iPad Keyboard

Installing iOS 9 will change your iPad keyboard from all uppercase letters to all lowercase letters. The change is from Apple adding a San Francisco system font to iOS devices. You can switch back to an uppercase format by opening the Settings app on your device and navigating to General > Accessibility > Keyboard. From here just tap the "Show Lowercase Keys" slider so it is in the OFF / WHITE position. Now your iPad keyboard will look like it did before you switched to iOS 9.0.

Apple has added a new feature in iOS 9 that transforms your iPad display into a Trackpad. To enable this feature, just tap the keyboard with two fingers, then use two fingers to control the cursor on your iPad. You can also slide two fingers over the keyboard to edit, copy or move text.

You can type accented characters on your iPad by holding down any letter on the keyboard. This will open a list of character options. Just slide your finger to the character you want and let go.

iOS 8 allows iPad and iPhone owners to replace Apple's stock keyboard with third party keyboard apps. To install a third-party keyboard on your iPad you must first download an app such as Flesky from the App Store. You will then need to navigate to Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards and tap the "Add New Keyboard..." panel to add the app to your device.

You can create your own word shortcuts on the iPad keyboard by following the directions below. You can click here for a list of stock and third-party iPad keyboard shortcuts such as "⌘T to open a new tab".

To create your own word shortcut (e.g. Typing "LOL" translates into "Laugh out loud"):

1. Go to Settings > General > Keyboard
2. Tap the "Shortcuts" panel
3. Tap the blue + button in the top right hand corner
4. Type the phrase you want to use (Laugh out loud)
5. Type the shortcut (LOL)

Apple introduced QuickType, a faster more predictive keyboard, in iOS 8. One of the biggest changes is a word suggestion feature that learns how you type and attempts to predict a word before you finish typing. This is a great feature, but some iPad owners may find it distracting if they're not used to using it. Luckily you can disable the predictive keyboard feature in iOS 8 by navigating to Settings > General > Keyboard. Just tap the "Predictive" slider so it turns white / OFF and this will disable the feature.

iOS 8 allows iPad and iPhone users to replace Apple's default keyboard with third party keyboards found on the App Store. Several well known Android keyboards, such as Swype and SwiftKey, are now available for both the iPhone and iPad. You can see a list of available iOS 8 keyboards here.