> Keyboard improvements

1 QuickType is evenquicker

When using the on-screen keyboard on an iPad, you may notice secondary characters in gray on many keys. To type one of those, rather than holding ß and then tapping its key, flick downward on its key.

After you tap .?123 to reveal a secondary layout of many commonly used symbols, you can use the same flick shortcut on the more exotic symbols shown there too, saving even more time compared to iOS 10.

If an app uses Apple’s older keyboard layout, on which secondary symbols are shown in black (on the number keys and select others around the edges), a flick downward also works on those keys, too.

Should you find yourself triggering this feature by accident a little too often for comfort, disable it in Settings > General > Keyboards > Enable Key Flicks.

2 Get Smart with punctuation

Previously the quote key produced straight quotes, but iOS 11 includes a setting that tells apps you prefer to use typographer’s quotes (the curly kind) by default instead of having to hold the quote key to produce them. If you prefer the old style because you write code, say, go to Settings > General > Keyboards and switch off Smart Punctuation.