iPhone Tip: Quickly typing a period or other punctuation

This may have already been a source of frustration for many of you. One of the frustrating things about the iPhone's touch-screen keyboard is the need to switch to a separate keyboard screen to type a period, comma, question mark or other punctuation. Well, consider that a thing of the past, thanks to David Pogue's Missing Manual. The manual includes a reader contributed tip that is, according to Pogue, "a secret bit of iPhone information that's so valuable, such a headache- and time-saver, that I don't know what to do with it."

Using this new typing tip, you can add a period or other punctuation starting from and returning to the ABC keyboard using only one finger stroke. According to the manual,

So here's what you can do, all in one motion:

1. Touch the ".123" key, but don't lift your finger as the punctuation layout appears.

2. Slide your finger a half inch onto the period or comma key, and release.

Incredibly, the ABC layout returns automatically. You've typed a period or a comma with one finger touch instead of three. In fact, you can type ANY of the punctuation symbols the same way.

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This makes a HUGE difference in the usability of the keyboard.

Although I'm definitely less excited about this than David Pogue is (I'll still be heading over to the .123 keyboard to type my dangerously overused "..."), it's definitely a valuable tip and one every iPhone user should be aware of.