How to set default email address for input

Question

G'day all
Summary: I'm sick, it's difficult to type, and a combination of autocorrect, default Shift key settings for input fields and my iPad completely ignoring my default email account is making it laborious to input my email address. Help!
(Edit: I had a micro-brainwave and checked my "Me" card in Contacts, since I have Safari set to autofill from that card. My default email address is not listed first in the card. I've now put it on top, Gmail second and "me.com" last. I'll comment later on if I see this help with point 3 below.)
Details:
I love my shiny new iPad2. I really do. But autocorrect is driving me crrrrrazy when I try to input my email address.
Typing in general is an issue for me, because I am disabled and have difficulties with coordination and movement. On my laptop (MacBook Pro mid 2009), I used TextExpander. It lets you set an abbreviation for any text, so you can just type that abbreviation instead of the whole thing, and TextExpander automagically inputs the whole thing for you.
I have a long email address, because my ISP has quite a long domain name. So only typing 4 characters (my abbreviation) instead of the whole 23 characters was a big help for me.
Enter the iPad.
I need to use the iPad now, because my laptop is now too heavy for my legs (and I do occasionally need a full-on laptop, so the MacBook Air isn't the solution). The iPad in general has been great for me. The simplification of the interface (while annoying at times, e.g. not being able to view full headers in an email) saves brain cycles, so I can read for longer.
However, where on my laptop I only needed to input 4 chars for my email address, on my iPad I have to input the whole 23 chars. How many places online are you asked to input your email address? Way too many. Safari may eventually catch up and record some of them, but currrently, I'm using too much of my day's energy just on trying to input my email address. (Note: this post is written on my laptop, so I can use my abbreviations.)
TextExpander is available for iOS, but due to Apple's current refusal to allow integration with its apps, TextExpander isn't allowed to input stuff directly. Just like with the indispensable password program 1Password, you have to switch from Safari to the other app., search for and select and copy the text you want, then switch back to Safari, select the field and press Paste.
Grrr.
I may get desperate enough to go through those steps each time, if things don't improve with my email address. My problems are:
1. Very few email-address fields in webpages currently have the appropriate settings to instruct the iPad keyboard not to start with the Shift key down. This means every time you try to input your email address, it will start with an upper-case letter.
Half the time I don't notice until I've got part-way through typing my address, so I have to delete all those chars and start again. About a quarter of the time, after deleting, I don't notice that the Shift key has been activated again, so I go through the whole process again.
2. Even when the email-address field turns off the Shift key, or when I remember to do it myself before entering text, autocorrect will insist on changing the first letter back to upper-case, because my username is also my first name. Cue more deleting and getting confused.
3. This is the big one: once my username is up there, autocorrect insists on entering my "me.com" email address. This is the email address I use least. When I laboriously (again) delete this text and start again, it will either insist again on "me.com", or input my Gmail address. That is the email address I use second least. Autocorrect never inputs my main email address, set as my default account in the Mail-Con-Cal Settings. (This is a POP-only account.)
4. Even if I do manage to input my whole email address correctly, autocorrect will insist on capitalizing the first letter of the domain name (which is also a location). Cue yet more deletion and retyping.
Are there any ways to avoid wasting so much energy on trying to input my email address?
Is there any way to set the default input email address? Or to tell the iPad/Safari that an email address field doesn't require the Shift key?
I've had my iPad for nearly three months now, using it for my day-to-day activities, and I've been hoping this problem would gradually go away, that the software would finally catch on to my main email address (from the default account) which I have input over and over (and OVER) into email-address fields.
Evidently not.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

Answer 1

As Roosevelt suggested, you can turn off Auto Correction in the keyboard settings. Go to Settings>General>Keyboard>Auto Correction>Off.
This will also turn off spell check (unfortunately) and there is no fix for that. Auto Caps can also be turned off as well and so can the keyboard shortcut for the space/period. Frankly, all of these features drive me nuts and I wish the iOS allowed for more control, but it does not.
As fars as typing your email address, be aware that even if you type your email address in all caps it still works. So if Autofill insists on capitalizing the first letter in your name in the email address - and it will insist on doing so - you can just let it go as is and it will still work. Doesn't really get to the heart of the matter but it would save you the laborious deleting and retyping.
Having said that, when the Auto Correction suggests a word or wants to set a capital latter, you can tap the "x" in the pop up suggestion to ignore that word, cap, whatever. The dictionary is then supposed to "learn" your word if you refuse that suggested word enough times. This is another feature that seems to have a mind of it's own at times since sometimes it may take more than a few attempts to get the Auto Correct to not come up and instead allow your chosen word to be freely typed as desired.
Lastly, with regard to your correct email address popping up, that is another case of if repeated time and time again, It should be another case of the iOS "learning" through repetition that your default email should popup when you begin entering the address.
You could try to rectify all of this by resetting all of your settings and clearing Autofill but you would be starting all over again which is something I think you would rather avoid.
Settings>General>Reset>Reset All Settings
Settings>General>Reset>Reset Keyboard Dictionary
Settings>Safari>Autofill -tap names and passwords>Clear all
As Roosevelt suggested, submit feedback, and I hope you find some resolution to this.
Quick Note - I originally typed this post on my iPad and when I read a few of the words that were substituted by auto correct - I quickly turned to my iMac to change the words. I do feel your pain with regard to auto Correct!
Message was edited by: Demo