Our Verdict
Since Apple unfreeze the first iPhone in June 2007 , a frequent complaint among users has been the lack of a landscape painting keyboard in more applications . Users start a taste of this wider , orotund - push button keyboard in the mobile edition of Safari and wish they could habituate it for text entry in other scenarios . Composing e - post is easily the most - usual instance ; after all , with the exception of those in the Master of Science crowd , more typing meter is spend in Mail than in any other app .
More than a year after that iPhone debut , Apple still has n’t impart such a feature to Mail . But thanks to the App Store , a telephone number of third - party developers have provided workarounds . What all these apps have in vulgar is that they give you a text - ledger entry concealment with a landscape - modality keyboard for typing an e - mail message ; when you ’re done typing that message , you tap a clitoris to shift to Mail , where your message is pasted into the consistence of an e - mail content . However , the apps differ in feature film and potentiality . I learn a spirit at six landscape painting - mode e - ring armour - makeup apps , prove them with the US English keyboard with English as the system terminology . All stand the iPhone ’s build - in auto - right lineament ; all but one employment only with Mail ; and none make for with the particular atomic number 99 - mail message created by the Photos app for station photo via e - mail ( as those messages are in reality create and sent from within the Photos app rather than via Mail ) .
Wide Email
across-the-board Emailfrom LizzardWerks lets you compose tocopherol - post in landscape painting or portrait mode . It bring home the bacon a dependent theatre for your message that remains visible as you write your subject matter and is channel to Mail along with the message . The downside to keeping the subject line visible , or else of scroll with the subject matter , is that only four lines of content - eubstance textbook are seeable ; you have to scroll up or down to view the whole content . ( Alternatively , you could switch to portrait modal value , which displays eight slightly narrow melodic line of textbook . )
Wide Email ’s landscape modality
Once you ’re done frame an east - mail service message in spacious Email , you just bug the Send To Mail release and the substance and subject are transferred to a new e - ring mail message in Mail ( where you may further delete the content , if necessary ) . You then enter an computer address and send the message from within Mail .
Wide Email’s landscape mode
you’re able to also utilise Wide Email to reply to a substance or to add together text to a forwarded message , although the unconscious process need a few more steps . First , in Mail , you intercept on the reply / forward-moving button for a message and then opt Reply , Reply All , or Forward . Then you switch to Wide electronic mail , type your reply , and tap broadcast To Mail ; this switches back to ring mail and pastes your text edition into the trunk of the already - configured message . One caveat here : If you want your reply or forward message to retain its topic , leave Wide Email ’s subject field blank ; if you recruit a topic in extensive Email , it will supersede the message ’s original depicted object .
or else , you could tip the Done clitoris to discontinue blue-pencil . The Done button then changes to Drafts ; if you wiretap Drafts , Wide Email will ask if you want to make unnecessary your changes , taking you to the lean of draft messages . ( A simpler overture would be if the developer omitted the Done step all in all , as it ’s superfluous . ) If you have multiple messages in advance , you may tap one to edit it . you’re able to send a draft message to Mail at any time .
If you take leave Wide Email in the middle of write a message , the app automatically saves the content as a draught so you do n’t lose your work .
Sideways’s landscape mode
One characteristic I liked is that your sent messages are retain in a Sent potation menu on the Drafts screen , making it easy to resend a draft message — or to create e - mail templates that can be used over and over . Unfortunately , you ca n’t all the way institutionalize substance individually ; you could only remove the integral Sent Drafts tilt in one savage swoop .
For many user , Wide Email ’s most useful feature film will be Typing Shortcuts , which work much like Mac programs such as TextExpander and TypeIt4Me . you’re able to determine textual shortcuts for oftentimes typewrite bit of textual matter ; whenever a crosscut is typewrite , Wide Email replace the cutoff with the comparable text . For example , if you often include your street computer address in email messages , you may assignadras a shortcut for your full name and speech ; whenever you typeadron its own — in other words , not as a part of a word such aspadre — all-embracing Email will replace those varsity letter with your full name and address . Depending on your email habits , this feature article could dramatically increase your substance - typing velocity and reduce how much you have to type using the iPhone ’s onscreen keyboard . It ’s also a great way to salt away and insert multiple email signature tune .
One trouble with Wide Email is that if you use an ampersand symbol ( & ) in a message , when transferring that message to Mail , any school text after the ampersand is dropped . The developer is aware of the event and read it should be fixed in the next interlingual rendition .
TouchType’s landscape mode
Despite this ampersand publication , broad Email is currently my favorite landscape - keyboard e-mail app , in large part because of the Typing Shortcuts lineament and the power to save draught and to use those drafts as subject matter templates .
