Database Users

Anyone got any tips for texting as me and my HD are about to fall out!

Don't get me wrong, i love my phone and i think that it is a seriously cool piece of technology, but we are just not getting along at the moment when it comes to texting.
I've come from a n95, where i could quite happily bash out text messages all day with very few errors, however, on my HD i can hardly type a word correctly either using the full qwerty or phone keypad. I've tried to persevere with both, but things seem to be getting worse rather than better. I'm fine when using the stylus, but when using fingers I am all over the place.
The thing that annoys me most is when i press a key and the key increases in size (as it should) but then nothing appears in the message. The space bar is the worst culprit for this, i'll be typing away and the space bar will acknowledge the press, but when i check the message something like teoitoerteritktret will be there as the space bar presses haven't been put between the words.
So please help me and my HD to remain friends and if you can suggest alternative keyboards that can be downloaded or any tips that you have I'd be more than grateful to hear about them
Spud

For myself, texting has been great on the HD and I have pretty big fingers (i'm 6"4'...and sorry for the 'standard' units). What might help is using the keyboard in landscape if you're not already doing that, that way the keys are alot bigger, especialy in qwerty mode. Also, T9 might be helpful since it corrects mistakes (like hitting the wrong key for one of the letters). As for hitting the key but not having it input it into the text, that occurs when you touch the screen where the key is (good) but before picking up the finger moving it of that key (bad). This tends to occur when you 'roll' your finger onto/off a key. Another thing which might help is this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=479464&highlight=finger+keyboard (there might be a v2 out already...or still in testing not sure) which is suppose to be a more finger friendly keyboard. A last option which I can give you from the top of my head is Dutty's v1.8 ROM which i believe uses a different keyboard which looks a bit more finger friendly as well.
Hope atleast some of this helps and good luck

I had a bit of difficulty typing at the beginning with the HD, I tried all the keyboards. Even in landscape (full QWERTY) although better than portrayed I found the Compact Keyboard to be the most effective way of typing. I was going to choose the default phone keypad where you have 3 letters but with compact QWERTY you have 2 keys on each key which is even better/faster/accurate (T9-wise). I typed for 2 weeks and now rarely make mistakes, sometimes I even type taking my eyes of the screen because I have memorised the distance between the keys.

I hated the keyboards and nearly wanted to throw the HD in the bin.
This is what I recommend for fast accurate texting.
Use PHONEPAD keyboard. Large keys so you can't accidentally hit the wrong key.
Turn on T9 input (not ABC)
In T9 settings, from Settings, Input, Options menu, uncheck Auto-Substitution and Word Completion in ABC mode. The other two leave checked.
In Word Completion tab, uncheck Suggest words when entering text and check box for Enable auto correct.
I found my frustration came from the words i was typing were automatically changed and substitued when i didn't want them to.
good luck!

Do you know if Cootek TouchPal works on HTC Touch HD ?
I use it on both my HTC Prophet and Diamond and I really like it.
IMHO, it's much better than the provided full and compact qwerty keyboards.
The only drawback is that it's not free software.
Just my two cents.
Cheers.
David

Thanks for the input guys, i've gone for the finger keyboard option to start with and intial impressions are that it is much better, not perfect though, but certainly better

Try getting a smaller keyboard and you will have a great time typing with the stylus.

i can type pretty fast on the phone pad method on my touch HD with t9 activated. the interface is good, much better than the one they included on the universal.
i cant type as fast as i did on my touch dual, but almost as fast now since i've had practise.
i never got the point of full qwerty onscreen, i cant stand them lol, i always use phonepad method. plus with this you can text using one hand

movig from a physical keyboard to a touchscreen is indeed a big change of habits. rather than suggesting a input method I would suggest you some behaviors that helped me a lot in the beginning:
-do not try to type when walking as it makes aiming the keys more difficult
-try to look at the actual keys not at the word written, look at the word every now and then to check for errors
-take your time, it needs concentration on the beginning a.k.a do not try to type too fast just to realize you can do it, speed comes with practice
-try all the input methods with all possible combinations to see what fits you most
-not really the thread to discuss about this, but there are some tweaks and programs available to your device that help a lot, mainly like:
touchresponse by snailslug which provides a small vibration every time you hit the screen, this helps on understanding whether you actually pressed the key
hd tweak and advanced configuration tools can increase the sensitivity of your touchscreen so that less pressure is needed to interact with it
these small tips and a lot of patience helped me a lot in the beginning, now (just after a couple months) I happily type with full qwerty on portrait only both with 2 and 1 hand (and i'm 1m90 tall so don't have exactly small fingers ... and I feel there is a lot more room for improvement

I have just upgraded to the Touch HD. My previous two phones were the TyTn and the TyTn 2 with hardware keyboards, and as you can imagine how well I'd get on with the touch screen for typing was my biggest concern.
I've played around a bit and found the transition much easier than expected, I find that using the QWERTY keyboard with the T9 dictionary turned on works best for me.
As someone else has mentioned, don't try and touch type, that will only lead to mistakes, look at the buttons as you press them and then check your text every so often to make sure it's how you think it should be.

