I got an e-mail from someone wondering why his ASP.NET page was getting bigger and bigger and what this huge hidden INPUT tag was in the source. I smiled knowingly and went about my reply. That’s not the reason for this post but it is the context which led to it.

If you have an iTouch or iPhone with auto-correct turned on, here’s a little typing exercise for you. Type the following two words without having to press backspace to correct them:

  • ViewState
  • RedWings1

Capitalization doesn’t matter.

If you have the same issue I have, this will be impossible. In any application, whether it be Safari, Notes, Lucky Ladies of the Ozarks, or Twitteriffic. As soon as you type “viewst”, it is impossible to press the A or D keys. Similarly, when you type “redw”, the next key can not be I or J. In order to type these words out, you must enter some other letter, then backspace to correct it. Then it will let you type the one you want.

A quick BinG/oogle didn’t provide any answers but the iridescent Scott Reynolds provided one clue by suggesting that auto-correct was the culprit, which, of course, it was. That said, I’ve never had auto-correct actually prevent me from typing anything, only suggest.

No solution for me as yet except to turn off auto-correct, which I should do anyway, given the number of times I type tunderin’. Of course, the fact that it’s trying to prevent me from typing ViewState in the first place suggests that this is actually desired behaviour.

Kyle the Touched

1Those of you who know about my knowledge of sports may wonder how I discovered this one. Easy: I didn’t. Twas the mighty @HuntJason.