How To Use Trackpad Mode on iPad When Keyboard is Connected

Question: With the iPad I can touch the display keyboard with two fingers to call the touchpad. Then I place the cursor precisely with your fingers. When I use an external keyboard, the screen keys disappear. How do I control the insertion point?

Answers: This iPad gesture also works without the display keyboard. If the focus is on a multi-line text box, touch and move the touch screen of the iPad with two fingers. The cursor changes into a colorful stroke and moves analogously to your fingers. At the same time, a second gray line shows where the insertion point would remain when you lift the fingers.

Also useful: A tap with two fingers selects the word the cursor is touching. A two-finger double-tap selects the entire paragraph. This trick works in mail, pages, and in many current iOS text editors, but not everywhere: editorial and notability, for example, do not support the free cursor movement.

In Apple’s Notes app, the user first needs to hide the browser columns for the trackpad mode to work.