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Sunday, March 24, 2013

Showing the Keyboard

 

"How do I get the keyboard to appear?" is a question faced by every new iPad user.  At first glance, the keyboard seems to have a mind of its own, appearing and disappearing like a capricious spirit.  But actually it's quite easy to get the keyboard to show (or hide) anytime you want. 

To make the iPad keyboard appear, simply tap in any input field. The keyboard will pop-up, ready for typing.

Some examples will illustrate.

Example 1 - Google. 
We'd like to search, but how do we type in what to search for - there's no keyboard!


Solution: tap in the search box, highlighted in red here. Make sure you see the flashing vertical line, or "cursor" in the box (if you didn't, try again, the iPad didn't recognize your tap). Now you are ready to type.

Example 2 - Amazon. Let's search for new product; but again, there's no keyboard to type in our product name.

 
Solution: we tap in the Amazon search box, see our flashing cursor, and the keyboard appears for us.
 
Example 3 - we are in the Notes app and want to add to our To Do list. Again, no keyboard.


Solution: we tap on one of the lines in the Notes app, and the keyboard pops up.


Example 4 - we are in App Store and want to search for a new app. However, no keyboard.


Solution: we tap in the Search Store box in the upper right, and the keyboard appears.

So that's the trick to making the keyboard appear: just tap in the box where you need to type something and the keyboard will show to do your bidding!

Hiding the iPad Keyboard
 
Now the opposite problem: how do you get the keyboard to go away when you don't want it? Maybe you started something with the keyboard, and have changed your mind, but the keyboard is stubbornly waiting for you to continue typing! How to get rid of it?


Example - you're in the Yelp app, and want to look more closely at the map. But the keyboard is in the way. You need to hide the keyboard.


Solution: on the keyboard, notice the one key in the lower right highlighted in red. It's a keyboard symbol with a down arrow. That's the "Hide Keyboard" key. Tap it to hide the keyboard.

 
After tapping the "Hide Keyboard" key


Solution 2: You can also hide the keyboard by tapping anywhere on the screen that's not part of the keyboard. In this case, tapping the Yelp map made the keyboard disappear.


Summary

  • To display the keyboard, simply tap in the input field where you want to type.
  • To hide the keyboard, tap the Hide Keyboard key, or tap anywhere on the screen outside of the keyboard area.















 

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