Modifying Keyboard Settings
If you use your iPad for email or word processing, you will use the on-screen keyboard a lot. The keyboard does several things to make it easier for you to type, but some of these might get in the way of your typing style. Use the following steps to modify the keyboard settings to your preferences.
Tap the Settings icon on the Home screen.
- Tap General.
Scroll down to the bottom of the General Settings list and tap Keyboard.
- Turn Auto-Capitalization on to automatically make the first character of a name or a sentence a capital letter.
- Turn Auto-Correction on to have mistyped words automatically corrected.
- Turn Check Spelling on or off to control whether possible misspellings are indicated.
- Turn Enable Caps Lock on or off. By default, this is off. When Caps Lock is enabled, you can double-tap the shift key to lock it.
- Turn on the “.” Shortcut if you want a double-tap of the spacebar to insert a period followed by a space.
- Use the Keyboards button to choose a different keyboard layout. In addition to keyboards commonly used in other countries, you can switch to a Dvorak keyboard or one of several other alternatives to the traditional QWERTY keyboard.
- If you want to lock the keyboard so it can never be split and moved up vertically, then switch this to off. See, “Using the On-Screen Keyboard,” in Chapter 1.
You can add your own shortcuts. For instance, you can set it so when you type “omw,” it will instantly expand to “On my way!” Add your own shortcuts for things you commonly type.
After you add a second keyboard in step 9, you now see a special key that lets you switch between keyboards. So, you can have both an American English keyboard and a Dvorak keyboard selected in Settings, and tap here to switch between them.