keyboard With Arrow Keys Like a Normal Computer Keyboard? - Android Software/Hacking General [Developers Only]

Basically what I am looking is a browser or keyboard that allows you to have arrow keys that function like the arrow keys on a computer keyboard.
I use a particular website for work that uses the left and right arrow keys to get from one task to the other ( I think its a flash based module on the site) and I would love to access it from my phone, but I cant navigate due to the lack of arrow keys.
The issue is, there is no text field on that page, so the keyboard does not pop up, which is why Im thinking Im might need a browser thats able to "bind" keys, per se....
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks so much!

Related

[Q] Browsers with directional keys?

Does anyone know of any browsers that either have the ability to "bind" keys, or have directional buttons?
What I need to do is mimic the left and right arrow keys found on a normal keyboard.
I know there are a few keyboard apps that have these, but the problem is the page I need to use this on doesnt have a text box so the keyboard 1. does not pop up, and 2. does not interpret the arrows correctly.
Basically the page Im trying to do this on is a flash based page where you press either the left or right arrow key to get your next assignment. There are no visual "next" and "back" buttons on the page, which is making this really hard!
I just tried this app, and set my search key to "dpad left" and it didnt work in the browser... Maybe its not possible, idk.
Can someone please help me?

Aarrow Keys

Where are the up,down and left, right arrow keys on the keyboard in Windows Phone? They use to be in Windows Mobile. Am I just not looking hard engough?
The software keyboard doesn't have them, and I've not yet found a way to add them back in.
To place the cursor with precision, tap and hold on the text area on-screen, then position the cursor. It's similar to how iOS and Android handle the same problem.

soft keyboard behavior and breakage. re-install? good replacement?

for as long as I've had my phone, which, of course, is as long as I've had it rooted, my messaging app has acted extremely odd.
Using the arrow keys and the back-space key causes strange, and often app-breaking, behavior. it seems to be registering the key presses in at least 2 other areas of the app. it always scrolls to the top of the conversation, it highlights conversations in the main message window, and it highlights options in the menus before I even have them open. it seems that the window that lists the conversations, as well as the options menu, are still listening to key presses, even when I'm writing a text. often, the arrow keys and the back-space key stop working all together until I back out of the text-input and re-open the keyboard. this happens litterally every time i write a text message, which is a lot.
all I want the arrow keys to do when I'm in a text field is move the cursor, not jump the highlight to the send button, not scroll through auto-complete options, not jump to the conversation window and scroll through individual texts, and certainly not control the selection of items in windows and menus that I don't even have open.
Also, when pressing 2 keys in quick succession, it often only registers one, TH, especially. I'd say its just registering the second press as a movement of the first contact point, istead of a second touch, like old laptop track-pads, but this device is more than capable of registering multi-touch. also, if you hold one key, and press another, the letter from the first appears on the second key for a brief second...
I'm using virtuous ville v.1.4.0 stock, but I've installed and uninstalled a couple other keyboard apps, can I re-install the stock ICS keyboard? is it a sense keyboard? is this happening to anyone else with this rom or with the 4.0.3 os?
thanks for your help
-Peter
god I miss my G1... stupid friggin slabs. this was the first, and will be the last phone that I ever buy without a real keyboard. this touch-screen only nonsense is ridiculous. it would be fast if it were possible to be accurate and keys weren't literally touching each other. why can't I tell it how much space I want between the keys, so I press nothing, instead of the wrong key? there would be no haptic feedback so I knew to press it again, and I wouldn't constantly be pressing the shift, space, and num keys, which the auto-correct doesn't account for in the slightest, instead of the A key or any of the bottom row of letters .I'm tired of sacrificing so much functionality just so phones can look slicker and break easier.
Don't know why it fails, sorry.... The stock ICS keyboard is not a sense keyboard, there is one on market looks like this one https://play.google.com/store/apps/....android.inputmethod.latin.ice_cream_sandwich
Or you could grab a keyboard from any CM9 or AOKP rom zip file, it's named Latin-IME.apk iirc. The jellybean keyboard is similar but nicer somehow, possible it works on ICS. Also SwiftKey is really good.
Thanks for the suggestions! I do, in fact, have a sense keyboard and I do need arrow keys, which the non-sense keyboards, including the jellybean apk don't seem to have. I still can't fathom why anyone would ever prefer these to a real keyboard and a d-pad... also, the jellybean keyboard still has the same trouble with TH's. has anyone here, who shares my frustration with soft keyboards, found a decent keyboard app?
I wish there were decent quality, mini keyboards, too. Wireless or micro-usb would both work, as I'd probably make a case to hold it with my phone. I've only seen a couple, and they're either too big to be practical, or poor quality.
I apologize for my negative attitude. this is just frustrating, as texting is my main form of communication, and I post to forums from my phone quite often, so typing is important to me.
thanks again
-Peter
This is what SwiftKey 3 looks like if you activate the arrows and the Holo theme... One month trial.

