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| The feature-rich iPhone 4S virtual keyboard. |
The keyboard settings in iPhone 4S are easy to configure. Like most Apple mobile devices running on iOS 5, you get to select among regional keyboard options, enable "auto-" features, and create shortcuts. A lot of frustrations in using a virtual keyboard comes from not utilizing the available settings to customize it.This article will help you configure the keyboard settings in your iPhone 4S so you can be comfortable with it. Hopefully, learning these settings will also help make your typing faster and easier. The discussions that follow assume that your language setting is English (General > International > Language). But even if you have set your iPhone 4S to your native language, the meaning and purpose of the available keyboard options still hold true.
On your iPhone 4S, go to Settings > General > Keyboard. Let's discuss the available options listed here one by one.
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| The iPhone 4S keyboard settings can be accessed by going to Settings > General > Keyboard. |
Auto-Capitalization - This iPhone 4S keyboard setting allows the automatic capitalization following the rules of English. Examples are the first letter of a sentence, proper nouns (e.g., India, David, iPhone), famous acronyms of organizations (e.g., UNICEF, WTO, NASA), and the pronoun "I". If you are typing a name that is in your Contacts list, this feature will also auto-capitalize the first and last name. If you toggle this option on, you won't have to touch the shift key to capitalize a letter when it has to be.
Auto-Correction - This keyboard setting in iPhone 4S will suggest and correct the spellings of words as you type. It predicts the word you intend to input and suggest it in a small bar exactly above or below the actual word your are typing. For example, if you type "colorf" this feature will predict the word "colorful". When this feature detects a misspelling, or if the word you are typing is not in your language dictionary (e.g., English), it will automatically replace the word you typed with its prediction when you touch the space or return key. If you have typed "affprdable," Auto-Correction will replace this with "affordable". Remember that this is language-specific (General > International > Language). If you are typing the Spanish word "porque", a misspelling will not be auto-corrected if the language in your iPhone 4S is set in English. Lastly, when you don't wan't to use a correction, you can choose to ignore it by touching the word suggestion bar before touching the space or return keys.
Check Spelling - This option will put a dotted red line under typed words that are not in the language dictionary. This iPhone 4S keyboard setting will not replace or correct anything. What this feature does is basically tell you that you might want to check the spelling of the underlined words. Examples of words that will be underlined are foreign family names, and the words you typed where you dismissed the Auto-Correction suggestions.
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| The Check Spelling keyboard feature in iPhone 4S underlines a typed word that is not in the English dictionary. |
Enable Caps Lock - This keyboard setting will allow you to use caps lock in iPhone 4S by touching the shift key twice.That way, if you want to type a word in all caps, you won't have to touch the shift key repeatedly.Caps lock is enabled when the shift key is highlighted in blue. To release caps lock, you only have to touch the shift key once.
International Keyboards - This iPhone 4S keyboard setting will allow you to specify the software and hardware keyboard layouts available for your language. For English, Software Keyboard Layout has three option: QWERTY, AZERTY, and QWERTZ. These represent the order of the letters on the first row of the virtual keyboard. You can set this according to what order you are familiar and comfortable with (see AZERTY French keyboard snapshot below). Hardware Keyboard Layout on the other hand is more useful for customization with language settings other than English. For example, if your language setting (General > International > Language) is Bulgarian, your Software Keyboard Layout options become: Bulgarian, and Bulgarian-Standard; and the options for Hardware Keyboard Layout are: Bulgarian, and Bulgarian-Phonetic. The International Keyboards setting allows foreign users of iPhone 4S and other iOS devices to converse in their native language using symbols and familiar keyboard layouts. This is particularly useful for setting up the the iPhone 4S keyboard for script-based languages like Arabic and Chinese, to mention a few.
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| The iPhone 4S virtual keyboard can be set to include international keyboard formats. This screen shot shows the French AZERTY keyboard. |
Shortcuts - This latest keyboard feature available for iOS 5 allows creating customized key combinations for commonly used phrases. For example, the shortcut "omw" is set by default for the phrase "On my way!". If you type "omw" using your keyboard, Auto-Correction will suggest "On my way!" and touching the space or return key will print the phrase on screen for use. To add more shortcuts, select Add New Shortcut... and begin typing a Phrase and Shortcut pair. All the shortcuts that you have added will be listed along with the other keyboard settings in iPhone 4S. You can delete a shortcut by selecting Edit on the upper right corner of the Keyboard panel, select the individual shortcuts you want to remove, touch DELETE, and then Done.
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| The iPhone 4S keyboard settings allows you to create shortcuts for your most commonly used phrases and expression in emails and messaging. |
That's it. Those are all your available keyboard settings for iPhone 4S. It is important to configure your virtual keyboard settings in so that you can type normally, with ease, and in a convenient and comfortable manner. What good is a phone if you can't type well with it, right? Maximize your iPhone 4S by utilizing all your available settings - that's the best way you can truly enjoy the iPhone 4S experience.
You might also like to read this article about iPhone 4S keyboard tricks.