Want iPad Bluetooth Keyboard to create line break, not send!

[whatakalamata]

I searched via Google and this forum and couldn't find the solution to the problem, which is...

91 y.o. Dad has been using a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard with his iPad 2 for a few years with no problem until this last week: when he wants to send a text to family members, his pressing the Enter/Return key unfortunately sends the message, instead of inserting a line break, what it had been doing for years. He wants the line break behavior back. I'm wondering if his updating the software (to current iOS 9.0.1) might've somehow created a block to doing that.

He's not fond of writing so telegraphically (neither am I, as the length of this post may prove!), so any help in getting this solved would be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

P.S. I do realize and have showed him how he can insert a line break by pressing Alt/Option key and hitting Return, but that two-fingered solution is awkward and likely something he'd forget.
(When will a tablet/iPad be developed strictly with seniors (all of us, someday) in mind, with accessibility and other options at forefront of features?!)

 

[twerppoet]

I have no idea what it was like before. I've never used my bluetooth keyboard for Messages on the iPad; but mine behaves just as you describe, and there is no settings that I know of that will change this.

Apple had to make a decision on whether they were going to make ti easy to send a message (hit the Return Key to send), or make it easy to break things into paragraphs (hit the Return Key for a new line, then reach up and tap Send on the screen when ready).

On the touch keyboard it's no big deal to do the second, because both the Return and Send options are close together, and don't require you to change your interaction mode. On the physical keyboard it's an extra effort that would soon irritate the heck out of someone rapid firing messages back and forth.

I realize this is not how your father uses Messages, but Apple's going to target the majority of their users with the default modes. And realistically, there aren't many people who are composing Messages (meant for quick communication) into orderly paragraphs. It is a bit like using a phone to conduct a formal debate or speech.

I suppose they could add a setting, but adding settings for unusual cases gets very burdensome eventually. If you add a setting choice for every possible thing some user may want, soon you have pages of settings for every app. At some point you have to say "stop" and let third party's make specialty apps for the edge cases.

Anyway, the only workaround I can think of (other than the Option / Return you've already discovered), is to have both the touch keyboard and physical keyboard up at the same time. Tap the Return on the touch keyboard for a line break, and the Return key on the bluetooth keyboard for Send (or the Send button on the screen).

I doubt your father will find that any easier than the first solution.

As you can see, I can also be a bit long winded; but not in Messages. It's just the wrong choice. Email now, I wish more people were organized and clear in their emails.