6 Text Tricks for iPhone

November 7, 2019

Last Updated date: January 14, 2021

Has it happened to you that with iOS 13 it costs you much more to select or copy text or undo actions? Well, in this article I will explain all the secrets so that you master all these actions with your iPhone.

You can open Table of Contents show

How to move the iPhone cursor?

There are two ways to move the cursor of your iPhone through a text. The first one is quite obvious. You just have to touch the cursor with your finger and then move it across the screen. But beware before iOS 13 when you put your finger on the screen the cursor was going to you. But not now, it should be you who put your finger on it, keep that in mind.

Move cursor iPhone

On the other hand, now you have iPhone, you can turn the iOS keyboard into a trackpad. This extremely useful if you want to move the cursor on the screen and do not want to cover the text.

To make the trackpad appear you just have to leave your finger for a second on the space bar. You will see how the letters and numbers disappear from the keyboard. When this happens move your finger on the screen and see how you control the movement of the cursor.

iPhone trackpad

How to select words, phrases, paragraphs and full texts?

Perhaps this is what has changed the most in iOS 13 and what can confuse people the most. At least it confused me until I found all the gestures that I am going to tell you how to select different parts of a text quickly and effectively.

But look how simple it is, these are all options:

Select a single word: Double tap on it or just touch it and leave it pressed until you see it selected.

Select a phrase: To select a single phrase, touch the screen three consecutive times on it and you will see that it is selected automatically.

Select a paragraph: If you want to select a paragraph, touch the screen four consecutive times on it and you will see it highlight immediately.

Select a full text: If you want to select all the text you are working with, leave your finger on a blank space on the screen, one where there is no text. In a couple of seconds, lift your finger and see how a menu appears in which you can choose the option to select all the text.

Copy and paste on iOS 13

Luckily, in iOS 13, we can still copy and paste as we have always done. Simply select the menu option that appears at the top of the screen when we select any text. And I say personally, I do not like the new option that Apple proposes to do this.

The new way Apple has devised to copy and paste text is by doing the following:

Once you have selected the text you want to copy, make a tweezer gesture with three fingers on the screen. You will see a text at the top of it that will inform you, and you have copied that text. If you want to paste, make the gesture just the other way around. Put three fingers together on the screen and then slide them open.

Undo and Redo actions

Honestly, I don’t know very well why Apple has waited until iOS 13 to incorporate a more consistent undo and redo option. Until now, if we wanted to undo the last action we had done. We had to shake our iPhone as if it were a shaker and what you want me to say, it didn’t make me a drop of grace.

The shake to undo gesture still works on iOS 13, but now we can use an alternative that is much safer. If we want to undo the last action we have done, we only have to slide three fingers on the screen from right to left. We will see what we have deleted again. This works in any part of iOS; it is not only text that you can redo. What you have deleted mistakenly is an email. You can make the gesture that I told you and the mail will return as if by magic.

Undo and redo iPhone

What you want is to do the opposite, that is to undo an option that you have just redoed, do the opposite gesture, slide three fingers from left to right across the screen.

Secret menu to copy paste text and undo and redo actions

To finish a trick that will allow you to go very fast if you regularly use these actions that I just explained to you. There is a way to activate a “secret” menu at the top of the screen so that you have these options always at hand and a touch away.

I say that it is secret because unlocking it is not intuitive, but it is very simple to launch. You just have to put three fingers on the screen and leave them still for a second and you will see how a menu appears with different options at the top of it.

iPhone secret menu

This menu is not exclusive to the note’s application. You can use it in any application where you can enter text, including social media or messaging applications.

And this is all you have to know about how to manage your text on the iPhone.