[Q] Are there arrow keys on the myTouch 4G Slide / HTC Doubleshot?

I'm thinking of moving to T-Mobile, and I've seen some pics of the myTouch 4G Slide / HTC Doubleshot. However, the qwerty keypad seems to be missing arrow keys... Is there any arrow keys (or equivalent) on the qwerty keypad? I do some manipulation on spreadsheets and arrow keys are important for me.
The middle sensor button replaces the arrow keys.
AndroAsc said:
I'm thinking of moving to T-Mobile, and I've seen some pics of the myTouch 4G Slide / HTC Doubleshot. However, the qwerty keypad seems to be missing arrow keys... Is there any arrow keys (or equivalent) on the qwerty keypad? I do some manipulation on spreadsheets and arrow keys are important for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you notice on the bottom of the phone in the center there is an optical trackpad. It takes the place of arrow keys, you can use it to position the cursor. It also moves the homescreen back and forth and with stock roms can be pressed to wake up or put to sleep (some other roms have managed to implement that, as well, but not all).
I have the Slide. Since you asked on XDA I assume you are a coder or an aspiring coder.
I'd like to share my thoughts on the optical trackpad. To me as one who uses vi in ConnectBot console, the trackpad is no replacement for the keypad. The difference is that the keypad has the typomatic function where you want to go way to the right, just press and hold the right button. Can't do that with the optical trackpad; you have to slide your finger to the right 80 times to go there. (I know the vi $ command does it, but that's a 2-key action instead of 1 key because there isn't a dedicated '2' key: alt+2).
I'd add that the optical trackpad does implement the ctrl function when pressing the optical trackpad button when used under ConnectBot.
l00g33k said:
I have the Slide. Since you asked on XDA I assume you are a coder or an aspiring coder.
I'd like to share my thoughts on the optical trackpad. To me as one who uses vi in ConnectBot console, the trackpad is no replacement for the keypad. The difference is that the keypad has the typomatic function where you want to go way to the right, just press and hold the right button. Can't do that with the optical trackpad; you have to slide your finger to the right 80 times to go there. (I know the vi $ command does it, but that's a 2-key action instead of 1 key because there isn't a dedicated '2' key: alt+2).
I'd add that the optical trackpad does implement the ctrl function when pressing the optical trackpad button when used under ConnectBot.
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I prefer using adb on computer instead of using a built in terminal
Riyal said:
I prefer using adb on computer instead of using a built in terminal
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be quite honest, i'd rather do everything I would do in adb through the terminal directly on the device if possible.
Especially anymore with the times few and very far between (at least at the moment) that I have access to a real computer, terminal capability has become more of a necessity then a preference.
About the arrow keys:
If you root then you can replace the keylayout file to add them, the pictures on the physical keys won't match up is all.
My first modified keylayout changed home to up, menu to down, back to left and genius to right arrow keys on the slide out keyboard - leaving those same keys in-tact for functionality on the face of the device.
When you slide out the keyboard, those four keys have the same function as the four keys at the bottom of the screen on the face of the device - seemed to me like they were begging for the change.
Aside from that, though, as nifty as the optical trackpad button is, and how incredibly useful it can be at times, it remains a poor substitute for actual arrow keys themselves.
Seriously considering getting a mytouch 4G slide, but the lack of arrow keys is the current deal breaker.
Can the trackpad be used efficiently to replace arrow keys? I do a lot of spreadsheet manipulation, and was wondering if it's going to work as well as arrow keys. It seems to be immensely irritating whenever I enter data into a cell, I need to move my fingers away from the QWERTY keyboard to the trackpad in order to move to the next cell, and then move my fingers back to the QWERTY board again...
Other posts here commented on key remapping, do the remapped keys alleviate the problem somewhat?
I think yes it's possible to remap some of it's keys into arrow keys.
It's possible to create new combination keys like pressing the www/.com + the letter O key would make up for the up arrow key. Some of the people here know how to mess with the keyconfigs so it's really good asking help with them. I just brought up the idea that it's possible but haven't really invested time looking into it but yeah I'mm 100% sure it's possible.

