In this episode, Thomas Domville shows us how to use QuickPath, a native swipe keyboard new in iOS 13 that allows you to type by sliding your finger across the onscreen keyboard.
To use this feature, make sure you're using either Touch Typing or Direct Touch Typing as your typing mode, and rest your finger on a key. Then, after you hear a tone, slide it to the general location of your next intended key. For example, to type the word "Hello," rest your finger on the letter H, and when you hear the tone, slide it to the general location of the letter E, followed by the letters L and O. If the wrong word is predicted, press the Delete key, and it will be deleted.
To turn this feature off, go to Settings > General > Keyboard, and double-tap the "Slide to type" switch. Additionally, you can quickly turn this feature on and off by adding it to the VoiceOver rotor in Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Rotor > Rotor items.
Comments
Words with the same part of spelling
Excellent demonstration, Thomas! Looks like we can now get system wide flick type like experience natively, which is cool.
I have a question and a concern for you. What if, letās take the words āTheā, āTheeā and āThereā. The first word is something that we all know very well, the second was a Shakespearean way of saying you, and the third is the word there that appeared in the podcast. OK, how would slide to type interact with these three words? If I wanted to type the, instead of there, how would I do that with slide to type?
Thank you very much!
A Note On Using Quick Path Typing With IPad OS
To use Quick Path Typing/Slide Typing/Swipe To Type on IPadd OS, you have to enable the āFloating Keyboardā first for now.
"The", "There", and "Thee"
Hi David,
That is a great question. I just tried it on my device. If I were just going to the letter t and h and then e. I was able to get just "The". As soon as I move to the right is when the "There" popped up. However, "Thee" was a different story. I couldn't get the word by using the Swipe to Type. So, unless and perhaps someone else may have a suggestion but this looks like you must use the traditional Touch Type to get this word.
HTH
maybe over time
It's possible over time the device would know you use Thee and have it as a suggestion? That's not a common word these days so I am assuming unless you use it a lot it wouldn't just pop it up. It's still using algorithms and is taylored to I'm sure common phraises for example I was able to get lol to work.
This is great honestly
I think this will make typing if I don't have my Polaris at that the time much easier. Having something natively built in such as this is pretty neat. I'm not saying I'm discarding FlickType, because the keyboard is much easier to use than swiping, but I'm just saying it'd be nice to have something to type on when I don't have my braille display.
Great Podcast
This was a great podcast. I do have one question, though. Is it possible to include any kind of punctuation with the swiping or do you need to input it the usual way?
Thanks.
moving insertion point when holding a letter to begin the quick
Hi Thomas:
I always find your podcasts thorough and informative. I have slide to type enabled, but I am not successful in my attempts to make it work. I generally use the standard typing mode. I've tried single tap and hold, and double tap and hold, even triple tap and hold. In each case, I do not get the ascending tri-tone that should indicate that I can drag, but a message saying moving insertion point. When I release my finger, I hear finished moving insertion point.
I have yet to try switching to touch typing mode to see if that makes quick path swipe more effective for me. Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thank you.
Touch Typing
I recommend you try it with touch typing. All you should have to do is move your finger around the screen and select the letter you want to start with. Once you do, don't remove your finger from the screen. Let it sit there for about a second and you should feel a vibration in your finger. It's then that you swipe around the screen to type your words. Hope this helps.
PS: I don't know if this is the same with standard typing, but it works well with touch typing.