Smartphones, especially the iPhone, have really changed and enhanced the way we do business.

It’s now not uncommon to be able to check in with the office, send an email and approve next month’s finances all from a device that fits into your pocket. While these phones are useful, there is one feature that takes a while to get used to, the keyboard. Apple is aware of this, and has provided iPhone users with a number of helpful keyboard features.

Here are four tip to make the typing experience better on your iPhone.

1. Lock caps lock – While the use of capital letters while typing is generally frowned upon, there are times when you need to type more than one letter in a row in caps. Most users will hit the caps button (upward pointing arrow) on the keyboard, type a letter and then hit it again to type another in caps. You can lock the keyboard in caps mode by double tapping the caps lock button. You’ll notice the key turns blue, indicating caps lock is on. When you are finished, tap it once to turn it off. 2. Turn off auto-correct – We’ve all seen the funny and sometimes embarrassing texts blamed on auto-correct. While useful when getting used to typing on the iPhone, it can be more of a hindrance than a help after you’ve gotten the hang of it. You can turn auto-correct off by selecting Settings, followed by General, Keyboard and finally settingAuto-Correction to Off. 3. Long-press keys for more options – At first glance, the iPhone’s keyboard is a little sparse with many of the standard keys beyond the letters and number keys missing. They are still there, however but just not labeled. With many keys, a long-press on the key will bring up a number of different options and other keys. For example: a long-press on the A key will bring up different letters associated with a, or a long press on ? will bring up the option to use an inverted question mark or an exclamation point. Play around with the keys, and you’ll soon see a ton of different typing options emerge. 4. Stop typing .com – Did you know that you don’t have to always type .com, .net or .org? In certain places, the iPhone will put it in for you. For example, when you are typing a web address on the browser, you can do a long-press on the . to get a pop-up of a whole bunch of dot something endings. This will also work in the email To, CC and BCC: fields.

The above tips are just a few ways to make it easier to type on the iPhone. Do you have another typing tip? Let us know; or, if you would like to learn more, please contact us.