question regarding apple wireless keyboard

[miwealia]

I've heard that the apple wireless keyboard was made specifically for macs, and when you use it with an ipad, some of the keys don't function the same. Could anyone tell me which of the keys don't function the same with an ipad as with a mac? Thanks.

 

[iVan]

Well, my case is special because I use a French Bluetooth keyboard. All of the accented letters don't work, most special characters like question marks are not on the keys that show them. The toggle button for keyboard and language that's in the virtual iPad keyboard does not seem to have an equivalent. And worse, spell checking is off!

I can't seem to find the right settings...

 

[miwealia]

Thanks, iVan, but I'm not sure that answers my question. Does anyone who types in English know which keys don't function with the ipad?

 

[iVan]

Thing is that I'm perfectly bilingual and that I switch from one language to another several times a day. What the iPad does perfectly by itself in its keyboard does not seem to happen with a Bluetooth Apple keyboard.

 

[miwealia]

Do you have a mac that you can use the wireless keyboard with, to see how it acts differently than when you use it with your ipad?

 

[iVan]

Sorry, just a few pcs and it doesn't work with it.

 

[ckole]

There are a couple of blog posts out there on this do a search. I have the BT Keyboard and it is mainly stuff like FN keys Home key etc. All general typing stuff works. If you want to find the link I know I have one on my site flightcrewlife.com in an article I wrote about the iPad. I also have the camera connection kit and the 1 usb keyboard I tried worked fine.

 

[mcbrew]

I know this is a little late.. but I just bought the Apple wireless keyboard. It woks great. The brightness keys work, as do the volume and mute keys. The "eject" looking key in the upper right corner makes the on-screen keyboard appear. Caps lock works. The arrow keys work in some places, like moving around a text box (like the one I'm typing in now). Tab works. The music control keys work.

The ones that don't seem to do anything are the ESC key, the fn, control, option, and command keys. The "show all wondows" and the key next to that, which looks lie a meter of some sort, doesn't do anything.

I'm loving the keyboard. I can type a lot faster and with fewer errors than with the on-screen keyboard. I also don't have to switch to numbers or symbols. Very light weight and thin. Well thought out.

 

[DavidNM]

Also - the 'tilde' key (wiggly horizontal line), when pressed, will wake your ipad out of sleep mode - very handy.

I would be curious if someone has written an apple bluetooth keyboard guide.

 

[mcbrew]

Thanks for the tip... it looks like any key wakes up the iPad -- without having to swipe the screen! Nice!

Yeah, a guide would be nice... and hopefully Apple is going to continue to make improvements to the interface. For instance, when you start to type in a URL in Safari and it comes up with a list of previously visited URLs underneath, you SHOULD be able to press the arrow down and get to those options instead of having to touch the screen.

Oh, and on the "got it right" list is the fact that the backspace key works like it would on a computer. It does NOT backspace a few spaces then start deleting two words at a time like the on-screen backspace key. I like that!

Oh, and SHIFT plus arrow keys does highlight text like it would on a computer.

 

[mcbrew]

command+C and command+V do work as COPY and PASTE shortcuts.

 

[JulieNSW]

I hope I'm wrong but I Can't get a tilde on my ipad. You know the curly dash. If someone knows how please tell me!

 

[LannyC]

On the onscreen keyboard, tap [.?123] then [#+=]. It's four keys in on the middle row.

This post handcrafted from 100 percent post-consumer recycled electrons.

 

[Deleted member 247820]

If you Google "Apple wireless keyboard shortcuts for iPad" you will get plenty of advice.

I have an elcheapo knockoff Apple bluetooth keyboard and all the Apple short cuts work fine.