Custom Keyboard occupies large part of the screen on iPad

Feedback
#1

The new custom keyboard occupies substantial part of the screen in Panda, perhaps 3-4x the space of what it is in Bear.

I find the buttons within the custom keyboard too large and the viewport is reduced quite a lot.

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#2

While only having used the app for the last two hours, I’m still conflicted about the size.

I see it this way… the only con about this setup is the size.

However, the pros are:

  1. the larger buttons make tapping it easier on the iPad, and make it feel more like it was designed to work on a touch screen. The previous rendition in Bear felt more like a desktop environment.
  2. the tap to hold function to bring up related options helps save space and the arrows indicate which buttons have more options.
  3. since most of the functions are available in CommonMark or with keyboard shortcuts, I don’t feel the need to have this custom keyboard up all the time. I surprised that is persistent, but I feel like that is the right call. The only functions that are uniquely accessible through this menu are: attach, document scanner, camera, add photo, add date/time, and then left justify, center justify, and right justify in the “tables” keyboard variant.
#3

To e be honest I like the bigger layout but I wonder why there is no scan option for iPad

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#4

The scan option is under the sub menu for attachments. Since it uses the camera, I thought it would be under the photo icon, but I guess since it makes a PDF, they considered that an attachment.

#5

Thanks! I was looking under camera as well

#6

Hello @eranay,

that version of the keyboard is what we friendly call “Touch Bar” version. It is available only when you have an external keyboard attached and it was designed to have the buttons about the same size of the keys of the iPad Magic Keyboard.

This is because we see it as an extension of the keyboard you have under your fingers and in our testing it’s very handy to reach (almost) not moving your hands from the home row when using a Magic Keyboard. That’s why we’ve decided to make it persistent.

We also think that on iPad there was enough space above it, when you are in input mode and that you would not need it (so will toggle it out) when you are in read mode.

Let me know if this reasoning makes sense to you, or if you have suggestions to improve the experience.

Thanks @everyone for pointing our the confusion with the Scan button, I will let the rest of the team know and we will decide if to move it.

#7

Thank you for sharing your design reasoning.

I’ve continued to use this “Touch Bar” version with your vision in mind on my iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard and I do find it useful the way you have designed it (and why it is persistent).

Great work!

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