Database Info

Solution for 'keyboard' haters?

Hey guys,
I was looking for a way to get click sounds when typing, because this really helps me typing on a virtual keyboard.
Going to sound and notifications, and turning on the click sound was nice but I want it only in the keyboard.
Then I found this: forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=487677
I have been using it for a good 30 minutes and think it is pretty good. I have to get used to it, but it seems like I make very little mistakes. And if I make a mistake, it is because I really press the wrong letter.
There are a lot of options like the sound it makes, how hard it vibrates, different themes, etc etc.
Be sure to download version 2.1 (link at the top of that thread) and share your experience here! If you find any good settings to make it work even better on the HD2 please also share!
Kind Regards, Mark
(PS: I have not searched if there is a thread on this or not, but since this keyboard was made in April 2009,I asumed not many HD2 owners know about this. Also, maybe this could be a "post your keyboards" thread. Btw, I typed this from my HD2, with this new keyboard

or go to Manila settings tab, Local and text, Text Input and turn on typing sound

[APP] Keyboard for tablets - Development thread

Hey guys,
Just wanted to share an image with you of a keyboard project I'm working on for tablets. Currently all dev and testing is being done on my Galaxy Tab, but next week I'll start working on the xoom screensize port as well.
Info:A free basic multitouch keyboard for tablets, (a paid version with more features may come later, or I may just update the free version)
Features:
-Fast
-Word prediction
-Multitouch
-capability for multilanguage support (depends on interest I guess)
-FREE (My favorite words ever!)
How can you help?
Well as you can see there is some space in the middle of the screen, while I've still setup the keyboard with a seperate symbols keyboard (also tablet/thumb friendly) I'm wondering if there are some 'must have' buttons that should be put in the middle. My thoughts are they should be key's that are essential but not normally used, like arrow keys maybe? There's probably room for about 12 keys? So chime in and let me know.
How do I help not to clog up this thread
I don't need testers thanks. But if I do in the future I'll ask.
When is it coming out! I want it now!
As soon as it's ready, obviously it's mothers day this weekend so don't expect it until next week some time at the earliest.
Final info:
This is not the final theme, although it will be something along these lines probably.. I like a clean, minimalistic approach. Also in the second picture (the symbols) you can see the keys are slightly larger, I've also not decided on the final key size yet.
*Update*,
I've updated the attached pictures with the latest revision, and the initial sizing for the 10.1" Tablets. I've only speant a few minutes with the xoom, but being able to input text with both thumbs while holding it makes all the difference in the world.
*Update*, Portrait orientation fixed for 7 and 10" layout
*Update 05-12* I'm pretty happy where things are at right now with the 7" version. I just need to incorporate those changes into the 10.1" size and it should be basically ready. I've tweaked the sizing a bit since these latest screenshots now that I can put the xoom through more testing. I'll maybe add another couple of languages before release, if not everyone can work on those after. I've kept the additional keys in the space minimal, as I said before I like minimal.

hey that's pretty great. But instead of black is it possible to make the background translucence so as to see the content of the app.

a translucence background is a great idea

Will this require 2.2+?
I know you specified Galaxy Tabs, but I have been messing with a cmp738a craig tablet lately and this is exactly what I have been looking for.
Would be willing to test it if you are willing to add support.

korl85 said:
a translucence background is a great idea
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm. Maybe, first up though before I finalize the theme is the layout.. ill keep it in mind though, thanks for the suggestion
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App

I have played around with a Xoom for a while and this looks like a great replacement for the stock keyboard.
One thing I really miss on the Xoom is the ability to quickly write numbers by long pressing the alphabetic keys (secondary keys in general would be nice).
Frequently used keys in the middle seems great, a few symbol keys would fit nicely there. I find myself typing @ a lot, but other than I can't think of anything (except numbers) that I type often.
// A

