There are some key efficiency tips on iPhone and iPad that I feel are worth repeating. I hope you’re using these to be more productive on your devices.

I previously discussed these in Efficient Dexterity, iPhone Hot Tips #2, and XCV Shortcuts.

.com, Etc. with Long Press (& Swipe)

When using the email or website keyboard on your device, you can easily type .com by long pressing the period key (.) Or, long press the key and move your finger up and then right or left to select other common top-level domains, like .org, .net, etc.

Type Numbers & Symbols by Swiping

On iPad, you can type numbers and symbols by swiping down on keyboard keys that contain them. If you know where a symbol is located, this can be faster than pressing .?123 (and #+=) to access it.

For example, to type 1, swipe down on Q (unless your keyboard is big enough to have a dedicated number row); to type ! [exclamation point], swipe down on , [comma]; to type < [left angle bracket], swipe down on ; [semicolon]; and so forth.

In the screenshot above, you can see the . [period] key is active (to the left of the right Shift key). I swiped down on it to type a ? .

Copy, Paste & More from the Cursor Menu

Anywhere you can type, tap on the cursor for a menu of contextual choices. When you’ve copied text, the menu includes the Paste command. In email, you might see commands to increase or decrease the quote level and add attachments.

When you have already typed content, double-tap to select a word or triple-tap to select a paragraph. On selected text, you’ll see commands like Cut and Copy, as well as Speak and Translate. Also, when you select text, you can drag the handles at the beginning and end to increase or decrease the selection.

Remember, you can also copy and paste across Apple devices. For example, copy some text or a website or even a photo on your iPhone. Then, hop over to your Mac and paste. Like magic, the content you copied will appear. Amazing, right?!

There are so many more tips and tools to discover and explore on our Apple devices. I’m regularly finding more as I use my Apple products, listen to the Mac Geek Gab podcast, and work with clients like you who ask questions and share needs, preferences, and expectations for how you think technology should work for you.

Thank you for keeping me busy!