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How-to guides

Short walkthroughs for the features most people want on day one. Every guide calls out what runs on-device so you know what stays on your phone.

Install iSureType on your iPhone

iSureType ships through Apple TestFlight while it's in beta. Once it's installed, the keyboard has to be enabled in iOS Settings — iOS gates every third-party keyboard behind an explicit Full Access toggle.

  1. 1 Accept the TestFlight invite on the device you’ll type on.
  2. 2 Open the TestFlight app → tap Install next to iSureType.
  3. 3 Launch the app once so the onboarding screen can register the keyboard extension with iOS.
  4. 4 iOS Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New Keyboard → pick iSureType.
  5. 5 Back on that row, tap iSureType → enable Allow Full Access. Full Access is what lets the keyboard read the shared clipboard; nothing leaves your device either way.
  6. 6 In any app with a text field, long-press the globe icon on the system keyboard and pick iSureType.

Transcribe text from a photo with OCR

The OCR wizard reads the text out of your photo using Apple’s on-device Vision framework and lands the transcription in your keyboard’s clipboard so you can paste it anywhere. On iOS 26 and newer, the wizard upgrades to structured document analysis — paragraphs, ordered / bulleted lists, and tables all come through as Markdown.

  1. 1 Open iSureType → OCR tab.
  2. 2 Step 1: pick a Mode — three distinct full-width cards sit above the capture tiles. Text Mode joins every recognised line with a single newline, ideal for signs, receipts, single captions. Document Mode paragraph-clusters the lines (with iOS 26+ also extracting lists and tables) and outputs Markdown — ## headings for short all-caps titles, - or 1. list items matching the original marker style, and | col | col | pipe tables where Vision detected a table. Business Card Mode is now a first-class workflow with a dedicated mapping step between scan and save: iSureType pulls the name, title, company, emails, phone numbers, websites, and postal addresses out of a scanned card using NSDataDetector + NLTagger, and the new step 3b lets you drag or long-press any detected chip onto the right contact field before the commit.
  3. 3 Step 1 cont.: tap Scan Document (Apple’s multi-page VisionKit scanner with auto edge-detection + perspective correction), Live Text Capture (Apple’s DataScannerViewController — a live camera preview that draws outlines around every recognized text region in real time at 60 fps, with on-screen coaching; tap whichever region you want to grab and iSureType hands the still to the same OCR pipeline), or Pick from Photos (library) and choose the image you want to transcribe.
  4. 4 Step 2: the Analysing card renders while Vision runs — usually under a second on an A15 or newer. Photos never leave your device. Need to keep typing? Tap Continue in Background to detach the scan from the wizard; the transcription lands on your clipboard automatically when it finishes, with a brief toast at the bottom of the screen. You can dispatch several Document-mode scans back-to-back this way — each runs independently, the pick screen surfaces a "N scans running in the background" pill so you always know how many are in flight, and iSureType fires a local notification ("Scan complete — transcribed N pages — added to Clipboard") the moment each one commits. The first time you tap Continue in Background, iOS asks permission to post notifications; if you decline, the in-app toast still works whenever the wizard is visible.
  5. 5 Step 3: the recognised text (or, in Business Card mode, the parsed fields — Name, Title, Company, Email(s), Phone(s), Website(s), Address(es)) renders in its own card. Tap Continue to move forward, or Try Another to go back.
  6. 6 Step 3b (Business Card only): Map fields — a touch-friendly surface that splits vertically into a Detected text panel on top and a Contact fields panel (Name / Title / Company / Phone / Email / Website / Address / Notes) below. Every detected chip is pre-assigned to its best-guess field so strong matches (phones, emails, addresses) are already correct when you arrive; you only need to steer the weak / ambiguous ones. Drag a chip onto any field row to (re)assign it — list-valued rows (Phone / Email / Website / Address) collect multiple values, scalar rows (Name / Title / Company / Notes) replace the current value and spill the previous chip back to Unassigned so nothing is silently lost. Long-press any chip for a menu with "Move to …" actions plus "Unassign". Tap Continue to Review to carry the mapping into step 4, or Back to return to the preview.
  7. 7 Step 4: review and edit. In Document mode the Preview / Edit segmented control lets you flip between the rendered Markdown and the editable source — tidy OCR quirks before committing. Tap Save to Clipboard to commit, or Export as Markdown… to save the formatted document as a .md file to Files, iCloud Drive, or any document provider. In Business Card mode the confirm step swaps the editor for a per-field form seeded with the mapping you picked in step 3b; Save as vCard writes a .vcf file and Save to Contacts drops the record straight into Contacts.app, and the optional Also copy vCard to clipboard toggle drops the vCard body on the system pasteboard under public.vcard so Contacts.app / Mail recognise it on paste. Tap Finish to close the session without writing anything to the clipboard — handy after an export-only run.
  8. 8 The success card shows a View in Clipboard button that jumps straight to the Clipboard tab with your new entry at the top.