Nice.
The screen res of the Galaxy tab is the same on my Nook running CM7 Gingerbread 2.3.4.
So I would like to help test if possible. This looks lime a nice project.

mssmison said:
How do I help not to clog up this thread
I don't need testers thanks. But if I do in the future I'll ask.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
12paq said:
Nice.
The screen res of the Galaxy tab is the same on my Nook running CM7 Gingerbread 2.3.4.
So I would like to help test if possible. This looks lime a nice project.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the offer though

Portugal here, i can help with pt-PT translation

numbers
numbers in the middle would be very helpful and a .com thank u for this

What about the international characters? It would make no sense to limit your work to English language, especially in times of European Community. If possible, it should be more explicit than they Android standard one.

Perfect it was a customizable panel, on which we could put our preferred characters/smiles/etc

Looks nice. An @ button instead of an emoticon button might be used more in the default layout. Also, left and right arrow keys in case someone misspells a word & do not want to delete all letters or try to tap the exact space before the wrong letter.

How does it look like in potrait mode?
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App

Well its really designed for tablets and landscape mode.. on the todo list is portrait layout.
As for the @ sign and the number keys. They'll be setup on the symbols keyboard(as per the pic) and with long presses. Though honestly its faster to access them on the symbols keyboard than by long pressing.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App

Reminds me this keyboard a lot.

a.) I wish it could look that good
b.) there's not way it'll have the same level of features.. well not 'no way', but not likely at all

Arrow Keys
Arrow keys are a must.

Initial concept looks pretty good. Things that stand out for me as a Xoom user with slightly more space:
Ability to swap between traditional and thumb layout
Arrow keys would be fantastic
Long press for secondary symbols much like GB keyboard.
Thanks for your efforts.

latest updates added. Thanks for all your feedback guys. A couple of notes.
this is for a tablet layout, the original layout will not be available to switch between, the portrait is fairly close to stock.
I haven't added in arrow keys as of yet, and don't think I will before release. In all my years with android I've never needed them so why add more clutter.

Text Selection Using Froyo and Swype

This might be old news but just chose to share anyway
I have an evo with a novatec screen, love using a custom kernel, and also really like sense and perfectly working 4g. so ginderbread really wouldn't play nice with me. The one thing I wanted on gingerbread was the keyboard and more importantly the text selecting.
Just found out that we have all had this feature this whole time with froyo.... At least with swype.
See photos below
While texting or typing you swype the button with the hand and finger in it from left to right(to the SYM) button to pull up the selection keyboard with a dpad
See screenshot below
Also when in the browser hold down the menu key this would bring up the keyboard then bring up the selection keyboard to jump thru the links
Once again I am sure this is old news but hopes this helps anyone that didn't know this and were having issues placing the text cursor before the first letter on a text message or notepad

Old news, yes but your intent was pure so I bestow you with a thanks
Edit: your first one apparently lol.

yeah man I really don't post much, was much more involved in discussion with old winmo devices then deployed switched to sonyericssons for 2 years forgot my account info the set up a new one after i came back... this website has come a long way tho.

Keyboard dock

I know there have been a couple of posts dotted around asking about the keyboard dock but I've seen nothing definitive.
I have the dock and it worked great with Honeycomb. I neglected to think about how it would work with a custom ROM before flashing one.
I've gone for the CM9 ROM and although generally typing on the keyboard works it is far less functional. The majority of the (very useful) hotkeys don't work.
Including:
Home
On screen KB up/down
Menu
Play/Pause Media
Makes the whole thing far less useful :-(
I'm interested in if anyone knows anything I can do to make this better on CM9 or even if it's likely to work better with any different ICS ROM?

