One of the great new timesaving features coming in iOS 5 is the ability to add your own customized keyboard shortcuts. This lets you type nbcm and iOS 5 extends it to Notebooks.com, saving you time and some autocorrect issues if you add the right shortcuts.
You can add almost anything you love as an iOS 5 shortcut so you can customize the new shortcut feature according to your needs. I’ll show you how iOS 5 shortcuts work and suggest some options to get you started. If you fall in love with shortcuts, you may like Text Expanderwhich does the same on your Mac.
Today you will to use this feature. If you can’t stand the bugs or glitches, take this as a preview and wait for the official release this fall, otherwise you can get the iOS 5 Beta for free or for as little as $5.
How to Add Shortcuts
To add a custom iOS 5 keyboard shortcut, go to the Settings App and select General. From there, select Keyboard. At the bottom you will see an entry that says “Add New Shortcut…”. Select it and you will see a screen like the one below.
In the Phrase box, type the string you want the shortcut to expand into. I wrote the address of our sister site Notebooks.com above. In the shortcut box, type the shortcut you will actually type. I chose nbcm. Make sure you’re using something you wouldn’t normally type in other times. I’ve considered using nbc, but what if I’m writing an email to a friend about a show on TV Network? Every time I typed the network name it would automatically ask me to expand to Notebooks.com.
Suggested Uses
Here are some suggested shortcuts you might want to add with a suggested sequence of letters to use:
After that, every time you type the shortcut, iOS will open a suggested spelling for the letters you type. See below.
You can accept by pressing space, or return or reject by tapping the little X in the pop-up window, as you would with typical auto-spelling.
Another great new iOS 5 feature we highlighted was the ability to add customized vibration notifications for calls from specific contacts.