Insert a saved phrase in one tap

Smart Phrases are categorised phrase blocks you drop in with a tap — great for support-desk responses, your mailing address, or any repetitive boilerplate. Categories are organised as collapsible sections with sticky headers that float as you scroll, and a built-in Phrase Packs card seeds opt-in Medicine and Legal bundles for quick starts.

  1. 1 Host app → Phrases tab → + Category → name it (e.g. *Customer Support*).
  2. 2 Tap into the new category → + Phrase → type or paste the text. Multi-line phrases are fine.
  3. 3 Bulk authoring: scroll to the Phrase Packs card at the top of the tab and toggle Medicine or Legal on to seed common boilerplate (informed-consent acknowledgements, NDA recitals, common medical/legal disclaimers, …). Pack phrases merge into a matching category that you can edit, append to, or remove like any other.
  4. 4 Edit / delete: tap the pencil-circle button in the nav bar to enter edit mode — category section headers expose a swipe-to-reveal Delete, and the toolbar gains an Undo button so destructive changes are reversible. Leave edit mode and any unconfirmed deletes surface a persistent Undo last change banner you can keep working alongside.
  5. 5 In any app, tap the ⚡ bolt button on the keyboard’s utility row to enter Phrase Mode.
  6. 6 Scroll through your categories; tap a phrase card to insert it at the caret. The keyboard exits Phrase Mode automatically after the insert.
  7. 7 Long-press the bolt to jump straight into a specific category’s list next time.

Turn on a Word Pack for curated vocabulary

Word Packs are opt-in themed bundles of words that iSureType's autocomplete engine will suggest once you enable them. Brands covers roughly 130 recognizable global company and product names — Apple, Google, Tesla, Netflix, Samsung, IKEA, Nike, McDonald's, and so on — with exact-case variants preserved so iPhone, macOS, and PlayStation land spelled the way you'd actually type them. Artists covers 99 critically acclaimed artists of all media from the last 20 years — music, film, literature, visual art, architecture — with diacritics and hyphens preserved so Beyoncé, Björk, Bong Joon-ho, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Lin-Manuel Miranda land spelled correctly the first time. Cities covers roughly 180 top international cities with city-proper population over 2 million — Tokyo, Delhi, Shanghai, São Paulo, Mexico City, Cairo, Paris, New York, London, Hong Kong, and so on — with diacritics preserved (São Paulo, Bogotá, Xi'an) and multi-word names kept intact (Hong Kong, New York, Mexico City, Ho Chi Minh City). Animals covers ~370 common animal names in US English — lion, eagle, dolphin, octopus, komodo dragon, and more — spanning mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates. Actors covers ~780 critically acclaimed film, television, and theatre performers recognized over the last 20 years — Cate Blanchett, Denzel Washington, Timothée Chalamet, Saoirse Ronan, Michelle Yeoh, Shah Rukh Khan, Song Kang-ho, and many more — internationally balanced across North America, Europe, Latin America, East and South Asia, Africa, and Oceania, with diacritics and mononyms preserved. National Parks & Landmarks covers ~145 US destinations — all 63 US National Parks (Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Zion, Acadia, Glacier, Denali, Great Smoky Mountains, Haleakalā, Wrangell-St. Elias, and the rest) plus iconic landmarks (Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, Golden Gate Bridge, Empire State Building, Hollywood Sign, Space Needle, Graceland, Niagara Falls, Kennedy Space Center, …) — with diacritics and punctuation preserved (Haleakalā, Wrangell-St. Elias, Fisherman's Wharf).

  1. 1 Host app → My Words tab → scroll to the Word Packs card (it sits just above your own categories).
  2. 2 Flip the Brands, Artists, Cities, Animals, Actors, or National Parks & Landmarks toggle on — every word in the pack is merged into a matching category you can browse, edit, or add to like any other category.
  3. 3 Type in any app. iSureType suggests the pack words through its normal autocomplete + T9 ranking, just like words you added yourself.
  4. 4 Flip a toggle off to remove its pack. Any words you added to the same category yourself are preserved — only the pack’s words are stripped; if you added a manual word to the same category, the category stays visible with just your additions.

Save + switch between setting profiles

A profile is an omnibus snapshot of every iSureType preference — accent colour, keyboard scale, T9 callout geometry, custom words, smart phrases, autocorrect pairs, and your tab order — all rolled into one .profile.isuretype file. There is no explicit save step: whichever profile is active at the time you open Settings is the one that gets updated whenever you change a preference. Great for switching between work + personal setups.