Yes, the keyboard dock hotkeys don't work, all except the back key. But even more annoying it is that the software keyboard shows up and it shouldn't.

karnka said:
I know there have been a couple of posts dotted around asking about the keyboard dock but I've seen nothing definitive.
I have the dock and it worked great with Honeycomb. I neglected to think about how it would work with a custom ROM before flashing one.
I've gone for the CM9 ROM and although generally typing on the keyboard works it is far less functional. The majority of the (very useful) hotkeys don't work.
Including:
Home
On screen KB up/down
Menu
Play/Pause Media
Makes the whole thing far less useful :-(
I'm interested in if anyone knows anything I can do to make this better on CM9 or even if it's likely to work better with any different ICS ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not have a genuine Samsung keyboard (yet) but you should be able to map home, menu and the media buttons with my app: http://www.apedroid.com/android-applications/external-keyboard-helper
You can also specify up to 16 apps and create shortcuts for them. For example you could start the browser with Alt+B and Gmail with Alt+G if you want to.

Yep
I remember that happening occasionally before but it's constant now and even more inconvenient without the convenient hotkey to hide it.
Can I assume this is pretty constant regardless of the ROM used?

karnka said:
Yep
I remember that happening occasionally before but it's constant now and even more inconvenient without the convenient hotkey to hide it.
Can I assume this is pretty constant regardless of the ROM used?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I think so unless it is a HC rom based on a stock ROM.
I'll fix some of it in the CM9 port once I recieve my BT keyboad case and have something to test with. If you just want to get rid of the on-screen keyboard you can use my free app that does that and nothing more: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apedroid.hwkeyboardhelperfree
If you want full control you need my paid app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apedroid.hwkeyboardhelper
Free demo: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apedroid.hwkeyboardhelperdemo

Thanks for the advice. Your app looks really helpful.
I've no problem buying the pro version but want to have a play with the demo one a little more first.
I'm having slight issues trying to map a few things:
App switching: can map keys to this but doesn't seem to do anything
"Internet" / "Mail" - these two keys aren't picked up by the mapping config as they immediately jump away launching the browser (I'd love to remap to chrome) or asking me whether i want Gmail or Mail (and not remembering my selection)
I've mapped home (hooray!) but although it takes you back to the launcher it doesn't necessarily take you back to the default screen as the onscreen home button does (that's a really small issue!)
Any thoughts about those?
On the subject of the demo version of the app... Is the only thing that's different between that and the pro version that the spacebar is mapped to: _This_is_a_demo_version!_?

karnka said:
Thanks for the advice. Your app looks really helpful.
I've no problem buying the pro version but want to have a play with the demo one a little more first.
I'm having slight issues trying to map a few things:
App switching: can map keys to this but doesn't seem to do anything
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem with keycodes is that some are handled erlier in the input queue before I can process it in my app. App switcher and Home is two examples. I managed to do a workaround for Home but I have not yet found a way to bring up the app appswitcher programatically.
"Internet" / "Mail" - these two keys aren't picked up by the mapping config as they immediately jump away launching the browser (I'd love to remap to chrome) or asking me whether i want Gmail or Mail (and not remembering my selection)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same reason here. Android propably picks up and processes these before the app get a chance and therefor the scancode is never passed on. However, when I get my BT keyboard dock I can investigate this more.
I've mapped home (hooray!) but although it takes you back to the launcher it doesn't necessarily take you back to the default screen as the onscreen home button does (that's a really small issue!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is due to the nature of the workaround. I just launch the launcher which gives almost the same effect as when the system processes the Home keycode (apart for the difference you noticed)
Any thoughts about those?
On the subject of the demo version of the app... Is the only thing that's different between that and the pro version that the spacebar is mapped to: _This_is_a_demo_version!_?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The versions are identical apart from the space button and some strings (demo vs pro, buy vs rate) so you can test out everything before buying.
You really should try the application shortcuts. Choose apps for A0 to AF and enter A0 to AF instead of characters when doing a custom layout. You could put the Email app on Alt+E and Gmail on Alt+G etc... Setting it up could be bit more userfriendly but once you figure it out it is not that hard to do.

