Arrow keys anyone???

Why they STILL aren't even an option is beyond me. Don't Apple want people to find their products most useful?

Douglas UK wrote:

Why they STILL aren't even an option is beyond me. Don't Apple want people to find their products most useful?

Arrow keys would not make an iPad anymore useful for some people. However, Apple has included the option to add third party keyboards. You're free to add whatever third party keyboards you want, including the ones with arrow keys.

I just downloaded "PadKeys" for $1.99. It's awesome! Thanks for the suggestion of the 3rd party keyboard!!!

TMHahn wrote:

I just downloaded "PadKeys" for $1.99. It's awesome! Thanks for the suggestion of the 3rd party keyboard!!!

Thanks for the specific app recommendation. Hopefully, it will be helpful to the people who want arrow keys!

In case other users, as well as you, aren't still aware of this,

As of the introduction of iOS 9,

iOS has an insertion point "I" beam "cursor" that can now controlled by invoking the iOS software keyboard and then do a two-finger single tap to turn the entire software keyboard area into a giant trackpad.

You can place insertion "I" beam cursor easily anywhere you want, then use the delete key to delete a letter and/or replace a letter in a word.

If you use two-finger double tap within the keyboard area, the trackpad function can highlight words, lines of text or entire bodies of text or paragraphs for editing.

@MichelPM - If I tap with two fingers on the iOS software keyboard on my iPad Pro 9.7" with 9.3.1, it only highlights the type. What am I missing? Thanks for the tip, by the way!!!

EDIT: I tried this in the Message app.

Make sure the keyboard and "I" beam cursor is already present onscreen.

You can use this function to edit type as you type.

Type a sentence or short line of text, first.

Then, two finger tap on the screen, on the keyboard area,until the keyboard area turns blank and gray.

Then. use your two fingers to move the "I" beam cursor around.

This should not be hard to do.

If you keep holding the keyboard area with two fingers, it will activate the blue text highlighing box and you can use this to highlight an any area of text to edit.

Here's a YouTube video that demonstrates this cool and great feature.

Works on any iPad. Even on an iPad 2!

I found out about this feature before the official release of iOS 9 and have used this ever since.

https://youtu.be/DupotxlG3jg

It's a neat trick but unfortunately doesn't help me when I am trying to change the wording in an online form which is out of view at the right end of a field. With an arrow key I could just tap right until the concealed words come into view. Without one I am reduced to tapping and holding repeatedly in the hope that the magnification bubble will come up (it doesn't) so that I can drag to the right. I notice that in some apps and orientations the arrow keys for right and left have made a come-back but it seems they are never there when I really need them. Here I am stumped.

My guess is that Apple has not taken into account different kinds of fingers. My boss cannot get the overlay panels up as his swipes are ignored. My finger pads are large and sometimes get ignored since I started learning the guitar and developed callouses.

frannbug wrote:

It's a neat trick but unfortunately doesn't help me when I am trying to change the wording in an online form which is out of view at the right end of a field. With an arrow key I could just tap right until the concealed words come into view. Without one I am reduced to tapping and holding repeatedly in the hope that the magnification bubble will come up (it doesn't) so that I can drag to the right. I notice that in some apps and orientations the arrow keys for right and left have made a come-back but it seems they are never there when I really need them. Here I am stumped.

My guess is that Apple has not taken into account different kinds of fingers. My boss cannot get the overlay panels up as his swipes are ignored. My finger pads are large and sometimes get ignored since I started learning the guitar and developed callouses.

So have you tried the keyboard recommended above?

Well no, but I already have a different external keyboard which works well - and I don't want to carry around an extra physical device if I can help it. I was rather hoping Apple would get it right in the end, especially as they have introduced a more extensive keyboard that includes two of the arrow keys for some applications.

I mean, how efficient is it?

Tap and hold, nothing happens…

Do it again, nothing happens…

One more time, nothing happens…

Try a simple tap, just to see if you can get an insertion point…

Insertion point appears, tap and hold again, pink box appears to suggest a word…

Tap to get the insertion point back, then tap and hold again: Black box appears with copy, paste etc. …

Go through each of the previous steps several times again, give up in despair…

Place insertion point at the end with a tap, delete it all and type the whole thing over again.

Am I really the only person going through this endless rigmarole of steps, time and time again, just to get something done which is really simple on the Mac? And no, it's not an answer to say, "Just do it on the Mac, then", because the Mac doesn't have all the iPad apps and is not so portable. I prefer to be able to use both.

What iPad and iOS are you using?

This only works with iPad 2 and newer running iOS 9 and later.

Uh, it is a two finger tap.

Make sure the software keyboard is up and active.

The keyboard goes blank and grey colored.

Move your two fingers around the entire keyboard area.

Did you tap on the Blue weblink to watch the YouTube video to see how this trackpad feature actually is suppossed to work?

Watch the YouTube video by tapping on my blue weblink ( blue color are weblinks you can tap on to bring you to other websites) and watch the entire video.

Maybe then you can get this to work.

It works for forms with single input areas, too.

If you need to get to either end of a single line input area that goes beyond the length of the viewed typed input area,

Just leave the "I" beam cursor at the end of the line while still two finger holding on the blank keyboard area and the line will start scrolling horizontally one letter at a time.

This isn't hard at all.

Why are you having issues with the trackpad feature.

Works very well for me.

frannbug wrote:

Well no, but I already have a different external keyboard which works well - and I don't want to carry around an extra physical device if I can help it.

I'm not talking about an external keyboard. I'm talking about a keyboard you download from the app store and install on your device. The one mentioned on this page by THahn is called Padkeys and costs a whopping $1.99.

Once installed, you switch that keyboard in Settings and, viola!, arrow keys.

It is arrogant of Apple not to use the arrow keys . I just purchased an android tablet ... no problems with the arrow key...

Has anyone mentioned that you can drag the cursor around with two fingers?! And if you hold them for a second you can drag and highlight! Where has this been hiding for the past five year?! But I still want arrow keys! I'm going to look into Pad Keys.

Edit: Couldn't figure out how to delete this post. I somehow got unsubscribed from this thread and missed the most recent comments which explains the two finger drag that became available in iOS 9.