Yesterday we told you about new keyboard shortcuts added in iOS 7, but iOS already supported a bunch of keyboard shortcuts that many people might not be aware of. So here’s an exhaustive list of keyboard shortcuts for iPhone and iPad that can be used with a Bluetooth wireless keyboard.
While keyboard shortcuts are hard to remember, they’re a great productivity boost once you get over the learning curve. So if you’re in a text editing application, you won’t have to take your hands off the keyboard each time you want to select text to copy and paste.
Since most of these shortcuts are largely undocumented, you can refer to this list to get started:
System Shortcuts
- F1 Dim screen
- F2 Brighten screen
- F7 Back one song
- F8 Play/pause
- F9 Skip song
- F10 Mute
- F11 Decrease volume
- F12 Increase volume
- ⌘ Space Display a list of available languages; to choose one, tap the space bar again.
Text Selection and navigation
These shortcuts are the same as on any Mac, so you shouldn’t have any problem picking them up quickly on the iPad.
- ⌘C Copy
- ⌘X Cut
- ⌘V Paste
- ⌘Z Undo
- ⌘⇧Z Redo
- ⌘Delete to Delete the text to the beginning of the line
- Control K to Delete the text to the end of the line
- Alt (Option) Delete to Delete the word before the cursor
- ⌘↑ Jump to top of document
- ⌘↓ Jump to bottom of document
- ⌘← Jump to beginning of line
- ⌘→ Jump to end of line
- Alt↑ Jump to previous start of line
- Alt ↓ Jump to next end of line
- Alt ← Jump to previous word
- Alt → Jump to next word
- ⇧↑ Select the text above
- ⇧↓ Select the text below
- ⇧← Select the text on the left
- ⇧→ Select the text on the right
- ⇧⌘↑ Select all the text to the beginning of the document
- ⇧⌘↓ Select all the text to the end of the document
- ⇧⌘← Select the text to the beginning of the line
- ⇧⌘→ Select the text to the end of the line
- ⇧Alt↑ Select the text above, line by line
- ⇧Alt↓ Select the text below, line by line
- ⇧Alt← Select the text on the left, word by word
- ⇧Alt→ Select the text on the right, word by word
iPad Navigation
While not normally enabled, iOS will also let you switch between apps and do a lot more if you enable VoiceOver. To switch it on, go to Settings > General > Accessibility > and turn on VoiceOver. Along with the shortcuts, this will also enable the actual voice over, but you can turn that off by pressing Control + Option + S.
- Control Option H Home button
- Control Option H H Show multitask bar
- Control Option i Item chooser
- Escape Back button
- → next item
- ← previous item
- ↑↓ simultaneously tap selected item
- Option↓ scroll down
- Option↑ scroll up
- Option← or → scroll left or right
- Control Option S turn VoiceOver speech on or off
- Command Shift Tab switch to the previous app
- Command Tab switch back to the original app
- ←+→, then Option + ← or Option+→ navigate through Dock
Safari
- ⌘L Open Location
- ⌘T open a new tab
- ⌘W close the current tab
- ⌘R refresh the current tab
- ⌘. stop loading the current tab
- ⌘N create a new message
- ⌘⇧D send a message
- Backspace key to delete the currently selected message
- ↑ or ↓ select suggested email address in To/CC/BCC popover fields
Pages
- ⌘⇧K comment
- ⌘⌥K show next comment
- ⌘⌥⇧K show previous comment
The iOS 7 SDK lets developers add custom keyboard shortcuts in their apps for external Bluetooth keyboards. So expect your favorite iOS text editor to add support for this very soon.
Have we missed any other keyboard shortcuts for the iPhone or iPad in the list? Let us know in the comments below.
[via OS X Daily, Image credit: Flickr user Kārlis Dambrāns]
