but a permanent change works for me!!! Thanks Apple!!
 
anthonymoody said:
The spacebar now extends one key further to the right, all the way under the ! Key. This is a BIG DEAL for me.
Click to expand...
Interesting point. I don't type enough on my iPad to have become 'fluent' at it so this has never been a problem for me. I do however much prefer my full-sized wired Apple keyboard over the bluetooth one, in part because it has a wider spacebar. I can see how this would be even more important on the iPad what with the lack of tactile feedback and all.
 
Having looked at a screenshot I think that this is probably a good move. It doesn't feel right aesthically because of the non-symmetry it introduces. However I can't remember ever using the right-hand symbol key so it makes practical sense to use some of that space for the Space key.
 
Benjy91 said:
Only if it's dark and I press the wrong side thinking it's the button :p
Click to expand...

You know it's funny but my case - a Portenzo notebook style case which I LOVE and in which my iPad sits permanently - has 'taught' me that the button is "always on the left" after always having had it on the right for no reason I can discern :)
 
But no cursor control arrows?

How about a numeric keypad next to the keyboard when in landscape mode?

Or a 5th row of keys on the portrait keyboard, so you have numbers across the top?

All things that would make a big difference.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Just put bracket img bracket and bracket forwardslash img bracket (no added spaces in the brackets) around the link to post the pic.

Like this...http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b340/SidewaysTakumi/8ae9acc5.jpg

Here's the pic tho...
attachment.php
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Doh! Thanks SidewaysTakumi. I guess I have to learn some basic HTML one of these days. :eek:
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Nice catch. I like the new style.
 
PBF said:
I'm sorry, but what's up with the asymmetry??? Wouldn't it make more sense to extend the space bar beyond the letter C, until the letter X to make it more symmetrical??? Looks stupid.
Click to expand...

No doubt. They extended the .?123 button and left side of space bar is the same. They extended it to the right instead. I like to use my left thumb on the space bar, so this doesn't help at all.

And a number row on top wouldn't be too much to ask for, would it?
 
Mitchrapp said:
No doubt. They extended the .?123 button and left side of space bar is the same. They extended it to the right instead. I like to use my left thumb on the space bar, so this doesn't help at all.

And a number row on top wouldn't be too much to ask for, would it?
Click to expand...

No don't use your left thumb. That's wrong ;)

Seriously though, my real pref would be to make the bottom row configurable. Shouldn't be too hard either from a technical standpoint. The UI could be cool too - like the Select tool for copy and paste - you could drag the ends of the spacebar to make it longer or shorter :)

I would also like to permanently put an @ key in place of the right ?123 key because so many websites require you to enter an email address but don't "tell" the iPad that it's prompting you for an email address and so the keyboard doesn't intelligently adapt.

I think adding a row of number buttons would work only if they were half height. Full height would take up too much of the otherwise available writing space IMO.
 
anthonymoody said:
I think adding a row of number buttons would work only if they were half height. Full height would take up too much of the otherwise available writing space IMO.
Click to expand...

I agree, you could shave 1 or 2 mm off the current keys and get enough space to put a narrow line of numbers.

Better still, do as Palm and Pocket PC did many years ago and allow 3rd party keyboards to be used.

There is no technical reason why not, and no one will force anyone to use anything, but I know the great graphic designers and devs we have on these forums, and I know they could come up with some excellent custom layouts if Apple allowed them to.

Now you will see posts by Apple fans saying no, Apple should not allow this :)

Unless they did, then it would be a great idea :D
 
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