Function keys and scroll direction

So, I'm loving the hell out of my Surface RT (64GB with black Touch cover) except for two things.
1: I use the actual function keys (F1-F12) a lot more than I need a shortcut key for the play/pause button or the Share charm. Due to the placement of the Fn button on the right side of the keyboard, it's difficult to use the keys the way I'm used to. For example, Alt+F4 is now Alt+Fn+Play/Pause, and requires two hands. If anybody can find a way to toggle the default state of the Fn key, I would be super-grateful! Ideally, I'd be able to actually remap he keys like you can on advanced USB keyboards; for example, I need the Home and End keys too, but rarely use F8-F10 so I'd like to remap those.
2: The default direction of the multitouch scroll drives me up a wall (but only if I try to drive down it). It's a pointing device, not a touchscreen, dammit! I expect it to function like a scroll wheel on a mouse, or the side-scroll on older PC touchpads, or the TrackPoint scroll on the Thinkpad, or... you get my point. Yes, I get that Apple did it first; they were dumb then, are still dumb now, and MS was very dumb to copy them. On the other hand, at least Apple lets you change it! If the direction of this scroll can be reversed (preferably without screwing up the scroll wheel of an actual mouse, if I were to connect one), that would be amazing.
I was really hoping that the included drivers would include controls for these things, the way Microsoft's normal mice and keyboards come with highly configurable drivers, or most Laptops come with fairly advanced Synaptics touchpad driver controls. If any of you have contacts at MS on or near the Surface team, tell them that we really want some drivers like those, please!
have you been able to resolve the Fn key issue?
GoodDayToDie said:
So, I'm loving the hell out of my Surface RT (64GB with black Touch cover) except for two things.
1: I use the actual function keys (F1-F12) a lot more than I need a shortcut key for the play/pause button or the Share charm. Due to the placement of the Fn button on the right side of the keyboard, it's difficult to use the keys the way I'm used to. For example, Alt+F4 is now Alt+Fn+Play/Pause, and requires two hands. If anybody can find a way to toggle the default state of the Fn key, I would be super-grateful! Ideally, I'd be able to actually remap he keys like you can on advanced USB keyboards; for example, I need the Home and End keys too, but rarely use F8-F10 so I'd like to remap those.
2: The default direction of the multitouch scroll drives me up a wall (but only if I try to drive down it). It's a pointing device, not a touchscreen, dammit! I expect it to function like a scroll wheel on a mouse, or the side-scroll on older PC touchpads, or the TrackPoint scroll on the Thinkpad, or... you get my point. Yes, I get that Apple did it first; they were dumb then, are still dumb now, and MS was very dumb to copy them. On the other hand, at least Apple lets you change it! If the direction of this scroll can be reversed (preferably without screwing up the scroll wheel of an actual mouse, if I were to connect one), that would be amazing.
I was really hoping that the included drivers would include controls for these things, the way Microsoft's normal mice and keyboards come with highly configurable drivers, or most Laptops come with fairly advanced Synaptics touchpad driver controls. If any of you have contacts at MS on or near the Surface team, tell them that we really want some drivers like those, please!
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The Fn Key issue is a little bit annoying, anybody have a solution for it?

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