Try Cootek's Touchpal keyboard, best I've tried so far for HD.
There are some others that you may get on with, like Resco and CM.

try fingerkeyboard, it works better for me than the stock HTC keyboard

I've always used FSK (FULL SIZE KEYBOARD) by Spb. I've used it back when I was using an Eten and 5 HTC products later, I've got it on my HD.
Because the screen is larger, it has the tiniest amount of distortion on HD but nothing that makes a big difference.
Like someone mentioned, I've gotten use to using a stylus so many times it's just as fast for me to use the little keyboard.
But then again, I've never been one of those 500 texts a minute person anyway.
HTH's,
Mark

jst first day of my HD usage...i used to have a nokia E61i (still got it) and coupled with nimbuzz i was easily using my mobile to chat to friends and family for abt 3 hours non stop easily like np... but...jst 15 mins of typing on HD and like omg i could only see one line of the conversation box ( landscape mode) and den the keyboard was lil small on te potrait mode. btw...used finger keyboard ver 2 to type...n in jst some minutes my wrist was hurting from keeping the mobile up ( e61i waws heavy as well but was no problemo to me :|) so u people got any sugessions i could try ? Else i'll have to switch to Xperia X1 cuz i would have had no choice left ....help me out plz guys...

I was using my nephew's iPod Touch the other day and the keyboard had a feature I quite liked. When you pressed a key it popped up, but above your finger, so you could actually see what key had been pressed. Are there any apps that copy this?

Plonker said:
I was using my nephew's iPod Touch the other day and the keyboard had a feature I quite liked. When you pressed a key it popped up, but above your finger, so you could actually see what key had been pressed. Are there any apps that copy this?
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the new HTC keyboard from the new manilla has this that feature now. I think you can get the new keyboard from the app section or the development part.

I was very used to physical keypad on Nokia phone. When I switched over to D810/Trinity, I was using Phonepad, then when TouchPal was launched, I started using it. Since then, TouchPal has been my keyboard. I am using the compact qwerty instead of Phonepad layout. TouchPal has pretty good predictive engine. If you type mostly English or those language supported by TouchPal, then it will be great. Else predictive engine may not be that helpful.
Anyway, what's helpful about TouchPal is also the swipe feature. e.g. swiping the word backward give you the past tense, upward gives you the plural, forward gives you the continuous tense, downward give you the other choices related to the word.
On the key it self, swiping left or right allow you to select the specific letter in the key : 2 letters per key, plus a number (bottom) and a symbol (top). Swiping upward gives you the capital letter, downward gives you the symbol and up and then downward give you the number. Cool, right?!
It comes with copy and paste as well as other useful symbol, preset words features.

For those who really really hate typing, check out ShapeWriter. You 'glide' from one key to another without lifting your finger. Just that the keyboard layout is not too big. The key is pretty small. I'm waiting for 'Swype' which has the same technology, but with bigger key. Sadly, it's not out yet.

How to change default onscreen keyboard?

I'm install alternate onscreen keyboard, but can't shut down defautl keyboard. It suppress alternate by priority in input methods list.

Only solution i can think of is to root your phone and get Startup Manager and turn it off in there, I did.

Just press and hold the textbox or writing area, there you change "input method" to swype or samsung keyboard.

If I understand it right, OP wants the chosen input method to stick, so that it do not go back to a different one during soft reset. I'm interested in the solution too. I do not want to remove the default stock keyboard though, as I still want it in some situation.

If I go to Settings, Locale and Text and tick the newly installed keyboard (in my case the Droid X keyboard), then press and hold in an input area and select Input Options and use the new keyboard it stays the default keyboard, even after a soft reset.
If I then change back to the default keyboard by pressing and holding in an input area and selecting the Samsung Keypad, THAT will then stay as the default keypad, even after a soft reset.
The same works for the HTC_IME.
So I fail to see what the problem is.
The main annoyance I have is that neither the Droid X nor HTC_IME have a navigational arrows keyboard like the stock keyboard does. WHY WHY WHY did Samsung not make that menu button an OPTICAL TRACKPAD? They managed it on the Omnia and other smartphones. Without this feature, despite my love of this phone, I am falling out of love with this handset.

leoni1980 said:
If I go to Settings, Locale and Text and tick the newly installed keyboard (in my case the Droid X keyboard), then press and hold in an input area and select Input Options and use the new keyboard it stays the default keyboard, even after a soft reset.
If I then change back to the default keyboard by pressing and holding in an input area and selecting the Samsung Keypad, THAT will then stay as the default keypad, even after a soft reset.
The same works for the HTC_IME.
So I fail to see what the problem is.
The main annoyance I have is that neither the Droid X nor HTC_IME have a navigational arrows keyboard like the stock keyboard does. WHY WHY WHY did Samsung not make that menu button an OPTICAL TRACKPAD? They managed it on the Omnia and other smartphones. Without this feature, despite my love of this phone, I am falling out of love with this handset.
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Hey, you're right! It does stick. My bad.
Wow, Droid X and HTC_IME must be so good, that you must find it so difficult to give up. I must try them.

