Back to Mobile View

Skip to Content

iPhone 101: How to turn caps lock on

by Matt Tinsley Aug 19th 2011 at 10:00AM

Welcome to iPhone 101, the series that explains the basics of iPhone operation. This time, its enabling caps lock.

It always astounds me how many iPhone users don't know how to enable caps lock while typing, not just newcomers. Just the other day I was chatting with a friend who's had an iPhone for almost a year. I suddenly had to send a quick text message and my friend was bewildered to see me type some of that message in all-capital letters without having to repeatedly hit the shift key for every letter in capital I typed.

Well, to relieve your curiosity and sheer frustration, here's how to type in caps lock on the iPhone keyboard. Simply double tap the shift key. That's it! The shift key will turn blue, and everything you type will be in capital letters. To exit this mode, simply tap the shift key again.

Actually, his confusion is understandable. A QWERTY keyboard has a shift key and a caps lock key, but the iPhone's keyboard merges the two keys into one. Holding a typical shift key will produce a series of capital letters. Yet, holding many of the iOS keys produces a pop-up menu of special characters, symbols and accents. Except for the iOS shift key; holding that down simply registers a single tap. A long, long, tap.

Well, regardless of why, now you know how. And if you already knew how, you might know someone who doesn't. Make their day and share this simple, effective iPhone 101 tip. Bonus: it works the same way on the iPad and the iPod touch.



View Tags

Related Stories

Categories

iPhone 101

Welcome to iPhone 101, the series that explains the basics of iPhone operation. This time, its enabling caps lock. It always astounds...
 

Add a Comment

Sign in »
*0 / 3000 Character Maximum Comment Moderation Enabled. Your comment will appear after it is cleared by an editor.

34 Comments

Filter by:
Daniel Bean

The lame thing though is that if you type even one number, it immediately turns the caps lock off and you have to turn it on again be hand.

August 20 2011 at 1:54 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Actionable Mango

ALSO:

Double-click space to end a sentence (inserts a period followed by a space, and makes the next letter upper case).

Hold down ".com" button for .net, .edu, .org. and your country's code (such as .uk).

To insert a single number or commonly used punctuation, hold down the "123" button, swipe to the character, and release your finger. It will automatically go back to the qwerty. Saves you from toggling back and forth.

Hold down the period for an ellipsis.

August 19 2011 at 4:06 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
BCHistheShiznit

Unfortunately, that's not "just it". The ability to utilize the caps lock feature is disabled by default and must be enabled via the Settings > General > Enable Caps Lock setting. And I thought this was iPhone 101?!

August 19 2011 at 2:47 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to BCHistheShiznit's comment
TGB-KS

THANK YOU FOR THIS COMMENT. The Article forgets to point out the really important point! It "astounds me" the writer missed this. Check the details next time.

August 19 2011 at 6:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
FreeRange

thanks - wondering why it didn't work for me but you left out one small detail after "General" you go to "Keyboard" then "enable..."

August 19 2011 at 9:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
doyouflip

I still wish the letters on the keyboard displayed in lower case when caps lock is off and shift isn't being used. Seeing how they'll be typed is a much better indicator to me than moving my thumb out of the way to see if the button is highlighted or blue.

August 19 2011 at 2:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
tcj

I think this depends on the app. I've always had Caps Lock on and there are apps that it has never worked in. It seems illogical, but that's how it is for me, and judging by the number of comments saying it doesn't work for them, it must be happening for them, too.

August 19 2011 at 1:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Myles Berman

Before that will actually work you must go into settings, general, keyboard and then make sure that the caps lock is on...otherwise you can press it all day and it will never turn blue, you must have turned it on in the settings area when you first got your iPhone....

August 19 2011 at 1:21 PM Report abuse +2 rate up rate down Reply
Doron

this does not work on my iphone ... FYI !
iOS 4.3.3 (8J2)

August 19 2011 at 12:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Doron's comment
George

See @Randy's post earlier in this thread - check your Settings > General > Keyboard > Enable Caps Lock is On. Thanks Randy!

August 19 2011 at 12:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Charles

couldn't this article have been sufficient as such:

iPhone 101: How to turn caps lock on
double tap the shift key

but then, i guess we wouldn't have to click on the link and that wouldn't look good to the adverts, eh?

August 19 2011 at 12:13 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Charles's comment
Evan

I was going to say the same thing! Could have been five words. But look at all the comments!

August 19 2011 at 1:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Evan's comment
Evan

Not only that, but reading through the rest of the comments, it seems like they missed the key part about turning on caps lock functionality in the settings. I guess they ran out of space.

August 19 2011 at 1:25 PM Report abuse +2 rate up rate down
Franko

i could kiss you. i've had an iphone since version 1, and i've never figured out how to do this. i've always been meaning to look it up, but only remember about it when i need it. then, it's gone again until the next time. also, thanks to Randy for mentioning the settings for it.

August 19 2011 at 11:41 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Randy

You first need to make sure the settings - general - keyboard - "Enable Caps Lock" is turned on for this to work. But thanks for the tip, I always wondered how to do this.

August 19 2011 at 11:24 AM Report abuse +3 rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.