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How to transform your iPhone's keyboard into a trackpad in one step

Get the convenience of a trackpad on your iPhone (or iPad) when working with a lot of text.
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Senior Contributing Editor

If you work with text documents on your iPhone or iPad that are longer than a shopping list, then you'll know all too well how frustrating it can be to get the cursor into the correct position when editing the text.

The way that most people move the cursor is to jab at the display with their fingertip, trying to get the cursor into the right spot for an edit. There is a magnified bubble view of where the cursor is on the screen, but I find that this is usually obscured by my digits.

And as anyone who has tried this will tell you, it gets real frustrating, real fast.

There is an easier way, and that way is to activate the built-in trackpad.

And it's an easy, one-step process:

  1. Press and hold your finger down on the space bar on the keyboard.

You'll notice a haptic buzz and see that the keyboard has gone blank, and now you can move your finger around across the keyboard, and the cursor in the text will move with it.

When the cursor gets to the spot where you want to drop it, simply lift your finger off the keyboard.

The first few times you use the built-in trackpad, it may feel a little clunky, cumbersome, and weird, but as with most things, it gets easier the more you do it, and it soon becomes second nature.

Give it a try today! 

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