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TMO Quick Tip - iPhone's Hidden Caps Lock Feature

Monday, August 6th, 2007 at 7:30 AM - by

Apple's iPhone sports a fairly impressive virtual keyboard that does its best to predict what you are typing. It even automatically activates the Shift key at the beginning of a sentence, and shuts it back off after you type the first letter. By default, however, entering a string of all uppercase letters, like CAPS LOCK, is kind of a pain because you have to tap the Shift key before each letter.

The iPhone does include a Caps Lock feature -- the trick is finding it so you can turn it on. Here's how:

  • Tap Settings
  • Tap General
  • Tap Keyboard
  • Tap the Enable Caps Lock slider

The Caps Lock slider is like a toggle switch. Tapping it once enables the feature, tapping it a second time shuts it back off.

Using the Caps Lock is really simple: Quickly tap the Shift key twice. Instead of the usual glowing arrow that tells you your next letter will be upper case, the whole Shift key turns blue. Tapping the Shift key again turns Caps Lock back off.

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geoduck said:

member since 30 Dec 2003 with 1922 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Aug 06, 2007 9:20 am

Oh goodie, now PEOPLE CAN SHOUT ALL THE TIME ON THE IPHONE JUST LIKE THEY DO ON THEIR E-MAIL.

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Biff said:

member since 08 Apr 2004 with 1479 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Aug 06, 2007 10:48 am

What about if you need to text your friend and tell him to meet you ASAP at the JFK/UMASS MBTA stop? Then this is a handy feature!

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Bryan said:

member since 11 Jun 2001 with 7340 posts, TMO Staff, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Aug 06, 2007 2:38 pm

With great power comes great responsibility.

Geoduck, Biff: Thanks for the afternoon chuckle.

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metavurt said:

member since 16 Jun 2003 with 163 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Aug 06, 2007 3:45 pm

I POSTED THIS FROM MY IPHONE! OMG!

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madgunde said:

member since 02 Dec 2004 with 66 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Aug 07, 2007 11:31 am

metavurt wrote:
I POSTED THIS FROM MY IPHONE! OMG!

I wish I had an iPhone.

Signed,

Impatient Canadian

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:36 pm

c'mon, hidden feature? it's a setting. anyone who bothered to look at the settings would know this. hidden features, are, you know, hidden. seriously, it would be cool if there were some real deal features that people were unlocking, not just documenting a obvious setting.

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A guest said: (hide)

Sat Aug 11, 2007 1:36 am

without reading the manual i would never have figure out how to actually use the caps lock function. Thanks!!

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Aug 16, 2007 6:05 pm

Guest wrote:
without reading the manual i would never have figure out how to actually use the caps lock function. Thanks!!

I guess this is a "hidden feature" for those that aren't inquisitive enough to look in the settings, or you know, RTFM.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:55 pm

Wow thank you so much for this little tip. I was getting so annoyed at thinking I had to tap the Shift key every time. Thanks a ton.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Mar 13, 2008 12:09 pm

even without enabling caps lock. You just hold the shift key with one finger while typing with another, now there all caps without CAPS LOCK. I'm hoping apple let's texting be enable with the accelerometer so I can text holding the iPhone sideways. The keyboard is so much bigger and its alot easier to actually type with two thumbs. Unfortunatley the keyboard only comes up sideways while using edge or typing in blogs.

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