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Hey, I'm probably about to smell like noob here but; Is there any way to have the phone actually change input method when rotating? For example, when portrait have swype, but when rotating to landscape, have it automatically change to htc_ime keyboard? I've been searching google for a bit now, but came up empty handed. I understand this would probably lag the rotate a bit, but that doesn't bother me much.
That would be ideal... but no way to do it as of yet.
One can only hope, cross his fingers, or learn how to program I guess XD
rickyzone said:
Hey, I'm probably about to smell like noob here but; Is there any way to have the phone actually change input method when rotating? For example, when portrait have swype, but when rotating to landscape, have it automatically change to htc_ime keyboard? I've been searching google for a bit now, but came up empty handed. I understand this would probably lag the rotate a bit, but that doesn't bother me much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There was a previous discussion about this possibility. The answer is no, it's not possible.
Are you saying that there's NO way to switch input methods through the Android API?
Pretty sure it's a security issue about not lettins apps change keyboards.
Well that sucks, but I guess they know best. I see the security issue, if an app allowed a change in keyboard, they could easily make a key logger app or something. I am a little sad about this though, but a work around would be a keyboard app that in itself switched methods when rotating... I don't know, it's a possibility.
I've tried a lot of different keyboards on my phone and for a while I thought the HTC IME was the best and that's what I used as my primary keyboard, but on my last wipe I was feeling lazy and didn't install it and instead used the stock keyboard for a while and I was amazed at how much better it is!
I make way less errors on the stock keyboard, the key layout seems to make more sense, and the keys do a better job of changing based on context (such as changing the return key to a "Next" key in web forms or smile button in gchat). The HTC keyboard still looks the nicest, and I like that you can long press keys to get numbers and symbols, but I found it very annoying that while you can see the alternate symbols on the keyboard, pressing the alt key causes everything to shift over a key or two. I'm always chasing keys around!
I tried out Froyo for a while and the stock keyboard is getting even better! It shows common punctuation in the suggestion bar after completing a word, and it has a much nicer approach to adding new words to the dictionary. I hated how all my typos ended up getting added to the dictionary with the HTC keyboard.
Anyone else feel the same way?
I too have found the stock keyboard very capable. Especially for how accurate voice input is.
My only wish is that Google would allow you to enter a line break with the stock keyboard when composing an SMS.
I agree. Coming from an iPhone, I have no problems with the keyboard, and Froyo's keyboard is really nice!
Yeah the stock keyboard in Froyo is awesome, I still use Better Keyboard just because I like the look of it better and ive gotten used to the key placement, but stock is definitely awesome, once its themed I may switch to it. I dont use predictive text or anything like that though so those features dont really factor in for me.
I never got why the stock keyboard gets such a bad reputation. I wish you could pick different word choices after you move on from a word, but other than that I like it a lot.
JoshHart said:
Yeah the stock keyboard in Froyo is awesome, I still use Better Keyboard just because I like the look of it better and ive gotten used to the key placement, but stock is definitely awesome, once its themed I may switch to it. I dont use predictive text or anything like that though so those features dont really factor in for me.
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Are you still using Better Keyboard with Froyo? I used it with 2.1, but since upgrading to Froyo, Better Keyboard doesn't seem to auto correct my words and isn't prompting me for alternate words like it used to. I'm uninstalled and reinstalled too and it hasn't made a difference.
I preferred Better Keyboard because of its key placement and the skins, but since I can't get the auto correct to work with Froyo, I haven't been using it.
Also using better keyboard here (on Eclair). Love the long press to get to most symbols. I find it better than the stock 2.1 keyboard.
Here's a good overview of the options out there:
http://www.androidcentral.com/android-centrals-keyboard-roundup
I think the default is some pretty mean beef. I like the customisability of HTC IME, but even a totally stock keyboard seems better. I wish I could extend the space bar so it was massive though, thats the ONLY errors i make.
I don't know if it's the best or not; it's certainly good enough that I haven't had to use any others...
Definetly not as good as the "better keyboard". Multi touch without a delay when using sound and vibration. Something the default keyboard can't do, not even the htc one.
I use the numbered 1-9 keyboard using T9 since its so fast. But I never had a problem with the stock android keyboard. Some say its not good and auto correct doesn't work but I found it works perfectly.
Just fly thru your words, don't even have to hit exact keys, and it gets close to all correct.
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
do yourselves a favor, and download swype.
trust me.
krumb said:
do yourselves a favor, and download swype.
trust me.