Sideways
Sidewaysfrom Mac About Town also supports both landscape painting and portrait modes . But instead of traditional iPhone buttons at the top of the screen , Sideways set its buttons in a sidebar to the left field of the message area . This works delicately when in landscape mode , but in portrait way , this sidebar takes up a large section of the screen area , most of it wasted infinite . ( On the other hand , because this sidebar take on the place of the standard menu bar at the top of the screen , Sideways afford you more perpendicular redaction space : at the default textbook sizing , you’re able to catch seven argument of text in landscape way and 13 narrow lines in portrait modality . )
Sideways ’s landscape mode
As with full Email , once you ’ve finished composing your content , you knock the Send button to flip to Mail and glue your school text into the message eubstance ; to use the text in a response or forwarded message , you set up the reply or send on message in Mail first , switch to Sideways , and then send the text to Mail . Unlike Wide Email , Sideways does n’t provide a capable field — just a big playing area for composing your subject matter ’s eubstance . However , when you intercept the Send push button in Sideways , one of the options is Email ( Line 1 As Subject ) ; as the text implies , this take the first telephone circuit of text and uses it as the subject of your message , overleap it from the e - mail body . ( There ’s also an pick to send the text to Twitterrific alternatively of Mail . )
TouchType’s spellcheck feature
Sideways mechanically saves text if you quit the app . However , what you see in the independent text area is what you get — there are no drafts or template , so you want to sack live text , using the Delete button , to type a new message .
One unique feature is that Sideways let you increase the sizing of text in its text - entry field of battle for in force visibility . When the keyboard is hide , you see a modest button in the lower - left corner of the screen that exhibit the current text size ( 1X , by default ) ; tapping this button repeatedly cycles through the various textual matter sizes : 1X , 1.25X , 1.50X , 1.75X , or 2X. ( Obviously , select a large typeface size of it contract the number of communication channel you could consider at once . )
Compose
One of the simple e-mail - write apps , Composefrom The Letter C supports both landscape and portrayal modes , but has few lineament — just a big text - editing field and a button for send the textbook to Mail . The schoolbook size is small enough that it may be difficult to read for some the great unwashed , although one reward to such small baptistry size is that you could view five line of text in landscape painting mode and nearly 11 cable in portraiture modality .
Compose does n’t provide a subject field or any way of designating part of your subject matter as the subject . Tapping the Send clit — which , bewilderingly , looks like a Compose / Write button — sends your text edition to Mail . ( As with the other apps , the text is paste into a newfangled message unless a substance or response is already open , in which case the textbook is pasted into that in - progress substance . ) unluckily , like Wide Email , Compose exhibits the same problem with the ampersand character : any text after an ampersand is dropped when send off text to Mail .
Compose provides no draft or guide features , although it automatically saves the current contents of the editing window when you quit the app or transport the text to Mail . Frustratingly , I could n’t find any way to remove the text edition contents ; I had to manually delete text using the backspace key , which can take quite a while with longer messages . Finally , Compose swerve off longer messages in my testing .
EasyWriter’s landscape mode
TouchType
TouchTypefrom Michael Schneider endure both landscape painting and portraiture modes , but add several other feature article uncommitted via a row of buttons at the top of the screen . This button bar reduces the editing sphere to four crease of seeable text in landscape mode or eight furrow in portrayal mode .
TouchType ’s landscape painting mode
Once you ’re done typing your message , you may tap the Send button — which , like Compose ’s alike button , see like a Compose / Write clit — to send your text to Mail . ( There is no capable theatre of operations and no way of point part of your text as the subject of your e - ring mail message . ) As with the other apps here , you’re able to use your text in a answer or send on message by setting up that message in Mail first . To create a fresh content , wiretap the light button to delete the context of the text area . The app automatically keep your text when you discontinue the app or switch to Mail , and also saves your text every 30 minute .
Like all-encompassing Email , TouchType let you save multiple draught / templates . While typing a message ( or , if you ’re create a template , after completing it ) , tap the Save clitoris ; a dialog appears confirming the Save . you may wheel through saved text — which is glue into the text area — by tapping the Load button .
However , there are a few issues with this feature . First , if you ’ve typed a subject matter but have n’t yet save it or sent it to Mail , pressing the Load push willreplacethe unsaved text with one of the saved textbook number — it ’s gone perpetually . A word of advice that you ’re about to miss your text would be utilitarian . secondly , I could n’t figure out how to delete a saved bit of text ( in other words , how to remove it from the inclination of salve text spot ) . at long last , and perhaps most frustratingly , while lay aside text edition bits were maintain when I quit TouchType , I obtain that if I enter the configurations screen , sometimes TouchType forgot all of my saved text spot .
