iPad tips

1) Hold down the comma key to get an apostophe.
xxa) Or tap and swipe up. [mdc]

2) Holding down the volume button (volume down) for a second or so will mute the sound. [::maroma::]

3) Four taps on editable text to select the whole paragraph.

4) Force Quit: Hold down the sleep key until the power-off slider shows up, release the sleep key, and then hold down the home key until the app quits.

4.5) When typing in Safari's address bar, if you hold down the .com button it brings up .edu, .org and .net [Stogieman]
xxa) Or .de, .co.uk, .ru, etc., depending upon enabled keyboard layouts and language settings. [Spheric Harlot]

5) When typing, if you ignore a suggested spelling the first time you can bring it back up by tapping the word once and/or select and then use "replace". Also works for words underlined with the red squiggly (i.e. misspelled words). [Macfreak7]

6) Hold down…
xxa) the period key on the symbol keyboard to type a single-character ellipsis (“…”)
xxb) apostrophe or double-quote key to get typographic variants (including guillemets)
xxc) 0 to get the degree symbol
xxd) hyphen to get em dash (but no en dash!) or bullet

a) and b) only work in the number/punctuation keyboard, not using the .? or ,! keys. [slugslugslug]

7) If you're typing in a text window, you can scroll inside that window with two fingers! With OS5, scrolling can be accomplished with a single finger swipe, and the text window need no longer be selected.

8) The spacebar is multi-touch. You get the same number of spaces as the number of fingers you use. Sort of a pseudo-tab.

9) WANT A DOUBLE-TAP OF THE SHIFT KEY TO BE A CAPS LOCK? Go to Settings app, and in General>Keyboard there's a switch to enable it. [danbrew]

10) Shake the iPad to get an "Undo Typing" dialog. You may have to shake it hard though. Really hard.

11) Rather than tapping the shift key, and then tapping a letter to capitalize it, you can tap the shift key and slide to the letter you want. Not vastly superior to two taps, but nice to know it's there. Works on phone, pad, and presumably touch.

12) In Mobile Safari (iOS 5 and later), tap and hold the new tab (plus sign) to get a window of "Recently Closed Tabs".

13) In iOS5 you can do a 4-finger-swipe left or right to switch between running applications. However, this only works with the iPad2. Also, 4-finger swipe up reveals the multitasking bar, and a pinch will take you to home. [Macfreak7]

14) In Settings > International > Keyboards you can touch Add New Keyboard and add an emoji keyboard. [chabig]

15) Tapping and holding the "hide keyboard" key gives you the option for a split keyboard.

Ha, great ! Thanks.

-t

This is probably known by most, but not really documented, but:

2) Holding down the volume button (volume down) for a second or so will mute the sound.

(edited... thought I'd follow the format :) )

That's good. I didn't know that. Here's another.

3) Four taps on editable text to select the whole paragraph.

I just read this on Cabel Sasser's twitter feed.

very cool.

4) Force Quit.

Hold down the sleep key until the power-off slider shows up, release the sleep key, and then hold down the home key until the app quits.

Here's one I just discovered. When typing in Safari's address bar, if you hold down the .com button it brings up .edu, .org and .net

It also brings up .de, .co.uk, or whatever else is appropriate to the localization your keyboard is set to at that moment. (iPhone's done this since 2007. :) )

5) When typing, if you ignore a suggested spelling the first time you can bring it back up by tapping the word once and/or select and then use "replace". Also works for words underlined with the red squiggly (i.e. misspelled words).

More “Holding down keys tips”

6) Hold down…
a) the period key to type a single-character ellipsis (“…”)
b) apostrophe or double-quote key to get typographic variants (including guillemets)
c) 0 to get the degree symbol
d) hyphen to get em dash (but no en dash!) or bullet

a) and b) only work in the number/punctuation keyboard, not using the .? or ,! keys.

Uselsss.

It's much faster to type 3 x "."

-t

That makes me feel gramatically dirty, however.

:D

-t

I think you mean “orthographically dirty…”

I’ve gotten so used to typing real points of ellipsis on a Mac, where option-colon is about as fast as 3 periods, or probably faster, so it just seems wrong to revert to the “fake” way on anyhing else (in fact, I regularly use Alt-0133 on Windows at work). Lately, too, Snow Leopard’s system-wide smart quotes makes me cringe when I use straight ones, so unless I’m in a real hurry, I use Alt- codes on windows and tap-and-hold on iPhone/iPad.

