Is it user error or is positioning the text cursor in iOS a nightmare? (Edit. Contains a great tip)

rs2000

@bygjohn said:
It’s definitely got worse with iOS 17, or they’ve changed a default setting, or whatever. I’ve been cursing it all week!

Idiotically, I knew the space bar trick but had completely forgotten it, so thank you for the reminder!

While we’re on the subject, does anyone know why iOS 17 keeps underlining words in blue? Often while I type, and then after a couple of words more it goes away. They aren’t spelling errors. I’d wondered if it was some grammar checker thing (I have bad memories of the one in MS Word that kept wanting me to change perfectly good English for no apparent reason). But it seems not, as it’s not suggesting anything.

Not only iOS 17 but a number of generations before. I really have no clue why they did it but if you see how well text cursor movement worked back on iOS 5 with that infamous loupe, slightly magnifying text around the cursor, I found that just perfect for quick positioning without needing any other tricks, just tap-hold and move.

SevenSystems

@ecou said:
Tyuut gftf gaff hhbv gygvnju hu y fugue gyy> @SevenSystems said:

@tja said:
Yeah, it's a horror.
I wonder why I did not yet open a rant thread about this 😅😂

hashtag metoo 😄 the very old among us will remember that when Steve Jobs was still around, text selection and cursor placement on iOS was perfect -- when you placed your finger anywhere, a magnifying glass would appear and you could precisely move the cursor or selection even with the coarsest of sausage fingers.

You can still use that method.

How?

SevenSystems

@0tolerance4silence said:
+1
One of the most annoying thing about iOS.
What makes it worse is that they keep tweaking it every year breaking our habits and arguably making it worse every time.

Not sure if I can come up with good enough reason for this latest select word thing…
But that’s apple… they know best what you need

When someone keeps tweaking something all the time, it's a strong sign they've made a bad design from the start and are desperate to somehow fix it 😄 it's become much more common in recent decades, especially in the software world because of the now possible ubiquitous constant "updates".

I mean it's even crept into programming languages!

C: defined in the 1970s, standard completely unchanged for 20 years. Then changed once.

Python / Swift: New "update" every few months, incompatible with the previous version, etc...

The world really needs to calm down and slow down a little, and THINK before it ACTS!

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rs2000

@SevenSystems said:

@0tolerance4silence said:
+1
One of the most annoying thing about iOS.
What makes it worse is that they keep tweaking it every year breaking our habits and arguably making it worse every time.

Not sure if I can come up with good enough reason for this latest select word thing…
But that’s apple… they know best what you need

When someone keeps tweaking something all the time, it's a strong sign they've made a bad design from the start and are desperate to somehow fix it 😄 it's become much more common in recent decades, especially in the software world because of the now possible ubiquitous constant "updates".

I mean it's even crept into programming languages!

C: defined in the 1970s, standard completely unchanged for 20 years. Then changed once.

Python / Swift: New "update" every few months, incompatible with the previous version, etc...

The world really needs to calm down and slow down a little, and THINK before it ACTS!

Different people have different opinions and which one wins is a very subjective matter 😉
The history of Linux is another excellent example.

0tolerance4silence

‘Not sure if I can come up with good enough reason for this latest select word thing…’

Came up with one - on iOS the fastest way to fix a mistake is delete / start from scratch

Tarekith

Supposedly iOS17 is using a new AI predictive text and spell check functionality. I think that’s what is making things worse now.

tahiche

@richardyot said:
I usually just use the spacebar to place the cursor:

OMFG this is the kind of life-changing tip that makes you smile and feel like a bloody idiot at the same time. 🏅🙌

ecou

@SevenSystems said:

@ecou said:
Tyuut gftf gaff hhbv gygvnju hu y fugue gyy> @SevenSystems said:

@tja said:
Yeah, it's a horror.
I wonder why I did not yet open a rant thread about this 😅😂

hashtag metoo 😄 the very old among us will remember that when Steve Jobs was still around, text selection and cursor placement on iOS was perfect -- when you placed your finger anywhere, a magnifying glass would appear and you could precisely move the cursor or selection even with the coarsest of sausage fingers.

You can still use that method.

How?

You hold down your finger anywhere over your text until a zoom bubble appears. Then your drag your finger around.

richardyot

@ecou said:

@SevenSystems said:

@ecou said:
Tyuut gftf gaff hhbv gygvnju hu y fugue gyy> @SevenSystems said:

@tja said:
Yeah, it's a horror.
I wonder why I did not yet open a rant thread about this 😅😂

hashtag metoo 😄 the very old among us will remember that when Steve Jobs was still around, text selection and cursor placement on iOS was perfect -- when you placed your finger anywhere, a magnifying glass would appear and you could precisely move the cursor or selection even with the coarsest of sausage fingers.

You can still use that method.

How?

You hold down your finger anywhere over your text until a zoom bubble appears. Then your drag your finger around.

