“Press any key to continue. Where’s the any key?” – Homer Simpson

As I was in eager anticipation of receiving my iPad, my only concern prior to opening the box was, what would typing be like on it? Of course I had typed on an iPad in the Apple store and I was impressed with the touchscreen keyboard, but what I really wanted to know was what would extended typing be like? When I had long email communications to type out, documents to create on Pages, and blogs to post through WordPress then how happy would I be with my new iPad? Well, a week and a half of typing later and the verdict is in. Typing on the iPad is impressive and effective.

The first six days I had my iPad I didn’t have a case for it and typing anything of length was troublesome. I would hold the iPad in portrait and attempt to type with two thumbs like on my iPhone but the size difference between the two made this pretty slow. Perhaps this might work for some with larger hands but not for the average person. Then I tried holding the iPad with one hand and typing with the other. Of course, that worked but was also too slow for volume typing. I set the iPad down on my desk but when it lay completely flat it was hard to type and see the screen at the same time and it wasn’t 100% steady due to the fact the iPad doesn’t have a flat back. Then I tried various ways of propping the iPad up on my lap or on a pillow so I could type with both hands and really test drive the the keyboard. Now, I was really typing, but finding and keeping an angle that didn’t hurt my wrists after a bit was impossible. For the first few days this wasn’t too big of a problem. As I was mostly playing with my shiny new toy and most of my typing consisted of entering search terms in Google, entering search terms in the App store and entering search terms in Netflix, but after a few days I was ready to explore the iPad not just as a toy but as a tool.

Finally I got the Apple iPad case and the real typing began. In my opinion if you don’t have a case that props the iPad up at an effective angle you’re not going to get any good typing done. If you are an effective typer on a keyboard you’ll be effective on the iPad, you just might need to slow down a bit. In using the iPad I have discovered that when I’m typing my fingers that are not being used are resting slightly on the keys thats a big problem on a touch screen keyboard. So I had to get used to hovering my hands above the keyboard more. Once I slowed down a bit and got used to not resting my hands I was able to type at a good clip. Of course I made more mistakes than usual but, like the iPhone, the iPad is excellent at correcting and is much smarter than any standard computer.

There are some differences to a standard keyboard that take some time to get used to. First of all the Shift keys are a bit smaller making a smaller target to hit. The number keys are not on the same page you have to toggle back and forth between the number and letter screens. This is not a big deal necessarily but if you type a lot of numbers it will take more time. The hardest for me though is the lack of an apostrophe key, my right ring finger had a really hard time breaking the habit of reaching for the apostrophe. There is a short cut though so that you don’t have to toggle to the next screen. Simply swipe up on the exclamation mark/comma key and the apostrophe option will appear. Just like the iPhone you can tap and hold many keys for more options like ñ,è, ö etc.

Of course, for heavy typing your absolute best option for comfort, speed and accuracy will be a keyboard and you can choose between the keyboard dock or the Bluetooth keyboard. At this moment in time I will be passing on keyboards. Much of the iPad’s appeal for me lies in its size and simplicity and I don’t want to carry around an additional accessory when typing on the onscreen keyboard is working out just fine at this point for my mobile typing needs.

This entire post was typed out on the iPad’s touchscreen naturally.