keyboard width when in landscape letterbox mode

[joel.epsteinBUS31vi]

Hi all -

I've got myself a bit confused and would be grateful for any advice you might be able to provide.

I'm in the position of having to convert an old application. The screen size of the old app was 960x480. So in my new application, I've set the fullscreen mode to letterbox.

That actually works quite well and the app looks great on any iOS device I try.

But here's where I'm having difficulty: When I go to enter text in a text field, the keyboard takes up the full width of the iOS device's screen. I'd like for the keyboard to only take up the width of the stack, and not spill out into the black bars of the letterbox.

Any advice on how I'd accomplish this task?

Thanks so much for your help.

Joel

[joel.epsteinBUS31vi]

So I've been playing around with this all afternoon and came up with a ridiculous "solution." I'd appreciate it if anyone could tell me if there's a more appropriate way to do this.

Here's what seems to work:
- In the standalone settings, include appropriate splash screens for iPhone, Hi-Res iPhone, and 4 inch iPhone
- While maintaining the standalone settings described above, delete from the directory the iPhone and 4 inch iPhone splash screens

When I do that, and run the app, the keyboard is appropriately sized at the 960 width. However, if I actually include the other splash screens, the keyboard resizes to the entire width of the screen.

So although this workaround provides the desired effect, I'm worried about specifying a splash screen that doesn't exist. Will that get flagged on the approval process?

Or perhaps you can help me find a better solution.

Thanks so much.

Joel

[jacque]

I wonder about the user experience if you shorten the keyboard they are used to. One gets used to a certain layout size and any alterations throw off your typing, which is hard enough on a mobile device anyway. On smaller phones especially you need all the space you can get.

Keyboards are generally considered an OS element separate from the app, and I think your users won't care that it's somewhat wider than your stack.