By Graham K. Rogers

The update of iOS this week to version 7.1 saw several changes, but one which seems to be getting some good comments is the new-style keyboard. While the font has changed slightly, there is much more contrast on the keys themselves, with characters showing up almost black on a sharp white background. After a couple of days I am finding this much easier on the eyes.

One feature that has always given me trouble is Caps Lock, so I had a look at how this is implemented in the new version of iOS. To turn this on, a user must first access Settings > General > Keyboard where there is a list of 5 On/Off switches. The 4th one down is "Enable Caps Lock".

To produce a single capital letter, the Shift key is pressed once. The arrow now turns black. When the character is typed, Shift is released and the key returns to its normal white arrow on a grey background.

To enable Caps Lock, a user needs to tap the Shift key twice. When it is active, the key displays the black arrow with a small horizontal line beneath.

Once the user types the upper case letters, tapping the key once more returns it to its normal state: Shift at the beginning of a sentence, otherwise the lower case setting.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.