Question: Is there some way to have a keyboard of type UIKeyboardTypeNamePhonePad start in phone number pad mode rather than alphabetic? The keyboard works well for what I need but I'd like it to start in the "other" mode since that is more likely what the user will enter.

Answer: 
Unfortunately the answer to this question is NO, but there is a workaround. 

You can use the UIKeyboardTypeNumberPad and add a custom button (e.g. <https://stackoverflow.com/a/4826342/61569>) to switch the keyboard to UIKeyboardTypeNamePhonePad. The challenge with this workaround is to support the keyboard styles of different versions of iOS with this custom button
In the textfield in question, You set the kind of keyboard you would like it to "activate":

```
[self.myTextfield setKeyboardType:UIKeyboardTypeNumberPad];

```