  1. 1 Host app → Profiles tab to see every saved profile. The first time you open it iSureType seeds a Default profile from your current preferences so you always have something to fall back on.
  2. 2 Tap the + in the nav bar to spin up a new profile pre-filled with the current settings, then rename it. Any changes you make in Settings from that point on are auto-saved into the active profile — no save button.
  3. 3 Leading-edge swipe on any row → Duplicate to clone a profile, or use the row’s pencil-circle menu → Duplicate for the same action without swiping. Useful for branching one setup into a tweaked variant without losing the original.
  4. 4 Tap the star on up to three profiles to pin them as chin-bar favorites.
  5. 5 In any typing app, short-tap the profile button on iSureType’s chin bar to cycle through your favorites. Long-press to pick any profile directly.
  6. 6 Export: Import/Export tab → Profiles list → tap a profile row → Share sheet lets you AirDrop or save the .profile.isuretype file anywhere. The file is omnibus: it carries the embedded customWordMap, smartPhrases, and autocorrectReplacements so activating it on the receiver restores the dictionaries too.
  7. 7 Import: tap any .profile.isuretype file anywhere in iOS — Files.app, AirDrop, Mail, Safari download — and iSureType auto-opens its preview. Confirm on the preview card and the profile lands in your Profiles list.

Use Siri voice shortcuts for hands-free capture

Three donated shortcuts — one per tab — let you add to iSureType without touching the keyboard. Each shortcut's “Add to Siri” button lives on the tab whose data it populates, so the gesture to record a phrase is always next to the feature it triggers.

  1. 1 My Words tab → Siri Shortcut card → tap the Add to Siri button and record a phrase. iOS will suggest “Learn new word”, “Add to my words”, or “Add word” as starters. Saying any of those lands you in the word-capture sheet.
  2. 2 My Phrases tab → Siri Shortcut card → record “Learn new phrase”, “Add to my phrases”, or “Add phrase” to open the phrase-capture sheet with the system keyboard focused + the mic one tap away.
  3. 3 OCR tab → Siri Shortcut card → record “Scan this”, “OCR”, or “Extract text” — firing any of them jumps straight to the OCR picker.
  4. 4 Tweak or retire any recorded phrase in iOS Settings → Siri → App Shortcuts → iSureType.

Reorder the bottom-bar tabs

Move the tabs you use most to the left of the bottom bar. The order travels with your profile, so activating a profile restores its layout too.

  1. 1 Host app → Settings → General → Tab Order.
  2. 2 Drag any row by its grab handle or use the ↑ / ↓ arrows for keyboard access.
  3. 3 Tap Reset to Default to go back to the canonical order.

Add iSureType widgets to your Home or Lock screen

Two iOS 26 Liquid Glass widgets put iSureType one tap away. Both share the host app's App Group so anything you do in the widget reflects in the host app, and vice versa, without launching anything.

  1. 1 Long-press anywhere on your Home screen, then tap Edit → Add Widget in the upper-left.
  2. 2 Search for iSureType in the widget gallery.
  3. 3 Clipboard widget: pick Small, Medium, or Large. Medium / Large render per-row pin + star + trash buttons that mutate state inside the widget — no app launch. Each row carries a small badge showing where the entry came from (pasteboard / keyboard / OCR / Siri). Large adds a footer Capture pasteboard now button that grabs whatever is on the system pasteboard.
  4. 4 Scan widgets: three small tiles, one per OCR mode — Scan Text, Scan Document, Scan Business Card. Each is a tap-to-scan launcher that opens OCR pre-selected on that mode, with the most recent scan visible underneath. Drop one, two, or all three on your Home screen.
  5. 5 Inside the host app, every scan persists in the new History sheet — open it from the clock toolbar button on the OCR tab.
  6. 6 The widget tint follows your Settings → General → Appearance → Secondary Color pick — change it and both widgets recolour within ~1 second.
  7. 7 Reduce Transparency, Reduce Motion, and Increase Contrast accessibility settings are honoured automatically — the system swaps the glass material for a solid surface when needed.

Share profiles + categories with other users

Every .isuretype file carries a SHA-256 hash on both sides of the trip so the receiver knows the bytes arrived intact.

  1. 1 Export: Import/Export tab → pick a Profile, Phrase Category, or Word Category from the Export lists → tap to open the share sheet → AirDrop, Save to Files, or attach to a message. The green confirmation card shows the SHA-256 of what you just exported.
  2. 2 Share the SHA-256 alongside the file so the receiver can verify it.
  3. 3 Import: the receiver taps the file anywhere in iOS; iSureType’s Import wizard auto-opens with the SHA-256 visible beside the preview. If both hashes match exactly, the bytes are intact.
  4. 4 Browse and author files in the browser from the site’s Spec page — every option has a thematic control and the Download button emits a valid .isuretype file.
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