I wouldn't bother with HTC iME if I were you: Droid X keyboard is head and shoulders above anything else out there as it uses multitouch to bolster its already rather solid prediction algorithms. for me it is as good as the iphone keyboard. I have REALLY tried to like Swype but still find it clunky in instances when I need to input numbers and letters or very specific words, and I cant swype a long word as quickly as i can tap out the first few letters of a long word and allow word prediction to finish it for me.
As for the default keyboard....well it has some nice features but I find myself getting terribly irritated by it when I really need it to work.
Hi Eaglesteve by the way. remember our many conversations in the HTC Advantage forums? I hope you've found a better device since then! it's amazing how things have moved on since then.

leoni1980 said:
I wouldn't bother with HTC iME if I were you: Droid X keyboard is head and shoulders above anything else out there as it uses multitouch to bolster its already rather solid prediction algorithms. for me it is as good as the iphone keyboard. I have REALLY tried to like Swype but still find it clunky in instances when I need to input numbers and letters or very specific words, and I cant swype a long word as quickly as i can tap out the first few letters of a long word and allow word prediction to finish it for me.
As for the default keyboard....well it has some nice features but I find myself getting terribly irritated by it when I really need it to work.
Hi Eaglesteve by the way. remember our many conversations in the HTC Advantage forums? I hope you've found a better device since then! it's amazing how things have moved on since then.
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts Leoni. Yes, iPhone keyboard is hard to beat. I'll give Droid X keyboard a go then.
Yes, those days on the HTC advantage forum is memorable for me, and I enjoyed the friendship and conversations with folks there. Yes, technology has really changed within a very short time, and I love it. Glad to be living in this generation. You're far more frequent phone changer than I have been, I noticed, almost never missing out on any device. I think as a result you're one of the most open minded and unbiased persons when making comparisons between them, and I enjoy reading your comments all the time.

Hey Leoni, after installing Droid X keyboard, it is not showing up when I go to setting, locale. When I click on the pass-dx2200 icon, I was given the choice of installing PandaHome2, which I did, although I hate the home screen now.
Is there a special procedure to follow before Droid X keyboard would appear on the setting for it to be ticked?

[Q] possible to set two different input methods? (one for upright/horizontal)

Is it possible to set two different input methods? Ideally, I'd like to use Swype if the phone is upright and have the phone switch automatically to multi-touch keyboard when I slide the keyboard out. I have looked around on the phone and am not sure if this is possible.

computerdating said:
Is it possible to set two different input methods? Ideally, I'd like to use Swype if the phone is upright and have the phone switch automatically to multi-touch keyboard when I slide the keyboard out. I have looked around on the phone and am not sure if this is possible.
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I was looking for a way to do this a while back, but didn't have any luck. For me the perfect setup would be Swype in portrait mode and HTC IME in landscape. I really hope somebody finds a solution for this.

bump. Anyone know? Maybe this should be moved to the general forum?

I think I have it. If you disable auto-rotate and try to type a text upright it will pull up the multi-touch (or swype) soft keyboard but if you slide out the keyboard and start typing it will input that way.
Does that work for you guys?
Edit: I don't think auto rotate has anything to do with input method, sorry.
Can you clarify your question? where do you want to input stuff? text?

Well, you know how if you start typing on the slide out keyboard, word suggestions and punctuation will be available at the very bottom of the touch screen for quick access? That only happens when multi-touch keyboard is enabled. If you type on the slide out with Swype enabled, this doesn't happen and makes typing on the keyboard take a lot longer than it would otherwise.
So I was asking if there was a way to make the phone automatically switch input methods based on its orientation. If it's upright, Swype for faster text input on a touch screen. If it's horizontal or the KB is out, multi-touch keyboard for faster KB typing.
And yes, this is for all text entry.

[Q] Slow keyboard auto-correct?

