There are many hidden features in iOS that many people are unaware of. I’m going to try to go through them periodically to pull them out of the shadows. This week, we’ll focus on typing.
#1 Special Characters. If you find yourself having to type words in a language other than English, you may need to use special characters. For many desktop OSs there are key combinations for all the special characters. iOS makes it a bit easier than having to memorize obscure combinations. All you need to do on your iDevice is tap and hold your finger on whatever letter you need alternate forms for. A little window will pop up and you can pick the letter from there. So the next time you’re jonesing for an umlaut, just tap and hold!
#2 Change Your Screen Keyboard’s Position. If you look at your keyboard, there is an icon in the lower right row that looks like a keyboard. (Keyboard Inception? -Ed.) If you tap this, you can undock the keyboard which will allow you to move it up and down on the screen, or you can split the keyboard. I’ve found that when holding the keyboard in landscape mode, it’s much easier to type with a split keyboard.
#3 Bypass Switching to the Number/Symbol Page. If you tap and hold the exclamation point you’ll get the option to insert an apostrophe, if you do this to the question mark you’ll get a double apostrophe.
#4 Double Tap It. Two double tap short cuts: you can double tap the spacebar to insert a period, or double tap shift to enable caps lock.