Q: Arrow keys anyone???

Interesting. My iPad shows a cursor. And it shows up where ever I touch if I touch the screen while I am typing.
Say for instance that I type "toodles" and spellcheck changes it to "toddles". I try to touch between the two d. If i succeed, i backspace once and type "o" and don't let spell change it back to the word I don't want.

If I miss, and hit before the "o" or after the second "d" I have to touch again to get to the right location - vs just using an arrow key to slide over one character - backspace over the undesired character then type the right one.

And the suggestion someone made to "just type" was simply foolish. I didn't want "tooddles" or "tododles" did I, which is exactly what I get if I just type...

You people are using the same type of iPad as me, right? The point is somewhat moot, as an arrow key would clearly help anyone wanting to navigate a space or two.

Say for instance that I type "toodles" and spellcheck changes it to "toddles". I try to touch between the two d. If i succeed, i backspace once and type "o" and don't let spell change it back to the word I don't want.

Why don't you just turn the autocompletion off, then? I do, and it makes life a lot simpler. Your ipad will stop changing what you type.

And the suggestion someone made to "just type" was simply foolish

No it was not foolish.
You are changing the context in which my suggestion was made.
You think you need to touch the screen, zoom in, position the cursor, touch the screen, zoom back out and then type.

Just zoom in, position the cursor then just type.
What is the purpose of the additional stpes? (touching the screen then zooming back out)

didn't want "tooddles" or "tododles" did I, which is exactly what I get if I just type...

That has nothing to do with anything I wrote. That is the auto-correct. Tap the blue X box popping up with the incorrect word.

Sorry, I meant to say "auto-correct" not "auto completion". But in any case, if you turn it off the ipad will stop changing what you type. It's not the same as getting arrow keys, but it might remove some of the frustration.

And you can still have spell check without auto correction, if you want. Those are separate settings. Spellcheck just marks the words without changing them.

Actually, you can turn off spell checking without turning off autocorrection, but if you turn off autocorrection it automatically turns off spellcheck too, so functionally, it's both or neither.

Otherwise, "toodles" was clearly just one of millions of examples - don't even try to tell me you never wrote for a while and accidentally typed a b, n, or m instead of hitting the space bar so end up with something likemthis...

Obviously we do not NEED an arrow key, but dont pretend it would never be handy. Now I have to go back and insert that apostrophe in my "don't"...

Feedback and suggestions here -> http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

I don't understand why you keep saying that there is no cursor, Tamara. Of course there is a cursor! It's there whenever you are typing - Mail, Safari, Notes, everywhere!!

Jaywalker5555 wrote:
Say for instance that I type "toodles" and spellcheck changes it to "toddles". I try to touch between the two d. If i succeed, i backspace once and type "o" and don't let spell change it back to the word I don't want. ........

Or, teach it toodles ... as I just started to do, by pressing the little 'x' there beside the suggested correction.
Toodles toodles toodles toodles .... no more changing after doing that just one time (strange, admittedly, as it sometimes takes 2-3 tries for it to take). You still get the spellcheck underline if that's on, with replacement suggestions being toddles, boodles, and something else ...

igmackenzie wrote:
I don't understand why you keep saying that there is no cursor, Tamara. Of course there is a cursor! It's there whenever you are typing - Mail, Safari, Notes, everywhere!!

Oh, well, since nobody else took it up . . . A text insertion bar is similar to, but not at all the same thing, as a GUI cursor, which will be there even when you're not typing. The differences can be muddied a bit, as arrow keys will usually be able to move insertion bars around in text fields.

I really don't get why people want/need arrow keys on the iPad..

They exsist on hardware keyboards as a legacy control for the onscreen cursor on desktop computers, the arrival of the mouse started the clock on their obselesance, on a touch-capable device like the iPad there's not even the pretense of a need for them.

Why would anyone want to keep pressing an virtual button on an onscreen keyboard when a single tap of the screen will place the cursor (insofar as it even exists on the iPad) wherever you want it?

Martin_UK wrote:
Why would anyone want to keep pressing an virtual button on an onscreen keyboard when a single tap of the screen will place the cursor (insofar as it even exists on the iPad) wherever you want it?

Some people don't like change. I agree with you, though.

I appreciate the resistance to change, it's the insistence on doing things the hard way I'm less clued in with.

You'll just be disappointed if you expect people to behave logically.