TouchType ’s spellcheck feature
TouchType ’s most unique feature film — and one that will be compelling for some users — is that in improver to the iPhone ’s built - in auto - correct feature article , the app include a freestanding spellcheck engine that confirm 86 different languages . After draw up your subject matter , a tap on the Spell push checks the substance for misspellings ; for each misspelling , the app display the offend word along with several suggestions for the right spelling . beg a suggested spelling to use that spelling ; tap the master copy to keep it . To check spelling in a speech other than English , you tap theibutton , then tap the options clit , and , finally , tap the English button to prefer another language .
TouchType also includes a custom lexicon , to which it adds any words you ’ve chosen to keep despite the default dictionary ’s distrust . TouchType expend both the choose voice communication dictionary and your custom lexicon for spellchecking , so once a give-and-take has been added to the custom dictionary , it will no longer be view wrong . ( you may get at this custom lexicon , and delete give-and-take from it , via the configurations page . )
One other payoff I from time to time experienced was a display glitch where exiting the information / configurations projection screen while in landscape painting modality would show a portrait - mode screen ( in other words , the wide screen would expose a portrayal - modal value screen with unused white blank space on the right - helping hand side ) . Turning the iPhone to upright would keep the same amount of white distance on the right , further wither this faulty - sizing concealment . When this happened , I had to quit TouchType and relaunch it to regain the normal view .
Big Keyboard Email
Like Compose , GP Imports’Big Keyboard Email(BKE , for shortsighted ) is very simple — perhaps too unproblematic . Unlike the other apps covered here , it supports only landscape mode . ( you could view five lines of text at a clip with the default font , although BKE lets you choose smaller school text to increase the number of pedigree , up to seven at a time . Warning : that text istiny . ) A consecrated Subject field allow you enter a subject for your e - mail message , which is transferred to Mail along with your school text , replacing any existing matter . Like the other apps , you could use BKE to make a new content or to glue text into a previously get up reply or forward .
A useful characteristic of BKE is that it warns you if you attempt to send a subject matter to Mail that has a blank theme or subject matter consistence ; you could twist off this feature in the options screen .
However , BKE does n’t provide support for drafts or templates , and its biggest drawback — a substantial spate - killer — is that it does n’t preserve your text when you quit the app or when sending a subject matter to Mail . So if you ’re type a subject matter , but you remember that you necessitate to tack to Mail to get a response quick for that text , you lose everything you ’ve typed . The tough - suit scenario , which actually go on to me while testing the app , is that you ’re in the middle of type a longsighted east - ring armor when someone call . If you accept the call , you lose your work . ( If you refuse the call , the iPhone does n’t in reality step down the current app , so you ’re OK . Still , who require to decide between fall behind your work or miss a speech sound call ? )
EasyWriter
Another simple take on the widescreen - keyboard app , EasyWriterfrom Saxorama.net go in both landscape and portrayal mode , but , like Compose , provide just a large text - redaction bailiwick and a button for sending the schoolbook to Mail . It does n’t furnish a subject discipline or any way of designate part of your subject matter as the subject . tip the Send To Mail push pastes your text into a new Mail message or into the body of an already - in - progress reply or forward message .
EasyWriter ’s landscape mode
One feature I liked is that you may adjust the viewing size of schoolbook in EasyWriter by using the iPhone ’s conversant pinch and zoom gestures . There are seven different font sizes , ranging from heart - strain minuscule to space - grunter huge . At the standard font size , EasyWriter let you see five lines of text in landscape painting modality and nine lines in portrayal way . The smallest font size increases the number of visible lines to eight and 15 , respectively ; the enceinte font size drop those numbers to two and 3.5 .
EasyWriter ply no draft or template features . It automatically saves the current subject of the editing window when you quit the app ; however , when you send your text to Mail , EasyWriter deletes it from its own text edition area . ( In fact , that ’s the only mode to reset the text orbit other than manually deleting the text edition using the backspace key key fruit . ) If you lay off the app without sending your school text , the app ’s Home screen icon displays a “ 1 ” badge — much like Mail ’s unread - subject matter badge — suggest that you ’ve got school text lay aside in the app .
All six apps in this roundup are compatible with any iPhone or iPod spot running the iPhone 2.x software system update .
[ elderly editor Dan Frakes go over low - cost software for the Mac Gems blog . ]
