iPad: The Missing Manual, 7th Edition

Chapter 2. Typing, Editing & Searching

As a tablet computer, the iPad faces a fundamental limitation: It has no real keyboard or mouse. Which might be considered a drawback on a gadget that’s capable of running hundreds of thousands of programs.

Fortunately, where there’s a problem, there’s software that can fix it. The modern iPad’s virtual keyboard is smart in all kinds of ways—automatically predicting words and correcting typos, for example. And, hey, this is iOS 8; if you don’t like the iPad’s onscreen keyboard, you can just choose one designed by a different company.

This chapter covers every aspect of working with text on the iPad: entering it, fixing it, dictating it, and searching for it.

The Keyboard

The iPad has no physical keys. A virtual keyboard, therefore, is the only possible built-in system for typing text. Like it or not, you’ll be doing a lot of typing on glass.

The keyboard appears automatically whenever you tap in a place where typing is possible: in an outgoing email, in the Notes app, in the address bar of the Web browser, and so on.

Just tap the key you want. It doesn’t darken or light up to confirm that you’ve typed something, but you may hear a little key-tap sound, and, of course, whatever character you typed appears on the screen.

In darker gray, surrounding the letters, you’ll find these special keys:

• Shift (). When you tap this key, it ...