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iPad Pro Does anyone enjoy the iPad Pro onscreen typing experience?

C

Ctg44

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 25, 2012
197
108
I have a 12.9” iPad Pro that I use with a keyboard, so typing on it is fine. I also just bought an 11” iPad Pro and I’m not planning on using a keyboard case with it, so I can keep it more portable and lightweight. Well trying to get used to the onscreen keyboard has not been an easy task.

I remember back with the old iPads you could split the keyboard, which made it a lot easier to use. Apparently you can’t do that on the Pro’s, which makes it pretty tough to type on.
 
Can't you still put the keyboard in the lower right corner and swipe type with your thumb?
 
Well I got a pencil which helped tremendously, but still wish there was a way to split the keyboard.
 
Enjoy the on-screen typing? No. If I need to type more than a few words I'll switch to a Mac.
 
Enjoy? No.

I don't hate it, though. I'm fine using the onscreen keyboard when I'm typing forum replies or filling out online forms on the couch and stuff.
 
I've never liked how pressing multiple keys at once selects the previously entered word. If you type quickly enough on the onscreen keyboard, you will repeatedly trigger this by accident and there's no way to turn it off. This is one of my longest longstanding gripes with my iPad and it's never been resolved in the nearly seven years since I got it.
 
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for light usage like web browsing and small notes it's alright, though it's a bit sad that Apple is keeping the "swipe" feature an iPhone exclusive
 
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I was at the Apple Store one day and the employee helping me typed on the screen like a normal person would on a keyboard. I was amazed and told him so. He said it took him about 3 months to get where he didn't get annoyed with it. After 6 months it felt natural. The key is hovering without resting fingers as we are all so used to.

If Siri was as good as google at dictation, we wouldn't have to worry about it. ;-)
 
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I have the 2018 11” iPad Pro. I loved it so much that I got rid of my laptop. I don’t use a keyboard with it, I type on it using the onscreen digital keyboard. In fact, I’m typing this post on it. Works wonderfully. And yes, you totally get used to it. For me, an iPad is all about portability & holdability. The 11” is the perfect size for that. When I really want to travel light, i also have an ipad mini. But i do the bulk of my work on the 11”.
 
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Greenmeenie said:
I have the 2018 11” iPad Pro. I loved it so much that I got rid of my laptop. I don’t use a keyboard with it, I type on it using the onscreen digital keyboard. In fact, I’m typing this post on it. Works wonderfully. And yes, you totally get used to it. For me, an iPad is all about portability & holdability. The 11” is the perfect size for that. When I really want to travel light, i also have an ipad mini. But i do the bulk of my work on the 11”.
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Do you use the small “Swype” keyboard or full-size? The problem with full-size, for me, is it’s then a 2-handed thing so I have to set the iPad down to type efficiently. And I haven’t used Swype enough to do it smoothly (the old “Split keyboard” was a good compromise - yes, 2 handed still but you could hold the iPad and type with thumbs. And touch-typing skills were easily transferred to it.)
 
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FreakinEurekan said:
Do you use the small “Swype” keyboard or full-size? The problem with full-size, for me, is it’s then a 2-handed thing so I have to set the iPad down to type efficiently. And I haven’t used Swype enough to do it smoothly (the old “Split keyboard” was a good compromise - yes, 2 handed still but you could hold the iPad and type with thumbs. And touch-typing skills were easily transferred to it.)
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I wish the iPad virtual keyboard supported swipe.

It's funny though - I have owned my 11" iPad Pro for over 4 years, and I still find myself making typos from time to time that I don't experience when typing on my mom's 9.7" iPad. There's just something about the slightly wider keyboard of the 11" iPad that I just can't seem to get used to. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
No. Well it’s fine on the iPad mini but hell no on my iPad Pro 11. It’s too big and not comfortable at all. As Rene Ritchie says it makes me feel like an animal lol I have to have my iPad Pro attached to the Magic Keyboard at all times.
 
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Shanghaichica said:
No. Well it’s fine on the iPad mini but hell no on my iPad Pro 11. It’s too big and not comfortable at all. As Rene Ritchie says it makes me feel like an animal lol I have to have my iPad Pro attached to the Magic Keyboard at all times.
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Similar experience here. Do not have the patience to touch type in general. Way slower and more error prone compared to using hardware keyboard.

I mean touch typing one two words to browse something - I can tolerate it. Touch type a post in the forum or to chat with someone - hell no. Then again I also would not use do it on my phone as well. Touch typing is really not efficient or enjoyable process for me personally. Can be used for some quick things but not for general usage.

I do not have my iPad with the keyboard all the time though because I do use the he pencil a lot. However if we are talking about typing activities then I turn to my Logitech keyboard case.
 
Abazigal said:
I wish the iPad virtual keyboard supported swipe.
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The small keyboard does support swipe. The full size does not. Pinch the keyboard to shrink it.

I’ve been practicing with swipe and…. Some success, but it still isn’t terribly comfortable or fast 😕
 
I like to write on 12.9. I prefer to barely touch the keys so I make fewer errors on iPad compared to a physical keyboard. My daughter have never used physical keyboard and the speed the write on screen is amazing. Practice makes master!
 
I can tolerate the experience but sometimes when I type too fast it just highlights the entire sentence and the next inout replaces it… does that happen to anyone else?
 
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I don’t mind it at all. I actually got the keyboard case but rarely use it nowadays because it adds so much weight and for most things I’m fine with the on-screen keyboard.
 
darngooddesign said:
I would like it a lot more if Apple gave the split-screen keyboard to the 13” Pros.
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This. Apple's decision to limit the split keyboard to sub-10.5" iPads is such a weird arbitrary limitation. I can only assume it is designed to push more people to buy physical keyboard cases. The larger an iPad screen is, the more it benefits from a split keyboard option when used as a tablet.
 
I just use the MS swipe keyboard. Its stupid you can't swipe on the default keyboard.
 
I have a few questions about the iPad's onscreen keyboard, without having used one myself (yet):
  • I'm actually a fast typist using hardware keyboards, since 10-finger-typing is one of the few skills I thankfully acquired during high school. Can you actually 10-finger-type on the iPad's virtual keyboard? Can you quickly adapt your hardware-keyboard-10-finger-typing-skills to onscreen keyboards?
  • Also two-thumb-typing is one of the genius novelties that Apple's original iPhone introduced in 2007. In my opinion that skill gets second nature rather quickly. But you can't actually type like that on iPad, can you?
  • What about using Apple Pencil and scribble. Is that a useful alternative for text input?
 
For me, text input on iPad is only tolerable when swyping with Gboard (after I shrink it), but nowhere near as comfortable as with the now-discontinued Swype+Dragon app on Android. Any serious typing better be done on a computer.
 
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