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[Q] Asus Keyboard alternative for people with non-US docks

I'm Spanish, and so is my keyboard dock. However, I often type in English with it. Under HC, it wasn't an issue, I used Asus Keyboard in Spanish, and since word suggestion was disabled while using the keyboard, I lost no functionality. This is important because I need to set the Input Method to Asus Keyboard (Spanish) to get the right key layout for my dock keyboard (It mostly changes where some symbols are, such as the @ symbol, and punctuation, on top of adding dead keys for accented letters)
Come ICS, and everything works exactly the same. However, now ICS includes auto-spellcheck independent of the word suggestions, and uses the language of the keyboard to identify the language of what you typed. This means that while I'm typing, and getting the right keyboard layout via the Asus Keyboard (Spanish), every word gets a wiggly red line underneath (and performance suffers a little). When I change to Asus Keyboard (English), I can use auto-spellcheck, BUT it's cumbersome to type (mainly punctuation and symbols).
If there a way to tell the tablet that it should use the Spanish keyboard layout while using another language for spellcheck? Is there any free or paid Input Method app to help me here? I'm not rooted, but feel free to suggest some root only apps and solutions if it's what it takes.

Vyrlokar said:
I'm Spanish, and so is my keyboard dock. However, I often type in English with it. Under HC, it wasn't an issue, I used Asus Keyboard in Spanish, and since word suggestion was disabled while using the keyboard, I lost no functionality. This is important because I need to set the Input Method to Asus Keyboard (Spanish) to get the right key layout for my dock keyboard (It mostly changes where some symbols are, such as the @ symbol, and punctuation, on top of adding dead keys for accented letters)
Come ICS, and everything works exactly the same. However, now ICS includes auto-spellcheck independent of the word suggestions, and uses the language of the keyboard to identify the language of what you typed. This means that while I'm typing, and getting the right keyboard layout via the Asus Keyboard (Spanish), every word gets a wiggly red line underneath (and performance suffers a little). When I change to Asus Keyboard (English), I can use auto-spellcheck, BUT it's cumbersome to type (mainly punctuation and symbols).
If there a way to tell the tablet that it should use the Spanish keyboard layout while using another language for spellcheck? Is there any free or paid Input Method app to help me here? I'm not rooted, but feel free to suggest some root only apps and solutions if it's what it takes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same problem here. The only custom ROM which works well with my PT dock is Revolver 4

Other languages for Android Keyboard?

So I've tried Android Keyboard as well as Samsung's and GO keyboard, but I like Android Keyboard the best. Is there a way to hit a single button (or a button and a choose from a pop-up, either way a "simple method") to use other languages with Android Keyboard? I've been googling this for days and everything I've found was people saying "yeah this works but it's meh." So if anyone knows a language input for Android Keyboard more like what I described above, let me know
I'm looking for Chinese and Japanese in particular.

You try sogou input method

I use slide it. You use the swipe method or touch. I use a dvorak layout for my keyboard which is basically another language. There is a dedicated button for switching back and forth between whichever languages you have installed.

Sogou was 100% in Japanese/Chinese so I have no idea how to use it and the pics didn't look like a keyboard plugin
Swipe is awful imo :/ I prefer to just type. If anyone knows any good swype keyboard that's actually really good, I'll try that too but I just want a Japanese and/or Chinese (Simplified) plugin for Android keyboard

is there any korean too?

ScelestusAnimus said:
Sogou was 100% in Japanese/Chinese so I have no idea how to use it and the pics didn't look like a keyboard plugin
Swipe is awful imo :/ I prefer to just type. If anyone knows any good swype keyboard that's actually really good, I'll try that too but I just want a Japanese and/or Chinese (Simplified) plugin for Android keyboard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, there are hands of Chinese/English keyboard developed by Chinese company. Unfortunately few of them offer enough downloading/handling support.

[Q] Dock Keyboard with different languages

Hi community
I'm actually German and currently here in the U.S.
I really can't wait to buy the Infinity here ASAP, but I still have some questions left...
Most of you guys know, that the German QWERTZ keyboard (and special letters ö,ä,ü etc.) differs from other QWERTY keyboards, so the whole layout is different.
Now my question is:
- can you select a dock language/layout anywhere? so you can use different keyboard layouts?
This way, I could buy an U.S. dock and just switch to another language and use "German" letters, although it's written otherwise on the keyboard
OR: (preferred way)
- is it possible to use a German dock keyboard with the U.S. version of the Infinity (including special letters like ö,ä,ü?? )
Maybe some of you guys, who already have a dock could try this...
If you could switch from a German layout (people from switzerland, who already have the infinity) to a U.S. layout, I assume, you could also do it vice versa.
Thank you in advance!

