Type with the onscreen keyboard on iPad

On iPad, you can use the onscreen keyboard to enter and edit text.

You can also use an external keyboard, Apple Pencil, and dictation to enter text.

Enter text using the onscreen keyboard

In any app that allows text editing, open the onscreen keyboard by tapping a text field. You can pinch closed to shrink the keyboard, then tap individual keys to type, or use QuickPath to type by sliding from one letter to the next without lifting your finger (not available for all languages). To end a word, lift your finger. (If you tap after sliding to type a word, it deletes the whole word.)

You can drag the smaller keyboard from the bottom of the screen to move it wherever you want for easy one-handed typing.

To return to the full-size keyboard, pinch open. On the full-size keyboard, you tap keys to type.

While entering text, you can do any of the following on both the smaller keyboard and the full-size keyboard:

Type uppercase letters: Tap Shift, or touch the Shift key and slide from the Shift key to a letter.
Turn on Caps Lock: Double-tap Shift.
Quickly end a sentence with a period and a space: Double-tap the Space bar.
Correct spelling: Tap a misspelled word (underlined in red) to see suggested corrections, then tap a suggestion to replace the word, or type the correction.
Enter numbers, punctuation, or symbols: Tap or .
Undo the last edit: Swipe left with three fingers or tap or .
Redo the last edit: Swipe right with three fingers or tap .
Enter emoji: Tap or to switch to the emoji keyboard. To dismiss the emoji keyboard, tap .
Hide the onscreen keyboard: Tap .

See Select and edit text on iPad.

Turn the onscreen keyboard into a trackpad

Touch and hold the Space bar with one finger until the keyboard turns light gray.
Move the insertion point by dragging around the keyboard.
To select text with handles, continue touching and holding the keyboard until handles appear on the insertion point, then move your fingers.
To use the trackpad to move the insertion point, drag the insertion point to a new location before handles appear.

Use a split keyboard

You can type with a split keyboard that’s at the bottom of the screen, or undocked and in the middle of the screen.

A new email message being composed with the keyboard split and undocked at the bottom of the iPad screen.

To turn Split Keyboard on or off, touch and hold or , tap Keyboard Settings, then select Split Keyboard; or go to Settings > General > Keyboard, then turn Split Keyboard on or off.

When Split Keyboard is turned on in Settings, touch and hold , then do any of the following:

Use a split keyboard: Slide your finger to Split, then release. Or spread the keyboard apart from the middle using two fingers.
Move the keyboard to the middle of the screen: Slide your finger to Undock, then release.
Return to a full keyboard: Slide your finger to Dock and Merge, then release.
Return a full keyboard to the bottom of the screen: Slide your finger to Dock, then release.

Note: The Split Keyboard option is not available on iPad Pro 11-inch and iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later).

Enter accented letters or other characters while typing

While typing, touch and hold the letter, number, or symbol on the keyboard that’s related to the character you want.

For example, to enter é, touch and hold the e key, then slide to choose a variant.

Screen showing alternate accented characters for the e key.

You can also do any of the following:

On a Thai keyboard: To choose native numbers, touch and hold the related Arabic number.
On a Chinese, Japanese, or Arabic keyboard: Tap a suggested character or candidate at the top of the keyboard to enter it, or swipe left to see more candidates.
Note: To view the full candidate list, tap the up arrow on the right. To return to the short list, tap the down arrow.

Set typing options

You can turn on special typing features—such as predictive text and auto-correction—that assist you when you type on iPad.

While typing using the onscreen keyboard, touch and hold or , tap Keyboard Settings, then turn typing features (below All Keyboards) on or off.

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iPad User Guide