Hi Mary, I'm cc' íng this information about the Text Writer iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch app (that is currently free until April 2) to the macvisionaries list. I'll also give the link to this text editing app to preclude multiple post traffic asking about this: • Text Writer (normally $0.99, free until April 2, 2011) by Tai Bereznitsky http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/text-writer/id417629724?mt=8
You wrote: > Hi Richard, > I'm curious if those arrow buttons work for you in text writer. There have > been a few complaints in the reviews noting that the up and down arrows don't > actually work. It is hard for me to imagine how arrow buttons would work with > vo. Of course, since I use a blue tooth keyboard for any but very short text > entry, this question is more out of curiosity than it would be for practical > use. But in a touch screen environment, I don't understand how arrow buttons > work, what they do. > > Mary > I've been experimenting with Text Writer, and the arrow buttons do work, although it's a bit confusing to start out with, if you're used to using the rotor to navigate through your document and are trying to mix the two. The arrow buttons are meant to function like the arrow keys on your Apple Wireless Keyboard and move the insertion point. So let's take an example of where you might want to make an editing change. Suppose I have just typed a word, and I've either made a spelling error or inadvertently let the the autocorrection feature substitute a different word. There's only one or two letters that I need to change, but they're in the middle of a long word, so I'd rather not delete and retype most of the word. Instead, I use the back arrow button to move my insertion point to the place I want to change. Since you have an iPad, I'll describe the action when I'm using the virtual keyboard for the iPad in landscape mode, and using touch typing. I shift my finger to the back arrow key, which is the unlabeled key that lies above and to the right of the "u" key of the landscape keyboard, so I move my finger diagonally up and to the right to reach the back arrow button. (I use my right index finger, but initially I used to move this first to right to the "i" key and then up to check the location of the right arrow button, which is the last of the unlabeled buttons. The right arrow button is directly above the "i" key, but the top row buttons are smaller than the letter keys: the 10 keys span the space of 8 letter keys. So the left arrow button is above and to the right of the "u", or above and to the left of the "i" key. Once my finger is on the back arrow button, I split tap with another finger, so my insertion point moves back one character with each letter. With each tap, VoiceOver announces the letter I've just moved over, just as when I use the rotor set to "character". Once I've reached the incorrect letter, I can handle this a few different ways, including just using the delete key. Here's a neat way to do this with this keyboard: If I move my finger or flick left so that focus is no longer on the unlabeled "left arrow" button, but on the "Select" button that is 5 buttons earlier, I can double tap and select the letter I just heard VoiceOver announce. Each successive double tap selects the next letter to the right. So, let's say that I just typed "Merry" instead of "Mary". I touch the unlabeled back arrow key that is above the "u" and "i" keys, and split tap back to the "e". Then I flick left 5 times so that focus is moved from the unlabeled "back arrow" button to the "Select" button. VoiceOver announces "button" (unlabeled down arrow), "button" (unlabeled up arrow), "Home button", "End button", and "Select button". Now, since this button has focus, I double tap twice in succession. The first double tap selects "e", which VoiceOver announces. The second selects the "r". At this point I could delete the selection, using either the delete key on the virtual keyboard, or the "Del" button in the top row of keys, which is just to the right of the regular "Home" button of the iPad, when I hold this in landscape mode with "Home button to the left". However, I can just slide my finger to the "a" key, and lift it up. At this point the letter "a" is substituted for the "e r" that was selected, and "M e r r y" has turned into "M a r y". If I needed to type more letters than "a" for the substitution, my insertion point is correctly placed, and I can just type them. This is pretty neat, and mimics the way that I could edit with the Apple Wireless Keyboard, holding down the Shift key to select as I navigate by characters (right or left arrow key presses) or words (Option key plus right or left arrow key presses). Again, if I start typing after doing a selection, what I type replaces the selected text. The only real pain in the process is the failure to label the arrow buttons. You can copy and paste selected text with the buttons above keyboard. You can also move by double tapping the "Home" and "End" keys instead of double tapping in the text field. Now, the place where this gets confusing is when you try to combine the rotor actions with the keyboard actions. For one thing, you have to make sure that focus is not on a key of the keyboard if you want to use the rotor settings for edit -- otherwise when you double tap in the text field, you can be double tapping whichever key on the virtual keyboard has focus, and that could be an arrow key or a delete or copy or paste key, etc. But the advantage of this app's extended keys is that you can perform selections, copies, and substitutions with key actions. In portrait mode, the added top row keys are the same size as the letter keys, so they span the width of the device. These added keys are (for portrait mode, and where "moves" refers to the position of the insertion point that determines where newly typed characters will be inserted into the text): Del (works as forward delete) -- top left, above the "q" Paste (pastes copied text at position of insertion point) -- above "w" Copy (copies selected text) -- above "e" Select (advances selection by a letter to right) -- above "r", and to right End (moves to the end of a line, defined by where you pressed the return key) -- midway above "t" and ''y" keys Home (moves to the beginning of a line, defined by the position before the previous press of the return key) -- midway above "y" and "u" buttons Up arrow (moves to the end of the previous line, defined as the position before the press of the return key) -- midway above "u" and "i" buttons Down arrow (moves to the beginning of the next line, defined as the position after the next press of the return key) -- midway above "i" and "o" buttons Left arrow (moves back one character) -- midway above the "o" and "p" buttons Right arrow (moves forward one character) -- above the delete key For the iPad I use this in landscape mode. The additional top row of 10 buttons lines up with the placement of the "Home" button of the device, which I orient to the left, so the "Del" or forward delete button can easily be found immediately to the right of the (physical) Home button in this orientation. Same functions as listed above but position in landscape mode: Del (forward delete) -- above left side of "q" key Paste -- above left side of "w" key Copy -- midway above "w" and "e" keys Select -- above right side of "e" key End -- above right side of "r" key Home -- above "t" key Up arrow -- unlabeled, above left side of "y" key Down arrow -- unlabeled, midway above the "y" and "u" keys, but more over the "u" Left arrow -- unlabeled, midway above the "u" and "i" keys Right arrow -- unlabeled, above right side of the "i" key A final comment about using the up and down arrow keys. These do work, but they only distinguish between "lines" when the return key has been pressed. If you type several sentences continuously, and do not press the return key, those sentences will be treated as though they are on the same "line" as far as the up and down arrow key behavior, and "Home" and "End" keys go. In other words, a text editor does not behave the same way as a word processor, which ends lines according to the font size and width of the page. HTH. Cheers, Esther -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
