Undock and Split the iPad Soft Keyboard

As veratile as the iPad can be it can often be a right pain trying to type on it particularly when holding it in both hands when it is in landscape mode as the centre keys are often too far away from each thumb. It can also be a problem using the keyboard when in portrait mode if the weight of the iPad is too heavy thus placing strain on your wrists.

What most people may not realise is that you can undock and optionally split the keyboard to get around these problems.

Whenever the keyboard is on screen, just hold down the keyboard button on the bottom right corner of soft keyboard and you’ll get two options to undock or split the keyboard. Simply choose whichever option you fancy.

Normally, the keyboard would look like this:

iPad Soft Keyboard (Standard)

When you undock the keyboard, it will look like this:

iPad Soft Keyboard (Undocked)

Finally, the option to split (which also undocks the soft keyboard) looks like this:

iPad Soft Keyboard (Undocked & Split)

The split keyboard is a little reminiscent of the Microsoft Natural Keyboard.

To put the soft keyboard back to its docked and merged form simply hold down the keyboard key again in the bottom right corner and choose the option to “dock and merge”.