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iPod touch On Screen keyboard - does it get easier?

G

gbross

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 17, 2008
56
0
I played around with a Touch yesterday at my local Apple Store and found the keyboard a bit frustrating.

Example: Everytime I wanted to type an "o" I would accidently hit the "p".

The sales rep said all people are like that at first but your accuracy gets better over time.

Truth to this?
 
Yes, it gets easier. I found that looking at the letters that popped up (instead of directly at the keyboard) helped a lot. At first, I didn't like the Touch keyboard at all - but it grows on you, and it's hugely better than the stylus/cramped virtual keyboard of my Palm Pilot PDA.
 
Gets easier for sure. I can send an email, not a detailed one obviously, but a general email just fine. Still would use a keyboard for a large email.:apple:
 
I got my Touch a week ago and I'm starting to get use to the keyboard, and picking up some speed. I don't fully understand one thing. When you start typing a work a dropdown with a suggested word appears. How you do you accept that word?
 
stockcerts said:
I got my Touch a week ago and I'm starting to get use to the keyboard, and picking up some speed. I don't fully understand one thing. When you start typing a work a dropdown with a suggested word appears. How you do you accept that word?
Click to expand...

The spacebar :)
 
Sesshi said:
Threr months since my first Touch and. Of still has not got ant bwttwe.

My eyes most ip on nostalgia when I use I'd. It's like AAVE the newton all over again.
Click to expand...

Is that written on the iTouch's keyboard? :p

I got used to mine quite quickly, but it was very slow at first.
 
stockcerts said:
I got my Touch a week ago and I'm starting to get use to the keyboard, and picking up some speed. I don't fully understand one thing. When you start typing a work a dropdown with a suggested word appears. How you do you accept that word?
Click to expand...

Hit the space bar and it will finish the word. Also, double tapping the spacebar adds a period and a space as well as turns on the caps key for you. Pretty sweet.
 
macpluslaptop said:
Yes, it gets easier. I found that looking at the letters that popped up (instead of directly at the keyboard) helped a lot. At first, I didn't like the Touch keyboard at all - but it grows on you, and it's hugely better than the stylus/cramped virtual keyboard of my Palm Pilot PDA.
Click to expand...
And apparently it's as easy as the Treo's keyboard. My brother-in-law says the iPhone is insanely better than his Treo (which he used for years).
 
Sesshi said:
Threr months since my first Touch and. Of still has not got ant bwttwe.

My eyes most ip on nostalgia when I use I'd. It's like AAVE the newton all over again.
Click to expand...

The funniest part is that I know what he is saying since I make the same mistakes.

The most important thing to remember: just keep typing. It's amazing what weird words I come up with that are actually corrected. You just keep on trucking, and the right word pops up. And it's amazing what it will suggest sometimes. It has quite a vocabulary.

For instance, type in "guck" and see what it suggests.;)
 
It gets easier and I'm always fat fingering keys on a regular keyboard. The one thing I can't seem to train myself to do is use the auto completion tool correctly. I'm always tapping the suggested word thinking it will use it and frequently hit the space bar to move to the next word thereby inserting the incorrect word..
 
I know its pretty scary to trust the keyboard, scared of making mistakes but believe me, go ahead and do two finger typing and go fast. It is pretty accurate on guessing what you meant to type.
 
definitely gets better. If I just picture where they keys are in your head and don't look at the onscreen keyboard I can fly. Just let it make the corrections. I basically just type in the general area where I know the letters are and it fixes it. The only exception would be short words like if / to / etc.
 
Quasiportnoy said:
The funniest part is that I know what he is saying since I make the same mistakes.

The most important thing to remember: just keep typing. It's amazing what weird words I come up with that are actually corrected. You just keep on trucking, and the right word pops up. And it's amazing what it will suggest sometimes. It has quite a vocabulary.

For instance, type in "guck" and see what it suggests.;)
Click to expand...

I saw the iPhone keyboard tutorial video on Apple's site and it says that the iPhone learns the words you type most often... I guess you've got a potty-mouth. ;-)
 
stockcerts said:
I got my Touch a week ago and I'm starting to get use to the keyboard, and picking up some speed. I don't fully understand one thing. When you start typing a work a dropdown with a suggested word appears. How you do you accept that word?
Click to expand...

Also, if you don't want to accept the word, touch it when it pops up. I find myself forgetting to do that sometimes and reading back to see some weird stuff.
 
Question.

If I made a mistake in a word is there a way to go back and correct it? It seems I cannot do it I have to erase and start over. I tried to tap on the place that I need to correct but it does not work. Also when I dragging a finger across typed words something like magnifying glass appears, anybody knows what does it do? Thanks.
 
Barbariska said:
If I made a mistake in a word is there a way to go back and correct it? It seems I cannot do it I have to erase and start over. I tried to tap on the place that I need to correct but it does not work. Also when I dragging a finger across typed words something like magnifying glass appears, anybody knows what does it do? Thanks.
Click to expand...

I think you answered your own question. If you hold your finger over a text area, the magnifying glass pops up, you slide your cusor to where you want to be and delete/type. Then repeat to get back to where you left off.

Pj
 
FWIW, I've found that typing does get better as others have said already...

Meanwhile, there've been some good keyboard tips here...

So, maybe someone here can let me know if there's a way to have a 'Caps Lock' like function with the keyboard???

Sometimes this would be very handy....

Thanks,

Mark
 
I have to admit, the one thing I dislike about the leather sleeve I got for my iPt is that it makes typing buttons on the edge of the keyboard more difficult than it needs to be.

Other than that, though, you adjust quite quickly.

I think that Sesshi's exaggerating a little bit. You get where you can type at a pretty good pace once you learn to trust the thing a little. Ironically, mine doesn't seem to be correcting my spelling as I type this up. Weird.
 
ArchiMark said:
So, maybe someone here can let me know if there's a way to have a 'Caps Lock' like function with the keyboard???

Sometimes this would be very handy....

Thanks,

Mark
Click to expand...

Caps lock is enabled in the Settings menu under the General tab then look under Keyboard. Once activated just double tap the shift key to lock.

Another tip is to remember an entry isn't accepted until you let go of the keyboard. So if you are adding numbers or punctuation press the 123 key then, WITH YOUR FINGER STILL PRESSED DOWN, slide your finger to whichever number or mark you want THEN LET GO.

Also you can ignore inputting some punctuation as the keyboard will insert it for you e.g. isn't can't won't didn't shouldn't - all typed without manually adding the apostrophe.
 
i noticed that if you flip the ipod sideways on screens that support it the keyboard is more spread out and i make alot fewer mistakes. so i almost always use safari in the sideways mode instead of the straight up and down mode.
 
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