I have been trying to use the iPad as a laptop replacement for years. However, the behaviour of a connected keyboard has always been a source of frustration. Namely, the “space” key would often not act to insert a “space” character, but rather as “activate”. Which means, in many situation, it would trigger whatever button on the top/top-left of the screen instead; the “Back” button in a browser, for example.

Anyway, I finally found where to change this behaviour in the Settings app, and thought I should share it. The setting is in: Accessibility > Keyboards > Full Keyboard Access > Command > Activate

Personally, I replaced it with cmd+enter; but you can do whatever you want there.

  • @garretble
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    510 months ago

    Oh this is interesting.

    I’ve used an external keyboard for a while now and never had any issues with keys activating things I didn’t want, but I did just check that accessibility setting and I have that turned off so that makes sense.

  • @[email protected]
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    fedilink
    110 months ago

    Space activates the highlighted action, tab moves the highlighted action to the next button, esc activates the cancel/negative action, and return activates the filled-in action. Been this way on Mac for decades, although recently you have to enable it as it’s off by default.

    • VinnyOP
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      210 months ago

      Yeah. It is on by default for my iPad. And, boi, almost all third-party apps that I use does not work with that.