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What happened to the period key?

Jasmynp

Jasmynp

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 15, 2011
384
78
East Coast, USA
I may be remembering this wrong cause I just came back to iOS. On my old iPhone there was a period/question mark key. I don't seem to have it here. Am I remembering it wrong or is there a switch I need to flick to get it back? Without it, I've got to press the 123 button to get any punctuation at all.

Any ideas?
 

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Caps key

The standard keyboard only shows the period key in a special keyboard layout for some character entry fields (like an email address field, username, password fields).
 
It depends on the type of text field you are in. For normal typing, the keyboard shown in your post is correct. You can add a period automatically by hitting the space key twice (configurable in Settings). However, if you are in Safari and tap the URL box, the keyboard will show you the period next to the space bar (and you can tap and hold the period key to show .com, .org, etc.).
 
Very helpful all. Thank you.

I was using swiftkey on my own old phone so I'll need to adjust to hitting 123 when I want a question mark etc.

Thanks again.
 
Jasmynsway said:
Very helpful all. Thank you.

I was using swiftkey on my own old phone so I'll need to adjust to hitting 123 when I want a question mark etc.

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Remember that you can hold your finger down on the Numerical shift key, and when the keyboard shifts to Numerical, slide your finger to the desired key and then lift your finger up; the keyboard immediately reverts to Alphabetical and you have your desired character/number with minimal effort & maximum speed. Also, hold down the chosen key for longer to see alternatives to the plain key shown.

If your previous iOS phone did this, please forgive the instructions. There are still some who don't know this stuff. :)
 
It's part of ios 7 new human interface.
It does appear, but only for a few days per month and is very temperamental.
 
lelisa13p said:
Remember that you can hold your finger down on the Numerical shift key, and when the keyboard shifts to Numerical, slide your finger to the desired key and then lift your finger up; the keyboard immediately reverts to Alphabetical and you have your desired character/number with minimal effort & maximum speed. Also, hold down the chosen key for longer to see alternatives to the plain key shown.

If your previous iOS phone did this, please forgive the instructions. There are still some who don't know this stuff. :)
Click to expand...


Now I remember! Thanks. That will definite save time. Just got to get used to doing it from the left. Swiftkey had something similar on the right. Won't take long though.
 
lelisa13p said:
Remember that you can hold your finger down on the Numerical shift key, and when the keyboard shifts to Numerical, slide your finger to the desired key and then lift your finger up; the keyboard immediately reverts to Alphabetical and you have your desired character/number with minimal effort & maximum speed. Also, hold down the chosen key for longer to see alternatives to the plain key shown.

If your previous iOS phone did this, please forgive the instructions. There are still some who don't know this stuff. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for this tip. I've had iphone's for years and never knew this. Great tip!!!
 
lelisa13p said:
Remember that you can hold your finger down on the Numerical shift key, and when the keyboard shifts to Numerical, slide your finger to the desired key and then lift your finger up; the keyboard immediately reverts to Alphabetical and you have your desired character/number with minimal effort & maximum speed. Also, hold down the chosen key for longer to see alternatives to the plain key shown.

If your previous iOS phone did this, please forgive the instructions. There are still some who don't know this stuff. :)
Click to expand...

Me...!! A six year ios user didn't know this...!! *facepalm*
 
byke said:
It's part of ios 7 new human interface.
It does appear, but only for a few days per month and is very temperamental.
Click to expand...

LOL. I feel for you. Showing how strong and intuitive iOS 6 was (judging from your signature of course.)
 
Speaking of the *period*; what happened to being able to say "period" in dictation & having one end a sentance? All the other ones (?,", & ,) seem to work when needed, but not the humble period. All I get is "period" at the end. :confused:
 
DucMike said:
Speaking of the *period*; what happened to being able to say "period" in dictation & having one end a sentance? All the other ones (?,", & ,) seem to work when needed, but not the humble period. All I get is "period" at the end. :confused:
Click to expand...

It works for me using iOS 6.1.4. I just created a test Note. I dictated: this is a test note period testing for punctuation period

I got: This is a test note. Testing for punctuation.
 
lelisa13p said:
It works for me using iOS 6.1.4. I just created a test Note. I dictated: this is a test note period testing for punctuation period

I got: This is a test note. Testing for punctuation.
Click to expand...
I'm on the latest OS (7.0.1) and since getting my new phone (5s), it hasn't been working. Seems to want to write it out every time period
 
Dictating 'full stop' using British English does the punctuation mark.
 
lelisa13p said:
Punctuation marks are still called by their proper names. Period is a perfectly legitimate one. :)
Click to expand...

The Oxford Dictionary of English defines period as a North American term. So in Britain, as mentioned by the OP, full stop is the right term to use. American Siri can do what she likes :p
 
newOS kboard shift key color & capitals / upper & lower case typing issue not resol

Hi,

Colour is a big part of Ease of Use on the iPhone.

Wondering why the blue colour shift lock key on the pop up keyboard has been replaced with grey colour changes when in other apps like, Maps, Mail, Phone, Calculator, Clock, Photos, Camera, ....(almost all native apps) use colour to highlight certain functions?

The removal of the blue colour when activating upper case typing has now slowed my overall typing down, both in landscape & portrait modes, making me less efficient at work & at home.

The reason for this is that I use both thumbs for typing in landscape & I use both right & left thumbs for typing in portrait. While typing, my left hand is usually hovering over that area of the keyboard in both modes where the shift key is located.

In previous iOS I could easily & quickly identify with my peripheral vision if the shift button was on, (be it locked or not) without consciously looking at it because my brain made a subconscious note of the colour blue in the bottom left hand corner.

Now I have to pause, move my hand/thumb aside and concentrate (albeit for a split second) to check that the shift button is on. This is happening almost every Paragraph & most sentences that I type.

I also type an upper case letter or two and have to continuously backtrack to correct it on most occasions. This simple omission/change has slowed me right down, waisting my precious time & to a lesser extent, energy.

Like all upgrades, I give myself several weeks to see if I'll acclimatise to the new changes, and 99% of the time I do. This time however my brain can not adjust & I'm not getting any faster with out the colour shift key.

If Johnny Ives & the Apple Engineers could bring themselves to surreptitiously put back the colour into the shift key function, I would have no thoughts about considering Samsung & would be a satisfied Apple Fan again.

I would be very surprised if I'm the only customer who has noticed this change.

A suggestion for consideration for the Apple Design Engineers, if not change the keyboard to upper case as suggested by others in this thread, then at the very least put the colour back into the shift key and maybe a small shift key (color) icon on the high side of the iPhone & iPad screen so we don't have to make a conscious note when we're typing. Our eyes would be able to clearly see that the shift key is on & adjust subconsciously with out slowing us down.

Yours sincerely,

Apple Customer :(:confused:
 
The shift key inverts, looks different. Invert or colour, it looks different so is obvious that it is on shift lock/caps. I type a lot on my iPhone and iPad with none of your issues. Maybe I have acclimatized faster? Who knows.
 
irnchriz said:
The shift key inverts, looks different. Invert or colour, it looks different so is obvious that it is on shift lock/caps. I type a lot on my iPhone and iPad with none of your issues. Maybe I have acclimatized faster? Who knows.
Click to expand...
Maybe you are just different and don't see something as much of an issue, but that doesn't really mean anything for those who do.
 
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