I find it works better if I tap and hold outside the text to get the magnifier, otherwise in iOS17 it will select the word under the magnifier and I can't see how you then deselect it.

ecou

@richardyot said:

@ecou said:

@SevenSystems said:

@ecou said:
Tyuut gftf gaff hhbv gygvnju hu y fugue gyy> @SevenSystems said:

@tja said:
Yeah, it's a horror.
I wonder why I did not yet open a rant thread about this 😅😂

hashtag metoo 😄 the very old among us will remember that when Steve Jobs was still around, text selection and cursor placement on iOS was perfect -- when you placed your finger anywhere, a magnifying glass would appear and you could precisely move the cursor or selection even with the coarsest of sausage fingers.

You can still use that method.

How?

You hold down your finger anywhere over your text until a zoom bubble appears. Then your drag your finger around.

I find it works better if I tap and hold outside the text to get the magnifier, otherwise in iOS17 it will select the word under the magnifier and I can't see how you then deselect it.

I don’t get that. You have make sure you put your finger down on the screen and not lift it.

SevenSystems

@ecou said:

@SevenSystems said:

@ecou said:
Tyuut gftf gaff hhbv gygvnju hu y fugue gyy> @SevenSystems said:

@tja said:
Yeah, it's a horror.
I wonder why I did not yet open a rant thread about this 😅😂

hashtag metoo 😄 the very old among us will remember that when Steve Jobs was still around, text selection and cursor placement on iOS was perfect -- when you placed your finger anywhere, a magnifying glass would appear and you could precisely move the cursor or selection even with the coarsest of sausage fingers.

You can still use that method.

How?

You hold down your finger anywhere over your text until a zoom bubble appears. Then your drag your finger around.

OK, I just found out that this seems to be a recently re-added feature -- I tried on my iPhone with iOS 14.2 and it didn't appear there, but it does on my iPad with iOS 16.

Well to be honest, that implementation is pretty bad compared to the one in iOS 4+. I mean, it shows a funky bubble, but it DOESN'T ACTUALLY ZOOM. So while it does move the relevant area away from under your finger so you can actually see it, it doesn't provide the precision that iOS 4 provided.

Not sure. The implementation in iOS 4 was perfect, nobody had to remove it or add half of it back in years later. 🤷‍♂️

belldu

This spacebar tip is brilliant. Thanks for sharing.
The #1 frustration I have with Mozaic is cursor placement to fix my code, and this solves that (I'm still on iOS 16).

HotStrange

@Tarekith said:
Things have gotten MUCH worse in iOS 17 for me when it comes to this. Once it decides to select a word accidentally, it's almost impossible to move your cursor anywhere near that word again.

Yep. Truly hoping the next update will fix things. I’m constantly frustrated any time I’m texting on iOS now. It was annoying before but it’s infuriating now. And there doesn’t seem to be anything in the setting to disable or enable to make it better. How did these annoying issues make it past beta testing?

Tarekith

Young people. They don't misspell as many words as us older types

Fingolfinzz

I hate it so much. I’m so happy to learn about the space bar tip cos I had no idea. That’s a life changer.

SevenSystems

Man this whole spacebar thing is hilarious and telling. A feature so obscure and undocumented that basically ZERO percent of users have managed to discover it, yet everyone agrees that it's a GAME CHANGIER for usability and productivity.

Apple (and sadly many touch interfaces in general) really has a discoverability problem there!

BTW, not sure, I haven't seen an iOS "Hello" tour in a long time... does that NOT include a section about the keyboard and this use of the spacebar?

michael_m

@Tarekith said:
Young people. They don't misspell as many words as us older types

They do, but they do it deliberately.

richardyot

Another spacebar tip. In iOS 17 you may have noticed that sometimes your sentence looks like it can be auto-completed with grey text - just press the spacebar to do so:

Phil999

ah, thank you @richardyot. I’ve seen this grey text appearing in iPadOS 17, but didn’t find a way to use it.

NeuM

@SevenSystems said:
Man this whole spacebar thing is hilarious and telling. A feature so obscure and undocumented that basically ZERO percent of users have managed to discover it, yet everyone agrees that it's a GAME CHANGIER for usability and productivity.

Apple (and sadly many touch interfaces in general) really has a discoverability problem there!

BTW, not sure, I haven't seen an iOS "Hello" tour in a long time... does that NOT include a section about the keyboard and this use of the spacebar?

I never thought to mention it because I’ve been aware of this feature for years and I thought others would also know about it. LOL.

michael_m

@NeuM said:

@SevenSystems said:
Man this whole spacebar thing is hilarious and telling. A feature so obscure and undocumented that basically ZERO percent of users have managed to discover it, yet everyone agrees that it's a GAME CHANGIER for usability and productivity.

Apple (and sadly many touch interfaces in general) really has a discoverability problem there!

BTW, not sure, I haven't seen an iOS "Hello" tour in a long time... does that NOT include a section about the keyboard and this use of the spacebar?

I never thought to mention it because I’ve been aware of this feature for years and I thought others would also know about it. LOL.

I learned about it during the release of the version of iOS that introduced it as I usually check the rundown of new features on one source or another. Pretty sure it wasn’t added without communication.