If you’ve installed iOS 11 on your iPad, then you’ve probably come face-to-face with the operating system’s new keyboard feature, Key Flicks. Basically, Apple has taken its regular keyboard and overlaid numbers and symbols on each letter.
For instance, now the D key is also the $ and the S is also a #. If you didn’t know this was happening and haven’t seen any tutorials on how to use it, your first reaction is probably: WTF?
[referenced url=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2017/09/before-you-install-ios-11-make-sure-all-your-apps-will-work/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-large/f8tejnrchbueswzxvoos.jpg” title=”Before You Install iOS 11, Make Sure All Your Apps Will Work” excerpt=”iOS. Before you download iOS 11, you should make sure all the apps you rely on will work with the newest version of the operating system.”]
Using the new keyboard isn’t intuitive, but it’s certainly easy. To get access to those symbols, you just need to press down on the key and slide your finger down. The button will change from its stock symbol to the new one. From D to the $, for example. When you let go, that $ will be typed on the screen.
The idea behind the keyboard is that it makes getting to symbols easier. There’s a good chance that if you use it a lot, then that will happen. However, if you’re like me, it makes the iPad keyboard a bit more crowded than I want it to be and I want it to go away. Now.
[referenced url=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2017/09/ios-11-makes-sharing-your-wi-fi-password-much-easier/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-large/f5ktbrtt6ufz4of3ruam.jpg” title=”iOS 11 Makes Sharing Your Wi-Fi Password Much Easier” excerpt=”iOS. Having an elaborate, secure password on your Wi-Fi network can be a great thing. A great thing until that weekend you have guests visiting from out of town and they have to try your 20-character Wi-Fi password a dozen different times because a zero looks like an O or they couldn’t tell from your chicken scratch which letters are capitalised and which aren’t.”]
I’d much rather go into the symbols menu to find a hashtag or number than doing it through Key Flicks.
If you hate it, you can turn the keyboard off by going into the Settings menu on your iPad, selecting General, and then Keyboard. From there, you just need to toggle off “Enable Key Flicks.” When you do, your keyboard will (thankfully) be reverted back to the standard iPad keyboard you’re used to using, without all the extra clutter.
Comments
One response to “How To Use iOS 11’s New iPad Keyboard (And Uninstall It If You Hate It)”
umm ok
It is very useful, but you need to be careful if you type fast, and badly.
Every now and then, I find that an e becomes a 3.
That just means you can become a 1337 h4ck3r easier.
Even with the feature off it’s not the same keyboard as previous. Eg used to be on the numeric option there was a ? right in the middle on bottom row. Now the only option is to have to Shift to get a ? Sign of the times that punctuation is no longer important?