Compared to the iPhone's tiny onscreen keyboard, the version on the iPad is nearly touch-typable, especially in landscape mode. But if you plan to use your iPad for serious data input--such as writing an article like this one--you'll want a real, physical keyboard.
Apple's official option is the
iPad Keyboard Dock, which combines an iPad-optimized version of the company's no-keypad keyboard with a sturdy dock base. But one of our favorite iPad surprises is that you can instead use any bluetooth keyboard, including Apple's own super-portable Wireless Keyboard.
Whichever you choose, the advantages of an external keyboard go beyond the tactile differences between an onscreen keyboard and a physical one. Apple's real keyboards also give you more keys, special-function keys, and the capability to use a number of standard Mac keyboard shortcuts.
For example, you can use the
wireless keyboard's arrow keys--alone or in combination with Command, Option, and Shift--to navigate your document and select text. Editing shortcuts such as Command+C (copy), Command+X (cut), Command+V (paste), Command+Z (undo), and Shift+Command+Z (redo) also work with external keyboards, and you can use Option-key shortcuts for typing diacritical characters. Even some Cocoa/emacs editing shortcuts--for example, Control+A, Control+E, and Control+K--work. (Mac
bluetooth keyboards are a better fit for the iPad than are Windows versions for many of the same reasons a Mac keyboard is a better fit for a Mac than is a Windows keyboard, only more so: on an iPad, you don't get Mac OS X's options for swapping modifier keys.)
But which should you choose, the iPad Keyboard Dock or a bluetooth keyboard? It depends on how you plan to use an external keyboard. I've been using both options over the past week or so; here are some things to consider when making your decision.
The iPad Keyboard Dock and
Apple's Wireless Keyboard each costs $69 (unless you're a Mac user who already owns the Wireless Keyboard, in which case this decision is easy). But keep in mind that to use the latter, you'll need some kind of dock or stand. You can use Apple's iPad Dock, but that will set you back another $29.
If buying the iPad has busted your budget, an inexpensive dock alternative is a cheap book or document stand--before receiving my iPad Dock, I used a $5 book stand that had been sitting in a drawer for the past couple years. Going this route also lets you choose whether to position the iPad in landscape or portrait orientation. (The iPad Keyboard Dock and iPad Dock hold the iPad only in portrait mode.) With either solution--official Dock or makeshift version--you can connect the iPad's dock-connector cable to charge or sync, although with a generic stand, you can't connect headphones or speakers at the same time in portrait mode, since the headphone jack and dock connector are on opposite ends of the iPad. (Apple's Docks provide an audio output.)
In fact, this last item points to the Keyboard Dock's biggest limitation for me: Portrait mode is fine when typing in Pages or other apps where your documents tend to have a paper-like aspect ratio. But I use a good number of apps where I prefer landscape orientation when typing; Mail and Safari are just two of the most-obvious examples. And don't forget that the Keyboard Dock won't accommodate an iPad in a case. Winner:
bluetooth keyboard.
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