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Click to collapse
what he said.
honestly, i almost NEVER use stock anymore after using swype. in fact, i don't even use landscape anymore. all one handed, all fast, all the time.
swype is one of the first things i put onto a fresh flash.
and, when i do want a landscape keyboard, i use htc_ime.
krumb said:
do yourselves a favor, and download swype.
trust me.
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Click to collapse
I used swype for a while and it's pretty awesome. The best part about it is the fact that you can type quickly one-handed. Unfortunately I like to use voice input sometimes and there is no button for that on swype.
Better keyboard looks promising, but I actually haven't tried it. Maybe I will.
I still think that I can type as fast on the stock keyboard as I can with swipe. I find that I seem to spell out words as I type them, and swype forces me to think about the full spelling much earlier and it slows me down from time to time.
Tried stock, didn't like it. Then, SwiftKey, that was pretty awesome but not as good as Swype!
i really like smart keyboard pro. i really dislike having to do extra presses to get symbols :\ why cant the stock keyboard just let you hold and get a symbol?
PrawnPoBoy said:
I used swype for a while and it's pretty awesome. The best part about it is the fact that you can type quickly one-handed. Unfortunately I like to use voice input sometimes and there is no button for that on swype.
Better keyboard looks promising, but I actually haven't tried it. Maybe I will.
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if you have swype, while a text field is up, hit menu>voice. works in handcent, anyway
PrawnPoBoy said:
Anyone else feel the same way?
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Click to collapse
YES
krumb said:
do yourselves a favor, and download swype.
trust me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Disagree. Was just talking about Swype over here
I really like Swype, but there is just one thing that really spoils it for me. Entering words and text is just great. Love the way it works and I find it satisfyingly easy to enter text.
BUT when I have to enter logins into dialog boxes or URLs in an address bar on my N1, everything turns to Sh1t for me. I know you can still peck keys, but I keep finding it adds the wrong characters and symbols. It becomes such a PITA that I have temporarily stopped using Skype and have gone back to stock.
What I would like is a simple gesture like 3 taps of the Swype button to toggle swyping on/off. Then I could temporarily have regular keyboard behaviour for these short periods when I am not entering words.
So for now, I am with the OP. I reckon Stock is best.
logger said:
YES
Disagree. Was just talking about Swype over here
I really like Swype, but there is just one thing that really spoils it for me. Entering words and text is just great. Love the way it works and I find it satisfyingly easy to enter text.
BUT when I have to enter logins into dialog boxes or URLs in an address bar on my N1, everything turns to Sh1t for me. I know you can still peck keys, but I keep finding it adds the wrong characters and symbols. It becomes such a PITA that I have temporarily stopped using Skype and have gone back to stock.
What I would like is a simple gesture like 3 taps of the Swype button to toggle swyping on/off. Then I could temporarily have regular keyboard behaviour for these short periods when I am not entering words.
So for now, I am with the OP. I reckon Stock is best.
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add your username and/or password to the dictionary. swype it.
Just wondering what some other Swype users think of the new gesture typing in 4.2?
I like that it matches the OS aesthetically, and the smoothness of the animation (as well as how it tapers as it fades)... but it doesn't quite stack up.
- I frequently find myself digging for characters I can long press on Swype.
- The gesture keyboard doesn't seem to recognize any gestures for double characters. My last name is Cooke and I I can't type it without getting Coke.
- Swype seems a lot better at giving me corrections for when its first guess is wrong.
- Swype just overall seems more accurate when I'm quickly moving through words.
What do you think? It's at least nice knowing the option is there should Swype ever end the Beta
duraeas said:
Just wondering what some other Swype users think of the new gesture typing in 4.2?
I like that it matches the OS aesthetically, and the smoothness of the animation (as well as how it tapers as it fades)... but it doesn't quite stack up.
- I frequently find myself digging for characters I can long press on Swype.
- The gesture keyboard doesn't seem to recognize any gestures for double characters. My last name is Cooke and I I can't type it without getting Coke.
- Swype seems a lot better at giving me corrections for when its first guess is wrong.
- Swype just overall seems more accurate when I'm quickly moving through words.
What do you think? It's at least nice knowing the option is there should Swype ever end the Beta
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I find myself missing the long-press characters as well, in particular the numbers. I often type passwords with a combination of letters and numbers, and it's a pain having to switch back and forth.
Double characters work fine for me. My understanding is that every word is a prediction when you use gesture typing, and predictions work off of the dictionary. So if the word you're trying to type isn't in the dictionary, then it won't show up correctly. In your case, maybe Cooke isn't a valid word according to Google.
