Apple has changed a great many things in iOS 7, particularly when it comes to design elements. One such change applies to the keyboard – the iOS 7 keyboard now adapts and changes when you switch between apps. Unfortunately, one of the features that did NOT survive from iOS 6 is the dedicated “.com” button at the bottom of the keyboard in Safari. If you miss this feature as much as I do, Kirk McElhearn has a handy tip for you about how to bring it back (sort of)!
From Kirk McElhearn’s blog, Kirkville (via Daring Fireball):
While this button won’t be coming back soon, there’s a way to type .com with one-and-a-half keypresses. When you’re in a web browser, and want to type .com, just tap and hold the . button to the right of the space bar, and you’ll see a popup menu which lets you choose from a number of top-level domains: as you can see below, I can choose from .us, .org, .edu, .net and .com.
If your region settings are not set to United States, you’ll have some different options: for example, if you’re in the United Kingdom, you’ll see .co.uk; if you’re in France, you’ll see .fr; and so on.
McElhearn also rightly points out that this feature has in fact been present in iOS for years – but now that the dedicated .com button is no longer with us in the iOS 7 keyboard, it’s now the only way to quickly add a suffix to the end of a URL without typing the entire suffix in manually. I hope you found this as interesting and useful as I did!
Note: It’s also worth mentioning that the .com option is only available in a web browser, as the iOS 7 keyboard is now contextual, and varies from app to app. For more great tips, and general wisdom and insight on all things Apple, check out all of the entries at McElhearn’s blog – there’s quite a wealth of great tips, insight, and advice.
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