Have got the pro version now and the overall effect is not much worse than the keyboard was under honeycomb so thanks very much.
Have setup a few short cuts (chrome and Gmail) and mapped them to some of the otherwise non-working function keys so that's great too.

Stock keyboard text prediction nightmare.

I would like to keep the stock keyboard because it offers many things such as easy access to handwriting recognition, clipboard etc. However I find the text prediction maddening.
It clearly does not comprehend basic English usage.
For instance, a common word like "in". If I attempt to type "in" it will default to the much longer and rarely used word "instance". I have to manually select "in" if that is what I want. This is just one example. It seems to always default to the longest possible word. This is counter intuitive. It should default to the shortest possible word and build from there.
It also hasn't a clue as to basic spelling or punctuation.
I'd like to use this keyboard but this is intolerable. Any ideas one how to make this work better? Please no suggestions of other keyboards. I am aware of those. I just wish to make this one work.
Thanks
Sent from my GT-N8013 using Tapatalk 2

I have to admit, this is a real pain in the behind! It can be rather temperamental with things. But, I have a feeling that the way it's made is that it actually adapts to your handwriting. Mine is terrible yet it seems to get it right quite a lot.
From what I'm able to gather, the predictive text for the touch input keyboards does not apply. But, if you go into your keyboard settings > Handwriting. You can see that there are a few options. If you haven't been into this bit at all I recommend you take a look at it. You can change things such as recognition time, pen thickness, colour and the recognition type.
This type of thing is just something you need to keep practising at. I do agree with you that the punctuation is rather awful, though. Trying to put an exclamation mark in and constantly getting "i." is a pain! But, as far as handwriting recognition goes, this is the best I've seen in a long time. It's one of those things where developing something like that is really complex and needs to be incredibly fine tuned.

My handwriting is so horrific it would take a quantum computer a week to decipher. I can barely read it and I wrote it.
I miss the old days where you could change your keyboard in app. Having to go to Settings to change it seems like an odd design choice to me. If it were the old way I would just use Thumb Keyboard most of the time then switch over on the fly when I needed stock features.
** Update: Yes there is a way to change the keyboard in app. Just click the little keyboard icon on the status bar next to the clock. Cool
Sent from my GT-N8013 using Tapatalk 2

I change my keyboard in app all the time.

mitchellvii said:
My handwriting is so horrific it would take a quantum computer a week to decipher. I can barely read it and I wrote it.
I miss the old days where you could change your keyboard in app. Having to go to Settings to change it seems like an odd design choice to me. If it were the old way I would just use Thumb Keyboard most of the time then switch over on the fly when I needed stock features.
Sent from my GT-N8013 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's an 'input method switcher' hot button next to the clock whenever you're typing... it looks like a little keyboard, but you actually press the icon as opposed to it being in notifications like it does on a phone...
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

Lol shockingly I never noticed that. I suppose I was just used to the old way and wasn't looking for it.
Thanks
Sent from my GT-N8013 using Tapatalk 2

So, some of you actually use the predictive text on the stock keyboard? I tried it for a couple of days and found it intolerably bad -- more often than not, I found myself absolutely fighting with the predictive text to actually type what I wanted, and so gave up on it.
I miss having just the word suggestions as I type that I can select so I don't have to finish typing each word -- I don't really need predictive text, as I can actually type pretty fast on the Note 10.1, but the word suggestions would be nice to have without needing to use another keyboard.

I use 7notes with mazec for HWR and Swiftkey for text prediction. Very satisfied with both.

toenail_flicker said:
I use 7notes with mazec for HWR and Swiftkey for text prediction. Very satisfied with both.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Swiftkey has never typed anything but gibberish for me on any device I have tried it.

