Better hardware keyboard support

14 years ago • updated by 12 years ago • 9 • 1 duplicate

My iPad would completly replace my laptop, if Textastic had better support for hardware keyboard.. (iPad keyboard and bluetooth keyboard)

Keyboard shortcuts for saving, preview etc.

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14 years ago

As far as I am aware implementing keyboard shortcuts is not possible on iOS. The text input system on iOS only sends the resulting keys to the editor view. I can't really check if, for example, the Cmd, Ctrl or Alt keys are pressed or not.

I will implement some touch gestures though.

13 years ago

I second that keyboard shortcuts would be amazing! Would love to have a "save" (upload to server) shortcut, "open" (aka Files), and a way to open the Symbols list (would be even cooler if keyboard focus went to Symbols & Files so I could arrow up/down to make a selection).

How about having a toggle button that will capture (hijack) the characters that are made while pressing the option(alt) key? For example, if I press option+s it generates the "ß" character. Obviously someone might want that character in their code but a toggle switch could deal with this.

I realize it might be bothersome to people to not have the normal "command+[key]" mapped properly, but "option+[key]" is, at least, a nice compromise to those of us who want to use a wireless keyboard.

This idea is implemented in iSSH.

Even if you don't impliment, you got a pretty sweet app here!

13 years ago

I've asked Apple's developers at WWDC 2011 and they confirmed that it's not possible right now. I've filed a bug report though and hope that they add an API. But honestly I doubt that they will implement it.

I've seen another app that hijacks the alt-space character and enables a "command mode". So you would press alt-space and then s to save. I could imagine adding something like that in the future.

13 years ago

I think what brihogan was getting at is the recognition of the OPTION+key combinations whic h iOS natively converts into special characters. See here: These are the qwerty keys pressed with option. œ∑´®†¥

For instance perhaps option+I, option+J, option+K, option+L (ˆ∆˚¬) could be used to move the cursor (but obviously would be useless with the presence of arrow keys on a bluetooth keyboard)
Or is it that there is no way to *intercept* these keys? If they just simply get inserted. Could still retroactively search the most recent typed character and match the value with the key!

13 years ago

Sorry, but that is no real solution. I'm sure there are people who want to enter these characters - especially if you think globally. Also, each international keyboard has different character mappings. So while a certain key combination yields "œ" on an US keyboard, it will map to a different character on a German or French keyboard - let alone Japanese or Chinese. There is no way to determine which keyboard the user has activated so this won't work.

13 years ago

I have seen several VNC clients now that are able to issue the proper key press using the Ctrl and Alt keys from the bluetooth keyboard to the host machine. Remoter is an example of such an app.

This means it is possible in theory to make custom shortcuts!!

13 years ago

It's possible using private APIs. I don't want to risk my app being rejected by Apple.

13 years ago

Okay. Thanks for responding.

12 years ago

changing keyboard shortcut is easy for that first download and installKey Config extension . After that click ctl+Alt+R. Then click ctl+Shift+E. I think children don't need to try any App.

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