This would, I will imagine, also be affected by the keyboard app, like Swiftkey, in which you can select multiple languages and layouts.
\\Tapatalk.KindleFire\\

I know with absolute certainty that SwiftKey 3 has an extra setting for "external keyboard layout" which allows you to define which layout the keydock has - independently from the on-screen-keyboard. Plus i can really recommend SwiftKey.
I don't know about the second option of yours, but that's what i will try (the other way round, living in Germany and disliking QWERTZ).

Does Swiftkey actually support external keyboards? Wow, you learn something in here every day.
I've used it for a long period on my SGS2 (soft keyboard, obviously), but autocorrection while using the dock keyboard would be absolutely fantastic!

you may want to look at their tablet version.

[Q] The single&double quote key on the dock not working? -and a bit on accented chars

[Q] The single&double quote key on the dock not working? -and a bit on accented chars
Yesterday I did a factory reset on my TF700 (JB 4.1.1). Today I was typing and found that the single/double quote key was not working on my dock keyboard. My settings where Asus Dutch Keyboard. When I switch to Asus English Keyboard or the Android Dutch or English keyboard the key is working. When I use the screen keyboard with the Asus Dutch keyboard setting I can also type a ".
So it is only when I use the dock keyboard that it is not working. Maybe somebody can shed some light on the issue?
Another question on the docking keyboard. Is there a way to type symbol like ê or ë etc on the docking keyboard?
Edit:
Both issues have been fixed in the 10.4.4.23 firmware update. The double quote key is working again and a accented character can be typed for instance by typing a ["] and an [e] in sequence. Unfortunately this is not working when typing in a browser. But in the email app it is working.

ZoldarVL said:
Yesterday I did a factory reset on my TF700 (JB 4.1.1). Today I was typing and found that the single/double quote key was not working on my dock keyboard. My settings where Asus Dutch Keyboard. When I switch to Asus English Keyboard or the Android Dutch or English keyboard the key is working. When I use the screen keyboard with the Asus Dutch keyboard setting I can also type a ".
So it is only when I use the dock keyboard that it is not working. Maybe somebody can shed some light on the issue?
Another question on the docking keyboard. Is there a way to type symbol like ê or ë etc on the docking keyboard?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, you found out the issue yourself: it is dependent on the type of underlying ASUS keyboard you choose. Well-known by now, to be honest, but your issue is right there.

MartyHulskemper said:
Well, you found out the issue yourself: it is dependent on the type of underlying ASUS keyboard you choose. Well-known by now, to be honest, but your issue is right there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couldn't find it on the forum that's why I raised the question. Probably my bad search skills Thanx for answering. Now it's waiting for Asus to fix this.

Eh? It worked in .18.. I specifically remember the @ and " keys being fixed in it.. Dafuq Asus?
Why not just use the US keyboard? All keyboards in the Netherlands have been the US QWERTY keyboard since well before the turn of the millenium. The old original Dutch keyboard became redundant decades ago.
(I don't think we've ever used it to begin with. We're too busy running after the US.. Which for once i'm glad for, as the original NL keyboard was crap.)

ShadowLea said:
Eh? It worked in .18.. I specifically remember the @ and " keys being fixed in it.. Dafuq Asus?
Why not just use the US keyboard? All keyboards in the Netherlands have been the US QWERTY keyboard since well before the turn of the millenium. The old original Dutch keyboard became redundant decades ago.
(I don't think we've ever used it to begin with. We're too busy running after the US.. Which for once i'm glad for, as the original NL keyboard was crap.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Asus Dutch Keyboard is not the keyboard you are refering to. Which is in fact ancient and I only saw one back in the 90s. The ASUS Dutch Keyboard used to be the same as the Asus English (US) keyboard except the input language is set to Dutch so it does Dutch spelling check. But you got me thinking because the keyboard I use it listed as ASUS Dutch (Holland) keyboard. Maybe it should be ASUS Dutch (US) keyboard.
But I don't know how to change this setting. Anybody can help out?

Ah. I always thought the spellcheck was related to the system language? Since you set Spell checker under Language, and not Keyboard & Input. (Suggestive typing drove me to near insanity, so I turned it off...) (I only type in English and my system language is set to UK English, so I never noticed whether the spellcheck is related to the keyboard or not.)
There used to be a Holland and US variant... Where the hell did that go? (I can't find it either.)

