I’ve been trying to find my ideal way of typing on the iPad and have a few thoughts and “methods” to share:
Landscape Typing
I’ll start off with an observation that commenters on some other posts have shared, namely that typing is actually more comfortable when the iPad is simply lying flat on the table.
I work around this a little by making sure I maintain a good posture when I sit, and pay attention to where my fingers stay in their default position. Although the nubs on the “F” and “K” keys can’t be felt on the touchscreen, I still try and use the home row as a guide, with each of my middle fingers hovering above “D” and “K”. This keeps my wrists relatively straight while still allowing me hands to fly over the keyboard as needed.
Touch typing on the iPad is possible, but it’s different than on a physical keyboard, since the keyboard design basically assumes that my pinkies have been cut off. There simply isn’t enough space for me to use all of my fingers, so I find myself typing without my pinkies or my thumbs (Yoda style!).
All typing is about rhythm and I’ve found that once I get into the swing of things on the iPad, it’s some of the breeziest typing I’ve ever done. My hands are more open and flat than on a physical keyboard and don’t tend to stay as static, since actually leaning on the keyboard will produce gibberish (i.e. learn belt aero.jvner.k$). When I’m really in the swing of things it feels like I’m break dancing on the touchscreen…with my fingers.
Typing in Portrait
Portrait mode is an altogether different beast and feels much more like the iPhone’s keyboard. I almost wish it were split halfway and made a little smaller so that I could use it as a thumb board (I remember Gruber mentioning this a while back as well).
Portrait is the more awkward of the two keyboards, though, since I’ll usually hold the iPad up in portrait mode, but its keyboard is best used when the iPad is lying on its back on a flat surface. An Apple branded voice-to-text solution would be very handy as an alternative.
Trouble Cases
I tend to have trouble with the word “you” because I type it too quickly, any word that needs capitalisation usually ends up with an “a” in front of it because the left shift key is So Damn Small.
The Symbols (.?123) key can also be troublesome because of its inconsistent design. Tapping and holding on it and the tapping on an apostrophe will bring you right back to the regular keyboard, but tapping on any other key — be it a number or a symbol — will not. In this latter case, you’ll always need a second tap on the symbols key to return to the regular keyboard. Strange.
Conclusion
I ultimately want this touchscreen keyboard to work out so that I can enjoy writing on this device without any extra accessories. I enjoy using a Bluetooth keyboard with the iPad but don’t want to get too attached to it as a solution since Apple may never implement the keyboard shortcuts I believe I need, and there isn’t always space on a table for both the iPad and a keyboard.
If you have any keyboard tips or thoughts, I’d be more than happy to read them, please do share them in the comments.
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