He’s researching how my corner rounding code for the navigation tabs gets all screwy on iOS. 
Thanks for teasing us with that screen shot! It looks great and I want it now … but will wait 
Looks like it has the potential to allow me to delete all of the other note-taking apps on my iPad at present. As long as it syncs with Dropbox, I’ll be happy.
Hi Kevin, I am using my iPad exclusively to write my novel. I use the on-screen KB (though I’ve experimented with the BT KB) and with an appropriate writing app, I have no issues. I know folks have different preferences, but I wanted to testify to the usability the iPad KB in case someone is considering trying it. The iPad Mini would no doubt beg the use of a BT KB, but I haven’t tried one.
I’m really looking forward to Scrivener for iPad and really, really hoping it will have cursor navigation keys. Please, oh please say it will.
I used Scrivener on the iMac before getting my iPad and really miss the experience.
Happy Writing!
Incredible!
I use the Mini for writing with the Apple keyboard. Both fit neatly into my old Newton MessagePad case. Works great, and very portable. If I don’t have the BT keys with me, the portrait keyboard is good for thumbs, and the landscape works well for touch typing. 
Each to their own, John - I could think of nothing worse than trying to tap out a novel on that keyboard, but then I touch-type at over 80 wpm, something that is impossible on such a device.
I don’t have any experience with the regular sized iPad, but I am starting to get the hang of thumb typing in landscape mode on the Mini. I have short fingers, but wide hands, so touch-typing on the on-screen keyboard is kind of out of the question.
The screen is clear enough so reading the text is no problem. Again, without experience of a Retina display, I don’t know how it compares. I’m very satisfied with the Mini as a device, but I’m not as thrilled with the writing apps available. So am REALLY looking forward to Scrivener for iPad. (So glad I happened into this thread so I could get that early tease from Keith! Chops are being licked!)
Wahh? Did I miss an announcement? Or is this just a mock up?
I would imagine it’s just an Alpha release…
It is incredible. I am sincerely humiliated. I guess I’m still near the bottom of my climb. 
John.
Hi Keith,
Sincere apologies for getting your name wrong. Don’t know how I did that, given your obvious prompt. When writing a reply, you are listed as KB at the top. Maybe since that OTHER name is the last thing in your post, in my haste I just blew it.
I should have been clearer in the intent of my post. You are entirely correct in that touch typing, especially at the speed you type, is probably impossible with the on screen KB. I was trying to point out that the statement you quoted:
“…As AKNicolle says, though, all iPads are only really any good for short notes (unless you plug in an external keyboard…” (emphasis mine)
…Is not true for those of us who don’t touch-type. Full-size iPads can be, in practice, quite good for typing long documents.
Regards, John
No problem on getting the name wrong - it happens all the time. (It doesn’t help that my brother is called Kevin - my parents were cruel.)
Don’t… touch… type… Does not compute!
That’s an internal alpha, with the split screen set up to 1/3 + 2/3, the outliner loaded on the left and set to affect other editor, and a web page loaded in the right. It’s the tutorial project loaded in our iPad app, basically. There’s a reason it shows a web page, though - the rich text editor is still in serious development.
All the best,
Keith
I doubt that any non-tactile keyboard works very well for touch typing. If you aren’t looking at the keyboard, your fingers will wander, especially since you can’t rest them on the ‘keys’.
I was taught to touch-type by putting a blinder in front of the paper in the platen of my typewriter. I always assumed that touch typing meant you didn’t get any feedback as to the accuracy of your typing other than feeling the keys and hearing the ‘clack’ of the letters being imprinted onto the paper. I doubt very seriously that I could accurately type anything without seeing the words appear on the screen as I entered them.
I wonder if my teacher would count my method, with many visits to the backspace key, as ‘touch typing’.
I’ve spent too little time touch-typing on the iPad, but I would say that I find it feasible. You just look at your fingers at the end of a sentence (not a long travel from the text you are typing), and this seems enough to “recalibrate” your hands.
I’ve just received my iPad mini, and I discovered that typing on that one could eventually be possible (by using just four fingers per hand, and a sparse use of the small finger). It is a bit like typing on a netbook. Typing on the big iPad is a much more pleasant, and productive, experience.
Paolo
I am not a world-class typist by any stretch of the imagination and I found touch-typing on a full iPad to be a reasonable exercise. Spent a whole week in training last week doing it with very few problems.
My main problem with it (and granted laptops are not a huge improvement, but they are) is that you have to be staring down roughly at your fingertips the entire time. There is no suitable compromise between a comfortable reading level for your neck and spine, and a comfortable typing level for your arms and wrists. Short bursts are okay, but anything more than that is just asking for strained joints and potential health problems in the long run.
you could use a bluetooth keyboard and then place the ipad at any height you want for your eyes… logitech do some cool ipad keyboards including one with illuminated keys so you can work in the dark… without waking sleeping partner maybe:)
Yeah, but at that point Alphasmart. 