Byword For iOS Now With Absurdly Comprehensive Keyboard Shortcuts

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Byword on iOS just got around 100 times more rad, and way easier to use, with the addition of one single feature: keyboard shortcuts. It doesn’t sound like much, but in addition to adding bold and italics using just the keyboard, you can also control pretty much every aspect of the app, all without reaching up to touch the screen.

Byword is a great text editor that syncs with Byword for the Mac via iCloud, and on iOS you can also pick a Dropbox folder with which to sync. I use the Mac version to write every post for Cult of Mac becasue it’s clean, has great keyboard shortcuts and plays very well with Markdown. It also publishes straight to Cult of Mac.

But these new shortcuts have just made Byword my favorite iOS text editor too. Here’s the full list:

In text editing view:

  • Bold ⌘B
  • Italic ⌘I
  • Toggle list items (bullets, numbers, none) ⌘L
  • Increase quote level ⌘’
  • Decrease quote level ⌘⌥’
  • Increase heading level ⌘+
  • Decrease heading level ⌘-
  • Insert image ⌘⌥I
  • Insert link ⌘K
  • Toggle text editing ⌘E
  • Toggle text counters ⌘⇧K
  • Show/hide Markdown Preview ⌘⌥P; Esc to leave Preview
  • Open Tools menu ⌘T; Esc to leave Tools menu
  • Show/hide document browser ⌘O
  • Close document ⌘W

In documents view (when document browser is visible):

  • Find document ⌘F
  • New document ⌘N
  • New folder ⌘⇧N

This means that not only do you get to format text as you write, inserting links and pictures and even controlling whether lists are bulleted or numbered, you can navigate the document browser and search for documents by name, all without touching the screen once.

And this works on the iPhone version too.

I gave up using the iPad for all my work becasue my arm, back and chest got super painful with all the reaching up to touch the screen, and I’m neither a fatty or a nerdy weakling. These shortcuts would have gone a long way to relieving that pain, but as it is I’m back to the Mac and happy.

However, I also use the ipAd for writing occasionally. Now I’m all over it. My iPad never felt more like a real computer that it does when I’m using Byword now.

All I have to do now is find out a way to hook my clicky keyboard up to it.

Source: App Store

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