Judy Dixon has a knack for zeroing in on a particular iOS topic, drilling down to find every detail to make it possible and interesting, and then delivering the results of her explorations to the rest of us in one concise and compelling package. Writing Your Way: Composing and Editing on an iPhone or iPad from National Braille Press is perhaps her most praiseworthy effort to date. It surprises: after all, how many of us have ever seriously considered writing or editing on an iPhone or iPad? It engages: once you get pulled into the notion of writing with your iDevice, you keep reading to learn more. And, it entertains: Dixon's clear, conversational style is less an academic tutorial than the tone of a friend sitting beside you to show you some cool tricks she has learned.
Indeed, Judy Dixon admits that she wasn't sure herself when she started digging into whether writing and editing on an iPhone or iPad was really feasible.
"When I embarked upon the process of writing this book," she writes, "I thought there might be a real likelihood that it would be very short. I feared that I might have to tell you, dear reader, that after extensive exploration on my part, I had concluded that it was true: writing on an iPhone or iPad was a difficult and painful experience that should be avoided at all costs."
Of course, she discovered otherwise: "After exhaustive exploration, I can assure you that there are numerous strategies and techniques that can make writing and even editing on an iPhone or iPad a breeze."
The Many Ways to Write on an iPhone or iPad
Particularly for those of us who are VoiceOver users, there are many ways to enter text on an iPhone or iPad. Maybe you only use dictation. Or maybe you make it a point to keep messages exceedingly brief, so you can slowly, painstakingly touch type them using the onscreen keyboard.
You can, of course, also enter text by associating a Bluetooth QWERTY keyboard or one of many available braille displays with your iPhone or iPad. Did you know you could also write by hand on your iDevice? Or that you can place your fingers on the screen to type as you would on an old-fashioned Perkins braille writer? Would you like to add appropriate accent marks to your foreign phrases or liven up your messages with whimsical emojis? And what about that handwriting feature? Did you know there is an app to help you draw your letters so your iPhone will process them more accurately?
Writing Your Way provides detailed instructions for each of these methods. All instructions are designed with an audience of VoiceOver users in mind. Descriptions of screen layouts, location of onscreen buttons, and the VoiceOver gestures needed to perform a given task are easily integrated into every page of the book. There are exercises along the way to give you hands-on experience with the techniques being presented. (An ongoing theme to these exercises, by the way, will undoubtedly make you hungry!)
External Keyboards
When discussing external keyboards, the author is again generous with detail. She mentions a variety of Bluetooth keyboards, providing physical descriptions, locations of special keys, and information on the ease of use for each. Similarly, when discussing braille notetakers and braille displays, she includes information on pairing (connecting two devices via Bluetooth) your iDevice and braille display as well as some key commands and methods for performing certain tasks.
…About that Editing
After covering the many, varied, and unusual ways of inputting text, the book takes us into strategies for manipulating it. You can learn how to cut, copy, and paste text from one app to another, and how to share a document in progress with others.
The author has tested several apps designed for writing anything from simple notes and shopping lists to complex documents. She discusses several apps, such as Drafts, Voice Dream Writer, Pages, Microsoft Word, and others — and gives the reader enough information about each to guide individual choices. In each case, she provides the name of the app, the developer, the cost, and the amount of iDevice real estate it requires. Not only does she provide a general description of each app's strengths and weaknesses, but she goes well beyond that to provide a sort of introductory miniature tutorial on its use. You will find descriptions of each app's screen layout, the purposes of various buttons, and the VoiceOver gestures necessary to accomplish specific tasks.
Bonus Appendices
The eight appendices at the end of the book are a treasure trove of information. The appendices alone render this book a must-have for any technology bookshelf. Here you will find all of the various keyboard commands and gestures needed to use the writing and editing tools presented in the book. Onscreen braille gestures, VoiceOver gestures, Bluetooth QWERTY keyboard commands, braille display commands, and all of the key combinations needed to operate and navigate within the various writing and editing apps are included. While you might well read the book at least twice (once just to enjoy the ride and a second time to work through the explanations and exercises), you may well find yourself turning again and again to this book for its convenient appendices.
Once again, Judy Dixon and National Braille Press have produced a book that will appeal to the iPhone novice and power user alike. If your only goal is to become more comfortable composing and sending accurate text messages, this is a great source for learning. If you are a seasoned expert where messages and notes are concerned, Writing Your Way can guide you through the next level of composing and editing more complex documents. Every reader will find some new trick or tidbit in these pages and will find reading this book to be a pleasant journey.
Ordering Information
Writing Your Way: Composing and Editing on an iPhone or iPad is available in two hardcopy braille volumes as well as by electronic download in .brf, Microsoft Word, or DAISY formats. All versions are $20. To order, visit the National Braille Press website, call 800-548-7323, or send payment to National Braille Press, 88 St. Stephen Street, Boston, MA 02115-4302.
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