Easier typing of periods and commas on the iPhone

Jul 05, '07 07:30:08AM

Contributed by: robg

Due to space constraints, the virtual keyboard on the iPhone doesn't include any punctuation. Instead, you press a .?123 key to bring up the numbers and punctuation keyboard. However, this is a bit of a pain when typing an email -- adding a comma or a period requires three taps: one to bring up the alternate keyboard, one to press the period, and another to return to the normal keyboard.

However, Andrew McCallum sent a tip to David Pogue, who then published it on this page that makes the process much simpler: instead of using a tap-release, just tap-and-hold the .?123 key, then slide your finger onto the period (or comma). As soon as you touch the period or comma, it's inserted into your text, and the normal ABC keyboard returns! It takes a bit of practice to get used to this action, but once you do, it's much faster.

In the comments to my blog post on the Macworld iPhone page, a reader commented that you can do the same thing more easily by just double-tapping the Space Bar. In my testing, however, I couldn't make that work (at least not in Notes or Mail).

Comments (5)


Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20070705061653783