iPhone For Dummies. Bob LeVitus

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      FIGURE 2-3: Going wide on the keyboard.

      Discovering the special-use keys

      The iPhone keyboard contains a number of keys that don’t type a character (refer to Figure 2-3). These special-use keys follow:

      The iPhone can automatically recognize the language in which you're dictating based on the international keyboards you set up on your device.

In Figure 2-3, note some of the labeled symbols above the keyboard, some unique to the Notes app. The quick takeaway is that you may see buttons or symbols or both related to the app in question — and that’s the way it should be. Here in Notes, for example, you can tap symbols to add tables, headings, stylings, sketches, and formatting, create a checklist, scan documents, and summon markup tools. Read more about the Notes app in Chapter 6.

      If you’ve enabled the shift key, the letters will appear on their respective keys as capital letters. If the shift key has not been enabled, the letters are lowercase.

      One-handed keyboard

      Apple makes typing easier for one-handed typists by adding a somewhat crunched keyboard that you can push to either the right or left side of the screen. You can summon such a keyboard and determine where to place it by pressing your finger against the globe key (labeled “International keyboard” in Figure 2-3). Or visit the One Handed Keyboard setting in Settings, a topic for Chapter 14.

      The incredible, intelligent, and virtual iPhone keyboard

      Before you consider how to actually use the keyboard, we’d like to share a bit of the philosophy behind its so-called intelligence. In fact, through various iterations of iOS, the QuickPath keyboard managed to raise its IQ. For one thing, it leverages Siri. For another, it relies on deep neural network technology, which sounds as smart as it is.

      As mentioned, a QuickPath keyboard lets you swipe instead of tap. You spell out words by swiping across letters without lifting your finger, which some refer to as gesture typing. It may take getting used to at first, but after you get the hang of it, you may consider tapping with your finger passé. If you prefer things the way they've been, you can continue to finger-type.

      Anticipating what comes next

Whether you employ the aforementioned swipe typing method or tap, the keyboard takes an educated stab at the next word you mean to type and presents what it surmises to be the best possible word choices front and center. Say you’re preparing a note in the Notes app. You start typing, This is a. Above the row of keys in the iPhone keyboard, you’d see buttons with three word suggestions: great, good, and very (as shown in Figure 2-3). If one of those were the appropriate response, you could tap the button to insert its text into your reply. The keyboard isn’t exactly Nostradamus, but it does a pretty good job in coming up with the words you have in mind.

      Of course, if you wanted to respond with something different than the three options presented by Apple, just type or swipe your response with the regular QWERTY keys. As you type additional letters and words, the three suggested word choices above the keyboard change in real time.

      Such keyboard predictions vary by app and by whom you are communicating with. So the predictive text choices that show up in Messages when you’re involved in an exchange with a friend are likely to be more casual than those in an email to your boss.

      A KEYBOARD FOR ALL BORDERS

      Apple continues to expand the iPhone’s global reach by supplying international keyboard layouts for more than 120 languages. To access a keyboard that isn’t customized for Americanized English, tap Settings ⇒ General ⇒ Keyboard, Keyboards ⇒ Add New Keyboard. Up pops a list with custom keyboards for numerous countries.

      Have a multilingual household? You can select, in turn, as many international keyboards as you want. When you’re working in an app that summons a keyboard, tap the international keyboard key until you see the keyboard you want. Tap again to select the next keyboard in the list of international keyboards (as well as the Emoji keyboard) that you turned on in Settings. Keep cycling to get back to your original English layout. Here’s an alternative method for summoning a keyboard you’ve enabled: Press your finger against the international keyboard key to summon a pop-up window that displays all the keyboards that are ready for action. СКАЧАТЬ