Hello, my name’s Tom and this is Proper Honest Tech.
And in this video, I'm going to share with you 10 iPhone typing hacks which I believe
every iPhone owner should be aware of. Now, some of these hacks have been around for a
while, but when researching for this video, there were a few that I'd never seen before,
so hopefully you can find one or two that are new to you.
And a quick note, if you find this kind of content helpful, do please consider leaving
me a like and subscribing to the channel, so that I know to make more content like this
for you in the future.
OK, on with the video.
Tip 1 - Space Bar as a Trackpad
iPhone screens, as large as they are, are still a bit fiddly when it comes to moving
your cursor to a specific point in a range of text, say for example, you've misspelled
something and want to edit a specific word.
An easy way to do this is to press and hold the Space Bar, and then slide your thumb around
to move the on-screen cursor to exactly where you want it to go. Once you let go, the cursor
will be exactly where you need it to be, and you can begin typing or editing your text
with precision accuracy.
Tip 2 - Quick Selection Hacks
When you want to select specific words or sentences on your iPhone, it's common to see
people just randomly tapping their iPhone screens and then getting annoyed when they
either don't select what they want, or end up selecting everything by mistake. So, here's
how tapping to select works when you're typing.
Tapping once puts the cursor wherever you've tapped.
Tapping twice selects the word nearest to wherever you've tapped.
Tapping three times selects the full sentence nearest to wherever you've tapped.
There is no function for tapping 4 times or more.
And tapping once and holding gives you selection options, including Select All.
So, once you understand all of those, you'll be able to make much more deliberate choices
when selecting text on your iPhone.
Tip 3 - Add accents to your text when typing
This tip is really handy if you have to type in different languages, you can press and
hold on certain keys on the keyboard to gain access to accents. For example, if I press
and hold here on the letter U, there are a number of language accents available to me.
The same on the letter e, or the letter a, or the letter o for example, plus lots of
others. So a good tip to remember here is that when you're typing, if you know you need
a specific accent for a certain letter, just press and hold on the letter as you're typing,
and see if your iPhone has it ready for you to select, saving you time in the process.
Tip 4 - Quick access to unusual symbols
In tip 3, we looked at getting access to letter accents by pressing and holding the letter
- well, you can do the same with a number of the symbols and even a number on the alternate
keyboard. If I switch to the numbers and symbols keyboard, you can see that if I press and
hold the 0 button for example, I can access the degrees symbol. If I press and hold the
£ symbol, I can access a number of currencies. This works on some buttons, but not on all,
so it's definitely worth having a play around to see if any of these button presses would
help you in your daily typing.
Tip 5 - Caps Lock
Again, another basic tip which I'm sure many people will know, but a game changer if you
don't. If you wish to type in all capitals, double-tap the Shift button to switch on Caps
Lock. Then type away in all caps to your heart's content. Tap the shift button once more to
switch Caps Lock off, and return to typing as normal.
Tip 6 - Web Browser Suffix shortcut
This tip seems to work only in web-specific apps, like Mail or Safari. But if you type
something out, then press and hold the period key, your iPhone will give you a list of many
of the most commonly used internet suffixes to choose from. Com, Net, Org, Biz, .co.uk
etc are all available to me, making it quick to choose the one that you require if you're
having to regularly type email addresses or web addresses in.
Tip 7 - One finger keyboard
Everyone types differently on their iPhones - I use an almost touch-type style of typing
using my two thumbs, and I've gotten pretty quick at typing using that method. But some
people prefer to, or have to type using one hand. For these people, Apple have implemented
a one-handed keyboard mode that you can select really easily, by pressing and holding the
emoji symbol here in the bottom left. You can then choose from a regular keyboard, or
a left handed keyboard or a right handed keyboard. If I choose right handed, you can see that
everything condenses slightly to the right, meaning my thumb has less distance to travel.
You can also access your keyboard settings here, choose between different language keyboards
if you've got them setup, and of course a single tap of that button will take you to
your emoji keyboard.
Tip 8 - Shake to Undo
If you make a mistake while typing, rather than hitting the backspace key to delete your
mistake, just give your iPhone a shake. This action acts as an 'undo' function, and works
just like it does on your computer. It also works for more than just typing. If you delete
an email by mistake for example, just shake your iPhone and your email will be returned
to your inbox, provided it was the last action that you completed.
Tip 9 - Text Replacement to speed up your typing
If you find yourself always having to type out certain text elements, it might be easier
to save them as a text replacement. Let's say for example, you're forever having to
type out your business address. You could create a swipe file on your phone, and copy/paste
it each time, but it would be so much easier to create a text replacement for it instead.
For example, I've got one on my phone called 'my num', and essentially whenever I type
that exact phrase, my iPhone automatically converts it into my phone number. Clever stuff,
and a massive time saver if you're often having to type the same thing over and over again!
Tip 10 - Three finger pinch and push to copy and paste
The last tip is an alternative way to copy and paste. The way that I've always done it
is to select some text, then tap to get access to the copy function, then move my cursor,
tap to get access to the paste button, then paste, then repeat the paste part as many
times as I need to. But an alternative way to do this is to use three fingers on your
screen to pinch and push. Pinching with three fingers will copy whatever you have selected.
Pushing with three fingers will paste whatever you have selected. It's as easy as that!
Bonus Tip - Dictation
OK, one more tip for this video, and that tip is to make use of, and learn how to properly
use, dictation. It's really effective, and actually very easy to implement, once you
know how to talk to Siri when you're dictating.
You just push the microphone button and then for example I could say;
This is me using dictation on my iPhone comma
It's a really effective way of typing out your message comma without actually having
to type, full stop, new line.
Why don't you give it a go and see if it works for you, question mark.
And there you go, it's that easy.
So there you have it, 10 tips plus a bonus tip to help you master typing on your iPhone.
And remember, this is iOS14, the new operating system is right around the corner - are there
any hacks you're hoping to see in the new iOS? Or are there any hacks that you use on
a regular basis that I've not included? Drop me a comment, and let me know about them.
And as ever, if you found this video useful, do please consider leaving me a like, and
subscribing to my channel for more content like this in the future.
See you on the next video!