Hi all, my first post on here. I picked up my S4 last Friday (UK on Vodafone) and I've been loving it ever since, its a massive step forwards from my old HTC Desire.
Anyway, the only thing that's really bugging me so far is the stock keyboard auto-correct. I've got it set-up to auto-correct when I hit the space bar but I'm running into a problem, I'm typing too fast for the keyboard. For example I type "the" and hit space, yet auto-correct is still offering me "th" as it hasn't caught up so instead of "the" I get it auto-corrected to "th". If I slow down a little it works fine but this is missing the point.
I know I can switch the keyboard so SwiftKey, which I had on the HTC, but before I do that I wondered if there's a way to speed up the auto-correct?

can you tell me how you set it up to auto correct?
i came from the htc one and really liked the keyboard and the fact that it would auto correct most things but i find with the s4 that it gives me the a correct spelling of the word in blue above the keys but does not seem to insert it into the text ive written.
thanks

Yeah where's this option
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2

Settings, Language and Input, Samsung keyboard settings, enable Predictive Text then pick the Autoreplacement option

A mate has just tried using the "swipe" like input method on his S4, it makes the auto-correct lag issue look simple. Its so bad that its effectively unusable for quick text entry!

I've found it sometimes to be SLOW. as in , i type a whole word like KEYBOARD, and the predictive text didn't keep up and it replaced my word with "."
then sometimes, i've found the keyboard to be super QUICK!. not sure what the hell is going on.
This sounds like a bug. how do we notify samsung?
clearing the customized learning makes it REALLY QUICK, but then you lose your common words.
even you type a word in like KEYBOARD carefully and slowly it will replace it with its default word...
stupid really. if i typed it in slower and careful, i dont want it to be replaced.

+++ SwiftKey +++

sadekmefti said:
+++ SwiftKey +++
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Yeah, I'm back on SwiftKey now and its much faster. But I like the Samsung keyboard, specifically having the numbers as separate keys above the QWERTY 'board. Oh well, I guess I'll have to see if the software update has made any difference

robpc said:
Settings, Language and Input, Samsung keyboard settings, enable Predictive Text then pick the Autoreplacement option
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Click to collapse
I have no autoreplacement option. AT&T SGS4.

Can't change default keyboard

Since updating to Nougat, I can't find a way to change my default keyboard. I've gone to Language and Input - > Virtual Keyboard but after that, selecting a keyboard doesn't switch to it. Where is the setting to specify the default keyboard?

You might find your answer here:
http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/158966/how-to-change-default-keyboard-on-android-n
sent from a galaxy far far away

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, none of the suggestions worked. Makes me think the keyboards are not Nougat compatible yet, at least with switching your keyboards.
The only way I can make this work is to go to Settings->Language and Input->Virtual Keyboard->Manage Keyboards
From there, I have to set all the keyboards off that I DON'T want to us. Very aggravating but it's the only way it works. Before, there was an menu that displayed what the current keyboard is, and selecting it would give you a Choose Keyboard menu where you could change the default keyboard. That is gone now under Nougat.
SwiftKey is the ONLY keyboard that actually senses when you haven't set it yet, and it will pop up the Choose Keyboard option. GBoard and the Samsung default keyboard do NOT do this at all. Guess that's why I continue to stick with SwiftKey. I only download GBoard to see what the latest updates were like. Still not completely impressed. The only saving grace the GBoard and Samsung keyboard is the ability to move the cursor. In GBoard, it's swiping across the spacebar, and with Samsung, it's swiping left or right across the keyboard itself. I know SwiftKey has the arrow keys, but they place them in the worst spot: right below the spacebar. I am constantly hitting them when I mean to tap the spacebar, so I turn them off.

I found that Samsung has a thread in their forums for discussing issues people are having with the update and they are apparently monitoring it continuously. I also contacted Samsung support via Facebook Messenger and they have noted the issue and also referred me to the same thread. Not too bad as far as response and assistance. Pretty pleased with that. Just hope they fix this issue. Sounds like it's an issue with how they have modified the stock Android Nougat settings. There should be a gear icon next to each keyboard in the Language and Input->Virtual keyboard section, but there isn't. Hopefully, they'll fix this with a later OTA update.
Here's the link to their thread for reporting issues with the latest Nougat update:
https://us.community.samsung.com/t5...e/board-id/ProductUpdates/page/1/thread-id/61

Well this stinks for alot of people, hope to see it fixed soon! I had forgotten about Perfect Keyboard Pro having the same type of instructional screen when it installs. It gave me the ability to bring up the switch keyboard screen!

Finally figured out how to quickly switch between keyboards. When your keyboard is up, just swipe down in your notifications area to bring up the notifications section. In it, you should see a notification from Android System stating Switch keyboard. Select that notification and you will be able to easily switch to another keyboard.
Too bad that wasn't documented by Samsung, but at least you don't have to go to Settings->Language and input->Virtual keyboard->Manage keyboards and then have to manually shut off all the keyboards you don't want to use in order to enable the one you want to use.