Idea for better iPad keyboard

[appleeater]

Using the keypad / onscreen keyboard on the iPad is better than on smartphones (due to its larger screen) but typing strings with latters and digits is still a nightmare.

I think there is enough space for a separate row of digits.
Particularly when one needs the '&' ypu have to press *two* shift keys, 'shift' and '123'.
And when shift, capslock is not on, the letters are, unlike with other onscreen keypads, still in uppercase which is confusing as well.

And the special characters like +-<>, etc. are on a total different location than a normal qwerty keyboard and even differs in different apps.

I hope there will somebody make a customizable system wid keyboard app which behaces like a normal qwerty keyboard.

What is very smart however is that umlauted, accented characters can be entered by holding the unaccented letter and them choosing the accented one.

When sticking to the three-row keyboard, th.is appoach can be used for the digits, e.g. holding the 'q' key displays a '1', etc. Then the '123'mode is only needed when typing numbers only and mixed words (e.g. passwords or (hex)codes) suffice by this aaproach.

I think about e.g.

q w e r t y u i o p

holding longer results in

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

and shifted Q W E R T Y U I O P

where e.g. the 'e' also results in ë é ê for enabling sopecial chars beside the '3'.

in ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( )

which results in a more real qwerty keyboard in three rows. Longer numbers can be tyoped in by the existing '123'mode .




There is one app (iSSH) which has an optional special keypad (you can fonfigure it):

The function keys arebniously unneeded.

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

The problem is that, unless your iPad is jail broken, no keyboard can completely replace the iPad's native keyboard. For sure, you can get a whole range of third-party keyboards but they do not replace the standard one. By that I mean that any third-party keyboard has to have its type copied-and-pasted to the app where you want to use it. That might be OK for some application - perhaps Notes or Pages - but for others it will be entirely inappropriate and time-consuming. For example, how could you possibly fill in a web form using one of these third party on-screen keyboards? I think that, at best, these esoteric keyboards will be little better than an inconvenient workaround, since the iPad's operating system, iOS, does not give an app programmer the ability to accept input from another third-party keyboard - there are no inter-app APIs (application programmer interfaces) available in iOS.

In my view, the best way forward - at least for me - is a folding Bluetooth keyboard.......

Tim

 

[Hasty]

I just like the apple keyboard, but haven't tried taking it around with me as I've become very used to the iPads popup one.
After a years training it's become second nature.

Your best bet is to watch which extra keys you use frequently and try an app like Heart writer, where you can assign those extra keys to it's extended keyboard.