iPad keyboard docks and accessories provide handy fix for touchscreen typing trauma

Dictation and smart digital keyboards can help — but there's still no substitute for real keyboards

Touchscreens are great for many things, but typing onto virtual keyboards isn’t one of them. Tapping fingers on a glass screen is never exciting – especially if it’s a lengthy email or more. And although it’s easier typing on a bigger screen like a tablet, it’s still not pleasant thumping your digits down on to unyielding glass of any size.

Slightly easier than tapping is swiping – sliding your finger from key to key and only lifting it from the screen when you reach the end of a word is quick and easy. There are keyboard apps which offer this input, best of which is the brilliant Swiftkey which has multiple ways of entering text. It’s available for Android and iPhone. Swiping does take a little getting used to, but only a very little, and once you’re used to it, you may not go back.

Swiftkey isn’t available on Windows Phone but don’t despair, Microsoft has built a swipey function into the software itself and it’s brilliant: fast, easy and almost entirely error-free.

Then there’s voice. Apple Watch users will know there’s no keyboard on the timepiece, so Siri is the only way to enter text. Siri is brilliant but the downside of the system is that if you make a mistake you can’t correct individual words in messages so you must start again. Still, you can choose to send the message as a voice file instead of text if you prefer. And Siri isn’t great at names. My friend Seb, whose name is in the contact details, is relentlessly referred to as Sam. He’s used to it now.

Best for lengthy texting, though, is a keyboard with proper, moving keys. Zagg is one of the leaders in this field and caters for tablets from Apple, Samsung and more. There are keyboards and wraparound cases which connect to the tablet wirelessly, by Bluetooth.

The Zagg Folio for iPad 2 (£99.99 from zagg.com) is tremendous: a solid keyboard and case that wraps securely all around the iPad 2, holding it safely while offering access to all ports. It’s thin enough to not bulk the iPad up too much, turning it into a lightweight laptop affair.

As you’d expect, it has magnets which switch off the iPad screen when the case is closed, and the hinge is loose enough to be easily manipulated but, and here’s the clever part, stiff enough to hold the iPad steadily at more or less any angle you’d like, so you can angle the screen to avoid glare.

And if there’s no glare, because the room is dark, say, the keys have a backlight function. True, it’s not as elegantly done as on the new MacBook where every key has its own light, but it works well.

As for the keys, they’re comfortable and responsive with plenty of travel and enough space between keys that touch typing is easy. Well, as easy as on a laptop, you understand, it doesn’t actually give you typing skills you didn’t previously have. That would be magic.

There are function keys to take you directly to the home screen or launch Siri. If there’s a drawback it’s that the fitting is so secure it takes a little prising to pop the iPad out when you want a quick blast of Alto’s Adventure, say, and a keyboard attached would just weigh you down. The battery that powers the Bluetooth connection is rechargeable and Zagg caims long months of use between recharges unless you use the backlight a lot.

Logitech also makes excellent keyboards, such as the Ultrathin (from £84.99, Logitech.com) which attaches to the iPad magnetically – magnetic clips hold it closed and more magnets next to the keys let the iPad click into place reliably when in use. It has a non-rechargeable battery which it claims will last years.

The keys aren’t quiet as comfy as Zagg’s but they have a slightly scooped top to each tile to help you type accurately.

Finally, if you have a smartphone but fancy less finger stress, the Zagg Pocket keyboard (£69.99, zagg.com) works with most smartphones. It’s a black plastic oblong which folds out to become a neat Qwerty keyboard with a small ledge for the phone to stand on. In order to keep the keyboard small and pocketable, some sacrifice has been made in terms of comfort, until you compare it to that glass screen, of course.

Until handwriting recognition is better (and scribbling on a screen with a stylus becomes comfortable), or voice recognition reaches the Star Trek levels we’ve been promised for years, keyboards like these remain the best way to interact with touchscreens, large and small.