Colon and Semi Colon - OnScreen Keyboard

The punction is not on the keyboard in that setting because it is not usually required. The situation that at least one poster wanted it for was unusual and a bit of a kludge in itself. If you are doing typing in most situations on the iPad, there is both a colon and a semi-colon.

Rather than castigate someone for a post they made eight months ago, why don't you submit your feedback to Apple saying that you want the punctuation made available for this rather obscure use:

http://www.apple.com/feedback

Best of luck.

jinksjohnson wrote:

The point IS, there is NO colon or semi-colon on the ipad keyboard.

Can anyone explain why this is?

I suggest you ask Apple to add this using the feedback channel:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

When you do so, make sure you specify exactly what kind of text fields in what apps you are referring to, because in the places where people do most of their typing (email subject and text, web browsers, and word processors) there is no problem finding those characters using the 123 key.

tony_stead wrote:
Meg, this is a workaround for anyone who is using Gmail on a POP connection rather than IMAP

Exactly why is it a kludge?

Many ISPs now use google to power their email. Thus millions of people will require the ability to use colons.

I ended up here looking for a solution to the colon issue, having to copy'n'paste is far from intuitive and frankly a messy workaround.

Kudos and thanks to Tony.

I don't see why the on screen keyboard can't have more than two levels to allow for other characters. It wouldn't affect the real estate taken up.

I solved this problem of not being able to enter a colon for an email address by creating a keyboard shortcut

Go to Settings, general, keyboard and create the necessary shortcut. ( I also created one for my email address which saves time typing it in)

Actually, in iOS6, if you are setting up a gmail account and you want to use the recent: prefix for your account, there is no colon in any of the keyboards available, including the number keyboard. The workaround that I used was the one described in this thread using notes to type recent: and then copy/paste. A pain, but at least it works.

I have a colon in my password. I'm trying to login to the Eurosport Player app and .... I can't. I'm a software developer of 16 years, building big apps for big brands, the lack of a colon (or any other common punctuation available on a PC keyboard) is a design mistake, there's no more to discuss. Don't ask why, how, or whatever, its a major mistake.

MyScreenNameWasTaken wrote:

I have a colon in my password. I'm trying to login to the Eurosport Player app and .... I can't.

What version of iOS are you using? I have no problem finding colon on my ipad keyboard in iOS 9 and using it in a banking website password field. Perhaps it is a problem with the app?

Hi Tom,

9.3.2 latest as of 18th June 2016

The normal keyboard is fine, to be clear. So I agree its a combination of error between the app author and Apple.

I think its a certain "type" of keyboard, in the same way that HTML5 can specify the input type to get a more suitable keyboard. So, yes, the app must be specifying a type of input that invokes a keyboard that has a range of punctuation and marks, but not colon.

I've tested some of the common HTML5 input modes and none reproduce (or bring up) the keyboard that I saw when logging-in to the Eurosport app, so I presume iOS app authors have a wider range of keyboards they can choose, maybe, I'm guessing.

So there is a keyboard type or something that has some, but not all punctuation characters, and that's not right. As I see it, the app author would not expect that some keyboards would lack some characters. They'd test the app and assume the keyboard was complete.

What riled me in my original post was that Meg was asking why the original poster would *need* to enter a colon, as if the customer was being awkward, and because Meg had never needed a colon, then no one in the world should need a colon.

Luke

MyScreenNameWasTaken wrote:

So there is a keyboard type or something that has some, but not all punctuation characters, and that's not right.

Yes, it seems that Apple's keyboard for email address fields for some unknown reason still has no colon. You have to use a shortcut entry or a 3rd party keyboard, etc.

Is there a way to type a colon or semi colon using the iPad Onscreen Keyboard? If not this seems like a pretty serious oversight

tony_stead wrote:
It's there if you use notepad or type a url, but it is not there if for instance you go to settings - email - accounts.

If you have a Gmail account you would want to enter your username as recent: xxxx@gmail.com to download recent mails and stop mails being marked as read so that they can be downloaded by other devices.

imap is a nightmare! loads of inboxes I hate it.

Copy&Paste will work