Yes, I think the spell check language is the system language (by default, and I have found no other way to change it). Accented letters have never worked for me on this device, although others did report that on the German language default, they actually had them working. Now I think of this, I tried setting the tab's language to "Deutsch (Deutschland)" and indeed, I have accented letters! They do not correspond to the keys, however, so you're going to have a hard time typing this way. For example, the " ' " key gives an "ä".

MartyHulskemper said:
Yes, I think the spell check language is the system language (by default, and I have found no other way to change it). Accented letters have never worked for me on this device, although others did report that on the German language default, they actually had them working. Now I think of this, I tried setting the tab's language to "Deutsch (Deutschland)" and indeed, I have accented letters! They do not correspond to the keys, however, so you're going to have a hard time typing this way. For example, the " ' " key gives an "ä".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I've to disagree on the spell checking being reliant on system language only. I've configured my system language as English and set the Spell Checker setting to ᷰ'Use system language' . Then when I go to the mail program and choose 'Asus English (US) keyboard' spell checking is in English. But when I change to 'Asus Dutch (Holland) Keyboard', spell checking is in Dutch.

ZoldarVL said:
Sorry I've to disagree on the spell checking being reliant on system language only. I've configured my system language as English and set the Spell Checker setting to ᷰ'Use system language' . Then when I go to the mail program and choose 'Asus English (US) keyboard' spell checking is in English. But when I change to 'Asus Dutch (Holland) Keyboard', spell checking is in Dutch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, no matter what my selected keyboard is, if I select German as the system language I get the accented letters. *That* *was* your question, right? I can't remember you talking about the spell check, so it is not that relevant. You wanted accented letters, now you get them but you cannot type. In other words: soft keyboard for you, if need be.
EDIT: deep in the settings there turns out to be an option to bind the spell checker to a specific language, or system default. AFAIK, it shouldn't change when you simply select another keyboard when on the system default language option, but then it would not exactly be the first time that ASUS-injected stuff does funky things.

MartyHulskemper said:
Well, no matter what my selected keyboard is, if I select German as the system language I get the accented letters. *That* *was* your question, right? I can't remember you talking about the spell check, so it is not that relevant. You wanted accented letters, now you get them but you cannot type. In other words: soft keyboard for you, if need be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My original question was on the quote key not working when selecting Asus Dutch AND on international characters. The spell checking was introduced when ShadowLea was wondering why I wanted to use the Asus Dutch keyboard. I know I can set the language to German for accented characters but like you said totally unusable when using the dock keyboard. But I can live with the accented characters not working. But the quote key not working is a big pain in the ass. Like I said before I wait for Asus to fix this.

ZoldarVL said:
My original question was on the quote key not working when selecting Asus Dutch AND on international characters. The spell checking was introduced when ShadowLea was wondering why I wanted to use the Asus Dutch keyboard. I know I can set the language to German for accented characters but like you said totally unusable when using the dock keyboard. But I can live with the accented characters not working. But the quote key not working is a big pain in the ass. Like I said before I wait for Asus to fix this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, no offence meant. OT: the funny thing is that on CleanROM the quote/double qoute key is working fine for me (English/US system language). Have you tweaked anything else on your device?
EDIT: I do sometimes run into the accented letter issue, and then I am very annoyed. Trying to type something like "fiancée" or "René" causes me headaches every time. I have given it some thought just printing the ASCII code list.

MartyHulskemper said:
Hey, no offence meant. OT: the funny thing is that on CleanROM the quote/double qoute key is working fine for me (English/US system language). Have you tweaked anything else on your device?
EDIT: I do sometimes run into the accented letter issue, and then I am very annoyed. Trying to type something like "fiancée" or "René" causes me headaches every time. I have given it some thought just printing the ASCII code list.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No offence taken. I have a stock Tf700, no tweaking yet. And on a stock rom the quote key is also working on Asus English keyboard/US system language. It's when I switch to Asus Dutch Keyboard it stops working and just inserts a space when pressed. I read on another forum what people using the Asus Potugese keyboard run into the same problems. So I guess there are more input languages that suffer the same problem.
Printing the Ascii list ... back to the days of word perfect
The workaround I found is pressing the little keyboard icon next to the docking icon in the notification bar. And then turn Physical Keyboard off. Doing this one can use the docking keyboard and the screen keyboard at the same time. So whenever I have to press a double/single quote or a accented character I use the screen keyboard. And it also enables me to switch back and forth input languages using the globe key on the screen keyboard (lower left side of the screen).

ZoldarVL said:
Printing the Ascii list ... back to the days of word perfect
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it's like a time machine. Only far worse.
The workaround I found is pressing the little keyboard icon next to the docking icon in the notification bar. And then turn Physical Keyboard off. Doing this one can use the docking keyboard and the screen keyboard at the same time. So whenever I have to press a double/single quote or a accented character I use the screen keyboard. And it also enables me to switch back and forth input languages using the globe key on the screen keyboard (lower left side of the screen).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Albeit at the cost of screen real estate, this does seem like a viable workaround for now. Thanks for sharing.

Ah, the Ascii list... I still have one hanging on the wall behind my monitor, just for nostalgia's sake. (and lazyness, can't be bothered to go to 'edit, insert, symbol, scroll list...' just to get º. )

ShadowLea said:
Ah, the Ascii list... I still have one hanging on the wall behind my monitor, just for nostalgia's sake. (and lazyness, can't be bothered to go to 'edit, insert, symbol, scroll list...' just to get º. )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does come in handy sometimes. That being said, even the ASCII list doesn't work on the dock keyboard, so I'm SOL for now.

I updated the title of the thread so it better covers the content.

Well, for the accented characters you can use AltGR (right alt, but on the dock the only alt) + any of the letters:
ä = q
å = w
á = a
é - e
ü = y
ú = u
í = i
ó = o
ö = p
Sadly, this misses the ë. (Which really is the most accented letter in Dutch. -.- And probably the most hated in schools.)

Well, I just stumbled onto the ALT+SPACA shortcut. That might even be a saving grace for ZoldarVL. WT.... I guess I'm still not through with learning how to operate this thing.
@ShadowLea: the shortcuts you gave above are for the German lay-out, I presume? (They do not work on the English lay-out, obviously, since they never use these accented letters. How sad.)

MartyHulskemper said:
Well, I just stumbled onto the ALT+SPACA shortcut. That might even be a saving grace for ZoldarVL. WT.... I guess I'm still not through with learning how to operate this thing.
@ShadowLea: the shortcuts you gave above are for the German lay-out, I presume? (They do not work on the English lay-out, obviously, since they never use these accented letters. How sad.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Asus Dutch (Holland) Keyboard layout. The éáóúí work on the UK setting, none work on the US setting. (There's a boatload more signs under the dutch altgr combo, these are just the accented keys. Altgr+shift give even more)
And yes, the Alt+Space gives a symbol menu. Did I not mention that? Bugger, I thought I did...

ShadowLea said:
Well, for the accented characters you can use AltGR (right alt, but on the dock the only alt) + any of the letters:
ä = q
å = w
á = a
é - e
ü = y
ú = u
í = i
ó = o
ö = p
Sadly, this misses the ë. (Which really is the most accented letter in Dutch. -.- And probably the most hated in schools.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also the ï is missing. Probably the second most accented letter in Dutch.
I'll try the solutions you guys provided and report back. Much abbliged.

CM physical keyboard layout switch

I'm using great CM10.2 port for Photon Q, but there is a thing that needs patching. If one set up more than one layout for the physical keyboard there is no means to switch them because key combination for layout switch is not user selectable and hard coded to "ctrl-space". There is no "ctrl" key on Photon Q physical qwerty keyboard so its impossible to switch layout. Please repost in mod thread (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2386684), because due to wise "10 posts" rule I can't post in dev threads by myself.

The asanti layouts that are included in CM 10.2 builds by Skrilax's buildbot map OK key to CTRL (and SYM to ALT key).
So OK+space can be used to switch the layouts.
The standard android layouts are not usable on Photon Q keypad because they are meant for the full PC style keyboards.
More asanti layouts for additional languages can be easily added, but someone has to create (or at least suggest) the desired key mapping.

kabaldan said:
More asanti layouts for additional languages can be easily added, but someone has to create (or at least suggest) the desired key mapping.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i would appreciate any links on documentation about how to create layouts with multipress. Unfortunately developer.android.com lacks multipress description (or I didn't found it).

I've originally implemented the multipress feature in CM for Motorola Milestone when I wanted to mimic the Motorola way of support for the Russian keypad on Milestone.
You won't find any documentation about it as it's not an official Android feature.
I'm currently still unsure about the future of the multipress implementation on Photon Q.
Anyway, the multipress function and the additional keyboard layouts are not necessarily directly related.
Please let me know which specific language do you want to support on the Photon Q keypad.
I guess I can help you to achieve what you want but I need to know your exact needs.

kabaldan said:
I've originally implemented the multipress feature in CM for Motorola Milestone when I wanted to mimic the Motorola way of support for the Russian keypad on Milestone.
You won't find any documentation about it as it's not an official Android feature.
I'm currently still unsure about the future of the multipress implementation on Photon Q.
Anyway, the multipress function and the additional keyboard layouts are not necessarily directly related.
Please let me know which specific language do you want to support on the Photon Q keypad.
I guess I can help you to achieve what you want but I need to know your exact needs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I want support for both Ukrainian and Russian layouts on the Photon Q keypad. Attached here is two example layouts I've made.

Zixione said:
Attached here is two example layouts I've made.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Btw those layouts are in format of rukeyboard app. Because of its multipress support.

kabaldan said:
I guess I can help you to achieve what you want but I need to know your exact needs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry to ping you, but can you provide some info about how to proceed?

I would look at this section of the msm8960 tree for an indication of how the other files are built:
https://github.com/razrqcom-dev-tea.../tree/cm-10.2/unofficial/MSM8960Parts/res/raw
I've never done this before (never needed to mess with the language of the keyboard ) but I'd like to learn... looks pretty straightforward. Perhaps I will roll a build for you to test if I make good progress
Edit - OK I need your help... since I don't speak Russian or Ukrainian, I need to know which letters you want mapped where.
In fact, you might be able to do this yourself easier than I can do it for you. Look at that link I posted, and you basically want to make your own .kcm file. I need to know which characters you want mapped to what key - so for example the Croatian keyboard has C mapped to č with \u010d - the UTF8 character code for c with caron, or č.
I hope that makes sense. If you can't figure out how to build the file, perhaps at least find all the utf8 character codes you need, and then tell me which letters they should be associated to on the keyboard. I can do the rest .
I used http://www.utf8-chartable.de to help with the utf8 character codes...

Sorry, I've been too busy.
I've finally moved the alternate Photon Q keyboard layouts to a separate package and to the official CM repo:
https://github.com/CyanogenMod/andr...mmit/7f6a2c6a56aceca8505cfce97c5a2cf77612a791
I'd really like to add a Russian and Ukrainian map, only the lack of free time is holding me back.
Does this hw mapping look feasible?
http://mcgraver.ru/gravirovka_gallery/5-231/big/gravirovka_motorola_droid_4.jpg.jpg

kabaldan said:
Sorry, I've been too busy.
I've finally moved the alternate Photon Q keyboard layouts to a separate package and to the official CM repo:
https://github.com/CyanogenMod/andr...mmit/7f6a2c6a56aceca8505cfce97c5a2cf77612a791
I'd really like to add a Russian and Ukrainian map, only the lack of free time is holding me back.
Does this hw mapping look feasible?
http://mcgraver.ru/gravirovka_gallery/5-231/big/gravirovka_motorola_droid_4.jpg.jpg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Frankly, this is not the best variant. It's looks like layout from Droid 1/2 adapted to larger Photon Q keyboard. And original russian layout from Motorola was heavily criticised for combining frequently used letters and leaving alone some that should be combined. I'm attaching proposed layouts in pdf. I really would like to help, and can recreate them in format that is more convenient to you.

kabaldan said:
The asanti layouts that are included in CM 10.2 builds by Skrilax's buildbot map OK key to CTRL (and SYM to ALT key).
So OK+space can be used to switch the layouts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought it will make sense to map CAPS key to CTRL. Double pressing SHIFT will act as if CAPS has been pressed, so dedicated CAPS key is not essential. Moreover, while pressing and double pressing SHIFT turns on CAPS LED, pressing actual CAPS doesn't.
In case if someone else will like this idea, you can change /system/usr/keylayout/keypad_8960.kl
from
Code:
key 58 CAPS WAKE_DROPPED
to
Code:
key 58 CTRL_LEFT WAKE_DROPPED
Also you can get changed file from attachment and upload to your phone.
kabaldan said:
The standard android layouts are not usable on Photon Q keypad because they are meant for the full PC style keyboards.
More asanti layouts for additional languages can be easily added, but someone has to create (or at least suggest) the desired key mapping.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, even after we make layout switching work, there is a little number of working "asanti" layouts, and no info about how to create more, so physical keyboard is still only partly usable.