Quick and easy period key shortcut
In this post on the Missing Manual website, David Pogue provides (courtesy of one Andrew McCallum) the neatest iPhone trick I’ve yet seen.
Basically, you can type a period with ease if you simply press the ‘.?123’ key, then keep your finger on the screen and just slide it up and over a bit to the period when the numeric keypad appears. Amazingly, this key reacts as soon as your finger touches it (no lifting required), and the numeric keypad will automatically disappear when it does, leaving you right back where you started with the normal keyboard active—and with a period in your document! And instead of multiple taps, it took but one.
This trick works for any of the keys on the numeric keypad, but it’s most useful for the period and comma. While I’d still prefer to have the period and comma on the main keyboard, this is a really good workaround. Read the post for more details…
Category: Tips & Troubleshooting
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Comments (5)
Great tip. Anything to save a few keystrokes here and there.
Heres one: I was forwarding an email to a friend that had a bunch of text that I would have preferred to delete. If you press the Delete key without removing your finger from the screen, it will first start erasing individual characters, than start deleting whole words.
Posted by Paul | July 4, 2007 12:00 AM
You can do it even faster than that, just tap the space bar twice and a period will be placed at the end of the last word.
Posted by Scott Cropper | July 4, 2007 7:01 AM
Scott:
In which app(s) can you do this? I tested Notes and Mail, and it doesn't work for me in either one.
-rob.
Posted by griffman![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://iphone.macworld.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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July 5, 2007 8:37 AM
Does this tip work with multitouch too ?
I mean, holding the ‘.?123’ key with one finger, and using another finger to tap the period, then release all fingers.
I'm curious to know to what extent multitouch input was thought out besides zooming inside photos and webpages.
Posted by Axel | July 5, 2007 11:34 AM
Unfortunately, no -- it was one of the first things I tried after reading this tip :)
-rob.
Posted by griffman![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://iphone.macworld.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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July 5, 2007 12:04 PM