You mentioned that before. I find that so odd. It does a great job for me. I have a lot of friends who use it, too, and they get excellent results. I doubt SwiftKey would have the sales and ratings they have if everyone had that experience. Have you emailed them about it?

wingzero2085 said:
So, some of you actually use the predictive text on the stock keyboard?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not the greatest I've used but it's fine. It does seem to learn and gets better over time. In Mitch's example for "in" all you have to do is hit the space bar when "in" is highlighted in blue and it inserts it with a trailing space. Also, you can add words to the custom dictionary yourself which makes things a lot faster and more accurate.

wingzero2085 said:
So, some of you actually use the predictive text on the stock keyboard? I tried it for a couple of days and found it intolerably bad -- more often than not, I found myself absolutely fighting with the predictive text to actually type what I wanted, and so gave up on it.
I miss having just the word suggestions as I type that I can select so I don't have to finish typing each word -- I don't really need predictive text, as I can actually type pretty fast on the Note 10.1, but the word suggestions would be nice to have without needing to use another keyboard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly! I find it giving me nonsensical predictions and I get kinda mad at it (sounds silly I know) but if you have ever used like for say, an original Asus Tf, you will find the responsiveness of this keyboard a godsend.
But one thing, this keyboard is actively learning our typing habits right? I'm using it as I speak and it seems more tolerable and accurate to my intentions. It's only really bad when I type something slighty off.
the whole GALAXY to NOTE about...counting down from 10 to 1.

BarryH_GEG said:
It's not the greatest I've used but it's fine. It does seem to learn and gets better over time. In Mitch's example for "in" all you have to do is hit the space bar when "in" is highlighted in blue and it inserts it with a trailing space. Also, you can add words to the custom dictionary yourself which makes things a lot faster and more accurate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My point is that it never highlights "in", it highlights "instance" by default. If I press the spacebar after typing the letters "in" it enters "instance". Very very odd default action to prefer the longer word. If I keep correcting "instance" to be "in" it finally seems to learn in that session. However, if I close the app and re-open it later it has forgotten and goes back to the old way.
Sadly, like so much Samsung software, it seems like they turned it in on the day it was due and not when it was done.
I love Samsung hardware. Like HTC, their software pretty much gets an incomplete.

mitchellvii said:
My point is that it never highlights "in", it highlights "instance" by default.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's wierd. On mine, the box on the far left tracks what I'm typing in blue. In your example I'd see "in" in blue while a bunch of suggested words would appear to the right. If I hit space bar or tap "in" while it's highlighted it inserts (only) what I've typed. The space bar turns blue (on mine) to show it's set up to bypass prediction. It's black normally. Are your settings set up like mine?

I don't know get predictions on my stock board only on SwiftKey
Sent from my GT-N8013

Mine works like Barry's. Confess! What did You change?

BarryH_GEG said:
That's wierd. On mine, the box on the far left tracks what I'm typing in blue. In your example I'd see "in" in blue while a bunch of suggested words would appear to the right. If I hit space bar or tap "in" while it's highlighted it inserts (only) what I've typed. The space bar turns blue (on mine) to show it's set up to bypass prediction. It's black normally. Are your settings set up like mine?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I know, it is bizarre. That's why I said at the start that I don't exclude the idea I have done something wrong here.
For some reason when I type, it is defaulting to the SECOND word on the list instead of the first. I know, right? Weird.

Ok, I just returned all settings to stock and this is what I get.
If I type "the" I get:
the | then | They | they | Then | there
It is highlighting the second word, not the first. Freakin WEIRD.

mitchellvii said:
Yeah I know, it is bizarre. That's why I said at the start that I don't exclude the idea I have done something wrong here.
For some reason when I type, it is defaulting to the SECOND word on the list instead of the first. I know, right? Weird.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have any other keyboards installed? Maybe there's a conflict.

BarryH_GEG said:
Do you have any other keyboards installed? Maybe there's a conflict.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I have Thumb Keyboard. That is my preferred keyboard anyway. I'll just go with that and switch over to the stock keyboard when I need to use any of the custom features.
We'll just file this one under weird and leave it at that.