I tried swype and gave up on it it was so innacurate - suggesting words that didn't even make sense.
The 4.2 keyboard has been excellent.. I'm not convinced it's any faster than just typing though.
Shimakaze said:
I find myself missing the long-press characters as well, in particular the numbers. I often type passwords with a combination of letters and numbers, and it's a pain having to switch back and forth.
Double characters work fine for me. My understanding is that every word is a prediction when you use gesture typing, and predictions work off of the dictionary. So if the word you're trying to type isn't in the dictionary, then it won't show up correctly. In your case, maybe Cooke isn't a valid word according to Google.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I love it but it takes practice. I like the new jb version better than swipe..
Just a tip - go into your dictionary and shortcuts to the words that get misspelled.
I also love the voice typing.. If you have not tried it trust me, you will love it.
sent via xda premium with nexus 7
I prefer it too Swype, double characters aren't a problem, in fact I prefer Google's system. No doing a swirl on a character, just let it figure it out for you.
Shimakaze said:
I find myself missing the long-press characters as well, in particular the numbers. I often type passwords with a combination of letters and numbers, and it's a pain having to switch back and forth.
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Click to collapse
You can long-press the top row of letters to get numbers; no need to switch back and forth for alphanumeric passwords.
Also, 16 of the most common symbols are accessible via a long-press on the "." key. The most common one that's not on the main keyboard, ",", is the one that's accessed by just long-pressing "." and releasing it, which I thought was creative and very handy; the remaining ones are accessed by a long-press and then a slide to the one you want. I actually think it will work better than Swype for less-frequently used symbols once I get used to it, since I don't have to search the keyboard to remind myself which key I need to press for the one I want.
I think the gesture keyboard is just about as accurate as Swype in my usage, but I agree that the suggestions for a missed word aren't as good, and two alternatives is clearly not enough.
I don't think the bubble floating along above my finger as I trace adds any utility (for me, at least); I'm usually tracing fast enough that I can't read what it has recognized so far, and it's faster just to finish the word than to slow down to look and see if it has the correct answer yet. For people who trace slowly, though, I guess it would be helpful.
---------- Post added at 01:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:17 PM ----------
Rusty! said:
I prefer it too Swype, double characters aren't a problem, in fact I prefer Google's system. No doing a swirl on a character, just let it figure it out for you.
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The more recent versions of Swype don't require looping on double characters, either, which was one of the things I really hated about earlier versions. In fact, I used other tracing keyboards (SlideIt, FlexT9) instead of Swype until Swype changed.
For me, typing with Swype y far better than using the 4.2 stock keyboard. The word recognition is much accurate. Using 4.2 Keyboard, I find myself retyping several times until the word that I want is recognized.
Cooke is in my dictionary for sure - the predictive nature of the keyboard does at least suggest it to come up after my first name.
Interesting that most of you prefer the 4.2... I'm curious, are you people who tried Swype and didn't like it, or people who have been using Swype as their default for the last year or so. It just might be differences in technique. I do it quite quickly.
Tony - I swipe as quickly as a fast touchscreen typer with 2 hands in landscape. The difference is that I get to do it one-handed in portrait. That, to me, is where the convenience lies.
One other features that I really miss when using Google's: after swiping in a bunch of words, Swype lets you tap on them in the text box and swap to the different suggestions. Google only seems to maintain the most recent.
Edit: Again, I don't mind doubling up on letters. The option to not do it is nice, for sure, but I prefer the accuracy.
The swiping feature on 4.2 looks pretty but I think it's not really there for the phone but rather for tablets. Pecking out words even in portrait on the N10 is unbearable for me. Swiping is the only way I can half way efficiently type out a sentence or post. Maybe if you have spider hands you can peck it out but I have a really hard time with it. I wish they would have just made the keyboard have the ability to split. I know there's other keyboard software out there that can take care of this, but none of them look like the stock keyboard. A minor point, but the stock keyboard look and layout is home to me. The other ones don't seem to mesh with the look of android as well.
duraeas said:
The difference is that I get to do it one-handed in portrait. That, to me, is where the convenience lies.
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Click to collapse
My thumb isn't that coordinated! I trace pretty quickly, but only with the index finger of my right hand while holding the phone with my left. If I tried to do it with my thumb, I'd drop the phone for sure!
duraeas said:
One other features that I really miss when using Google's: after swiping in a bunch of words, Swype lets you tap on them in the text box and swap to the different suggestions. Google only seems to maintain the most recent.
