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iPad 101: finding the Tab key in Pages

by Matt Tinsley May 13th 2011 at 1:00PM

Eager to make my new iPad 2 earn its keep, I've stopped rationalizing the purchase and gotten down to work. The next logical purchase, I figured, is Pages, which I'll use for word processing while on the road. Mobile productivity is what the iPad is all about, isn't it?

I read the "getting started" tutorial and then waited for a project to present itself while I was away from my Mac. An opportunity soon presented itself during a boring train ride.

While riding the train to music rehearsal, I needed to type up a simple set list of songs. On the left, I wanted to type the song titles, and on the right, each song's key. This is something I've done hundreds of times on my Mac with minimal fuss.

Unfortunately, however, I hit a snag in Pages. I discovered that there is no tab key on the iPad's virtual keyboard -- even in Pages. I quickly double checked this on my iPhone keyboard and found the same result. I searched "tab" and "tab key" in the Pages help section with poor results.

I started fumbling around the various menu options in Pages, growing frustrated and confused at the lack of a tab key. Had the iPad let me down?

Fortunately, after ten minutes of repeated menu hopping, and searching various internet forums, I saw the tab icon staring me in the face, next to the text alignment icons. Pulling into the train station, I tapped the icon and a short menu appeared with the tab option at the top.

I can't fathom why Apple would decide not to put a tab key on the iPad's keyboard, at least in Pages. But thank goodness it's there, even if it does require two taps to make a tab indentation instead of the single keyboard stroke required on a conventional keyboard.

Have you had a little tiff with your iPad? Why not let us know in the comments below? We may even be able to help you work it out!



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Eager to make my new iPad 2 earn its keep, I've stopped rationalizing the purchase and gotten down to work. The next logical purchase, I...
 

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21 Comments

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Rick

I have found Pages and Keynote to be useful for actual work.

I wanted to use Pages to format chords and lyrics, but I couldn't figure out how to edit the styles. Keynote couldn't run a KN presentation I did on my Mac -- too complicated, I guess.

I don't even like surfing the web because Safari doesn't have tabs. Other browsers do, but you can't synch them with Safari on your Mac.

I'm using my iPad to watch videos and read books on the plane when I travel. That's it so far.

May 14 2011 at 9:10 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buzz

Major Pages omission: "Page 2 of 17." Setting that up is unduly complex.

May 14 2011 at 2:43 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mikelpotts

In anticipation of your next minor tiff with Pages, let me recommend Apple's basic help page for the iPad versions of the iWorks apps.

http://help.apple.com/iwork/1.3/safari/#tan72487ce9

It's saved me many a headache.

May 13 2011 at 9:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Cy Starkman

Personally, there are as yet no successful words or numbers productivity apps for the iPad. iWork, docs2go, quickoffice.

They all have poor interfaces, poor compatibility and limited functions. Numbers is about the most complex functionally but it is a total head f@$k to use with the touch implementation.

I feel there is another 2 generations of software to go before we get anything useful.

May 13 2011 at 7:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
bart.lacks

My tiff is with Numbers and the lack of usability with an external Bluetooth keyboard.

Unless I'm wrong, you have to touch the screen to indicate that you're done editing a cell, then select another cell (again by touch) before you can type on the Bluetooth keyboard.

And it seems that the arrows on the keyboard don't work in Numbers.

Pretty much means the external keyboard is worthless with Numbers.

May 13 2011 at 4:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Yogi

Would it help you to know that the iPad spacebar will put one space if pressed with one finger, two spaces if pressed with two, three spaces for three, and so on up to at least six?

May 13 2011 at 4:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Yogi's comment
Cy Starkman

That is really interesting, did not know that

But 6 spaces is no substitute for a tab, they are useless

May 13 2011 at 6:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
josejrp

The lack of the tab key really drives me bonkers when taking notes, as I tend to indent quite a bit for subcategories, etc...

May 13 2011 at 3:11 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
LeftOfProspect

Pages is an issue. If you are willing to use an editor that is more limited in scope, there are a couple of ways to get tabs when writing.

1. Use Nebulous Notes (for Dropbox), which has an expanded keyboard, which has both tab and arrow keys. Plus, you can assign other functions to the row of extra keys.

2. Use an editor (there are many) that supports TextExpander. I've made "q " convert to tab and "q " convert to "tab tab." A little weird, but very workable.

May 13 2011 at 2:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
MK

I like using Pages on the iPad to create quick documents on the fly. I could not figure out how to rotate an image once it was inserted into an image placeholder on the template.

May 13 2011 at 2:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Nathan78

My tiff is that I noticed on Keynote I once was able to trim movie clips I had in my photo library before adding to my presentation! It was something I used all the time! Now, I suppose after an update, that feature has been removed when adding videos to keynote presentations!

Of course there is a work around if I had iMovie but I have an first gen iPad!

Bummer!

May 13 2011 at 2:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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