Actually I keep wishing smart quotes and maybe other text substitutions will show up in iPhone OS.

Funny thing is, I’m not at all pedantic about grammar and usage.

Typography is sneaky.

Thanks for the tips!

Oh hell, when I'm on the iPad, I'm not doing anything typography related. For Pete's sakes, guys :)

-t

Simply hold down the home key until the app quits; the first step you have is unnecessary.

I had no idea so many people did … instead of ..., I thought I was the only one.

I just got a @ somehow when I wanted to get a '. Problem is, now I can't recreate whatever it was I did.

Edit: Simple. Swipe up from the switcher key on the right and you'll get a @. Excellent.

I never said it was reasonable.
Yeah, for years now. I’d put the substitution into Typinator or SL text substitution, but I think option-: is faster.

7) If you're typing in a text window, you can scroll inside that window with two fingers!

The two finger scrolling also works for websites with IFrames.

Great tips. I don't have an iPad yet, but when i do get it I will be sure to use this!!

Ah, I see. Not really a shortcut, but still somewhat useful.

-t

8) The spacebar is multi-touch. You get the same number of spaces as the number of fingers you use. Sort of a pseudo-tab.

As an addendum to 6, you can get .edu, .org, and .net by holding down the .com key.

You also get .de, .co.uk, .ru, or whatever, depending upon enabled keyboard layouts and language settings.

You probably use the ellipsis too much. Hey, just saying...

When you type in ALL CAPS on your iPad, you should use the caps lock keyboard feature.

Tap the Settings app. and click on the General menu > the Keyboard. Then turn "Enable Caps Lock" on.

Now just double-tap the shift key to enable caps lock once using the keyboard.

:)

No, you cannot just hold down the home key. You must do it like the original tip says.

Just figured this out for myself yesterday. Safari locked-up. After a long home key press, when I ran Safari again it was still locked-up. The full method did the trick.

P.S. I'll do edits/adds to the OP when I'm on something bigger than my phone.

Ahhh! I just realized 4.5 and 6e are the same. Whoops! I'll fix that too.

Home key alone worked in iOS 1. Apple changed the method in iOS 2 when they added the capability for screen shots (press and hold home, then click sleep/wake). You don't want to be force quitting apps just because you're taking a screen shot!

I can scroll with one, three, four, five, but NOT two!

Don't forget to delete 4a.

For me, one, three, four, or five scrolls the whole page, as two will if you do it outside the input window. Two inside the input window scrolls through the text inside that input window.

I see what you mean now. I was confused. Never mind...

It could be phrased better. I'll ruminate on it.

At the time, I was just thrilled to be able to use the tip to edit the OP.

Basically, two fingers scroll within frames.

I know I should fix number 7, but in the meantime:

10) Shake the iPad to get an "Undo Typing" dialog. You may have to shake really hard though.

Thanks for tip #10 subego.

You don't need to shake as hard if you hold the iPad by the bottom two corners and move the top portion towards and away from yourself. This is much easier than shaking it side to side. I can usually get the "Undo Typing" dialog to appear after 2 shakes.

bumped on request:

Thank you much!

11) Rather than tapping the shift key, and then tapping a letter to capitalize it, you can tap the shift key and slide to the letter you want. Not vastly superior to two taps, but nice to know it's there. Works on phone, pad, and presumably touch.

12) In Mobile Safari (iOS 5 and later), tap and hold the new tab (plus sign) to get a window of "Recently Closed Tabs".

Nice tip. Lately I've found myself closing the leftmost tab before I've read it.

In iOS5 you can do a 4-finger-swipe left or right to switch between running applications. However, this only works with the iPad2. Also, 4-finger swipe up reveals the multitasking bar, and a pinch will take you to home.

This works on the original iPad since the release of iOS 5.0.1.

At least with iOS 5.0.1 on my iPad 2, this only works on the number or symbol keyboard. On the alphabet keyboard, holding down the period key is a shortcut for quotation mark.

In Settings > International > Keyboards you can touch Add New Keyboard and add an emoji keyboard.