Reduce unnecessary keyboard taps due to punctuation

[Michael Johnston]

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In Walt Mossberg's review of the iPhone, he made sure to address the nay-sayers of iPhone's keyboard stating that it was "a non issue". After using my iPhone for a good week and a half, I have to agree with him. Once you start to trust the keyboard and it's intelligent error correction, you can fly on it. That having been said, there are one or two quirks that could drive someone crazy when using iPhone's keyboard. Today, I'm talking about punctuation marks.<!--break-->

If you haven't noticed, although iPhone's keyboard has the full QWERTY alphabet, punctuation marks and numbers are only present within another keyboard, accessed by tapping a .?123 shortcut key. While this alone isn't convenient, the mode switches add a few taps. For example, if you need an apostrophe in a particular word that isn't automatically corrected by iPhone you need to type the first part of the word, press the shortcut key, hit the apostrophe, and then press the shortcut key associated with the QWERTY keyboard to return to typing. This means pressing three buttons for one character. Thankfully, this can be simplified.

David Pogue's new book, "iPhone: The Missing Manual" has an interesting tip for solving this over-tapping problem. Instead of tapping the shortcut key for punctuation marks, press and hold the button. While still holding, move your finger across the screen to the character you want. When you let go, you will have typed that character and instantly returned to the QWERTY keyboard, saving two clicks. Sweet, right? I've been using this tip for a few days now, and it's definitely much better than the alternative.

Enjoy!</div>

[Unregistered]

I've never understood this.

The apostrophe is the one punctuation that automatically returns you to the QWERT keyboard. They know that a ' is usually used mid word. All the other punctuations are usually followed by a space, which also returns you to the QWERT mode. I never have to tap to get back to the QWERTY, it does it for you.

[Unregistered]

In most cases, even typing an apostrophe isn't neccessary, as the intelligent keyboard will insert one where appropriate. For instance, type the word "can't" on your iPhone keyboard, with just the letters "c,a,n,t". It will automatically put the apostrophe in the right place.

[BillyMayes]

In most cases, even typing an apostrophe isn't neccessary, as the intelligent keyboard will insert one where appropriate. For instance, type the word "can't" on your iPhone keyboard, with just the letters "c,a,n,t". It will automatically put the apostrophe in the right place.
That's generally true, except when the phone goes loopy on you. I've had a few circumstances where the phone forgot that it needed to correct my keystrokes and everything turned to garbage (likely an app crash) until I rebooted. I've also had it start forgetting punctuation for different things and had to reset the dictionary.

I think it needs a software update :)

[Unregistered]

This fix is really helpful for most things; however, it doesn't work for secondary punctuation like the " \ ". I've needed to use this punctuation a while typing the domain\username in the Exchange, VPN, or Wi-fi settings for corporate use.

[ihappy]

I've been trying to practice this trick but I can't seem to do it :mad:

Let me get this right...

So, you hold down the .?123 key and at the same time click the period and let go?

It doesn't work for me :D:confused: