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Apple continues to expand the iPhone’s global reach by supplying international keyboard layouts for more than 120 languages. To access a keyboard that isn’t customized for Americanized English, tap Settings ⇒ General ⇒ Keyboard ⇒ Keyboards ⇒ Add New Keyboard. Up pops a list with custom keyboards for numerous countries.

Have a multilingual household? You can select, in turn, as many international keyboards as you want. When you’re working in an app that summons a keyboard, tap the international keyboard key until you see the keyboard you want. Tap again to select the next keyboard in the list of international keyboards that you turned on in Settings. Keep cycling to get back to your original English layout. Here’s an alternative method for summoning a keyboard you’ve enabled: Press and hold down your finger against the international keyboard key to summon a pop-up window that displays all the keyboards that are ready for action. Slide your finger along the list until it lands on the keyboard you want to use (or Keyboard Settings) and then release it to select that keyboard. Or tap and hold down the international keyboard key for an instant, release it, and then tap the keyboard you want.

You can use handwriting character recognition for simplified and traditional variations of Chinese. Just drag your finger in the box provided. Some Chinese keyboards don’t rely on handwriting.

And here’s another neat trick: You can type in two languages you’ve enabled without switching from one to the other. Just type the appropriate word or words in whichever language makes sense and the iPhone takes a stab at what it thinks you mean to type next — in the appropriate language. The list of compatible paired languages includes English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. And this multilingual typing feature is also supported for English and Chinese.

When you press your finger against a letter or a number on the screen, the individual key you press gets bigger, as shown in Figure 2-4. That way, you know that you struck the correct letter or number. If you don’t see the key get bigger, visit Settings ⇒ General ⇒ Keyboard and make sure the Character Preview shift switch is on (green is showing).

Sending a message to an overseas pal? Keep your finger pressed against certain letters, and a row of keys showing variations of the character for foreign alphabets pops up, as shown with the letter e in Figure 2-5. Slide your finger until you reach the key with the relevant accent mark, and release it.

FIGURE 2-4: The ABCs of virtual typing.

FIGURE 2-5: Accenting your letters.

Meanwhile, if you press and hold down the period key on the Safari keyboard, you get your choice of .com, .net, .edu, .org, and .us. Pressing and holding down the period key in certain other situations, such as in Messages, Notes, or Pages, gives you a choice of a period or an ellipsis.

If you enabled any international keyboards, you’ll see more choices when you hold down the period key. For example, if you enabled a French keyboard, pressing and holding down the period will also give you options for .eu and .fr.

Alas, typing mistakes are common at first. Say that you meant to type a sentence in the Notes app that reads, “I am typing notes.” But because of the way your fingers struck the virtual keys, you actually entered “I am typing nptes.” Fortunately, Apple knows that the o you meant to press is next to the p that showed up on the keyboard. So the software determines that notes was likely one of the words you had in mind and offers the word as one of its three top suggestions, as shown in Figure 2-6. To accept a suggested word, merely tap it — though if you want the middle word, just type a space to accept that choice. And if for some reason you actually did mean to type nptes, which in this example will be one of the suggested words shown, tap it instead.

FIGURE 2-6: When the keyboard bails you out.

When you’re typing notes or sending email and want to type a number, symbol, or punctuation mark, tap the 123 key. The keyboard morphs into an alternative virtual keyboard with numbers and symbols. The 123 key is now the #+= key. Tap it to display keys with additional symbols. Tap the ABC key to return to the alphabetical keyboard; that key then becomes the 123 key. These extra steps are not hard to get used to, but some may find them irritating.

As mentioned, you can rotate the iPhone so that its keyboard changes to a wider landscape mode in certain apps, including Mail, Messages, Notes, and Safari. The keys are slightly larger in landscape mode, a boon to those who do a lot of typing or have largish fingers.