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Click to collapse
The gesture keyboard isn't much worse than Swype in that regard: if you double-tap on a word, you get a "replace" button that gives you a list of suggested alternatives, and nearly always what I intended to type is in that list (YMMV). The main thing I miss about Swype is that it remembers your cursor position: if you double-tap and correct an earlier word, when you're done the cursor goes back to where it was before you double-tapped. I'd really love to have that back (although I'm lazy and probably won't bother to install Swype on my N4; the gesture keyboard is good enough, IMHO).
wmm said:
My thumb isn't that coordinated! I trace pretty quickly, but only with the index finger of my right hand while holding the phone with my left. If I tried to do it with my thumb, I'd drop the phone for sure!
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Click to collapse
You should have your pinkie under the phone so it can't drop
IMO...
I've been using Swype since February or so. I strongly prefer the old Swype. The newer beta that was merged with FlexT9 no longer lets you swipe symbols, which was a killer feature. For example you could swipe from the key that held : as a long-press, and ) as a long-press, and it would give you a smiley as one of the alternatives. You could do this even with symbols that weren't shown as alternatives on the normal keyboard, as long as you added them to the dictionary, so you could do things like <hugs> if you wanted. Swype has so far not implemented anything remotely similar, and neither has Google. In fact, some of it has become even worse with the Google keyboard. Try typing "^^". I use all these emoticons a lot.
So I guess I'd say that I prefer the old Swype most, then the Google keyboard (which seems nicer than the new Swype beta to me), and then the Swype beta. I could never go back to picking out letters one by one. It's a lot more muscle movement and near-impossible to do while walking down a street or something.
That said, unfortunately my Nexus S old Swype APK is for 800x480, so it looks silly on an N4. I was planning to go find an xhdpi version somewhere, but I've been using the Google keyboard, and I'm fond of it just for typing out text. I'd be mostly happy switching to it if it did punctuation.
4.2 keyboard seems more accurate to me. Swype was more inaccurate for my use. Also I like how I can type normally and then gesture type when I want without switching keyboards. Also this is the first iteration of it and its equal to if not better than swype which has been in beta for like 3 years.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
kayateia said:
I'd be mostly happy switching to it if it did punctuation.
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Click to collapse
If you turn off word prediction, the bar at the top displays punctuation.
Assuming that's what you meant, of course.
I love the keyboard. I used Swype for a long time and this feels almost exactly like it except that the keyboard is great for tap typing and swiping. The word prediction has been fine for once I stopped trying to use it like a Swype keyboard and got back into the habit of sweeping again. I still tap a lot when I can use both hands, but for one handed typing its hard to beat swiping.
Sent from my Nexus 4
The only thing i like about swype better is that it would automatically add words to my dictionary. With 4.2 i find the vocabulary a little more limited and and adding words manually is painful. Other than that i find it more accurate and faster, but I'm still on an old galaxy captivate patiently waiting...
TonyHoyle said:
I tried swype and gave up on it it was so innacurate - suggesting words that didn't even make sense.
The 4.2 keyboard has been excellent.. I'm not convinced it's any faster than just typing though.
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I find the exact opposite. I find the stock keyboard to be very inaccurate when using the swype feature. I am using the real swype again now and loving it much more than stock. I guess you get used to one way when you've been using it a long time
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Accuracy is fine - perhaps even better. But "added words" sucks so far. I have to continually add things like "Down8" (my username here & other places), and it never seems to stick.
I'm sure Google's keyboard will improve, but I may end up on Swype until then.
-bZj
down8 said:
Accuracy is fine - perhaps even better. But "added words" sucks so far. I have to continually add things like "Down8" (my username here & other places), and it never seems to stick.
I'm sure Google's keyboard will improve, but I may end up on Swype until then.
-bZj
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're doing it wrong
i find the typing feature in Swype is better in 4.2, when of course I'm not swyping.
I prefer it over the 4.2 keyboard but maybe cause I've been use to Swype for over a year and a half now.
Can anyone recommend a good keyboard case? This is the only one I've been able to find, but it doesn't look very ergonomic, and and I really don't like the style. The strap bugs the heck out of me.
Thanks
Even I had been been looking for a keyboard like this, but couldn't find anything. I really don't think anything like that even exists in the market.
But I've been more than happy with the Continuous Input method of the keyboard which Samsung provides, much faster than typing
Personally, I can't. I just have a foldable bluetooth keyboard that I've had for years now. I got it before a lot of devices had HID bluetooth, but it was around, so I can use it on both. It's a 98 key keyboard. Mind is similar to this: http://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-Wireless-Bluetooth-Folding-Keyboard/dp/B004L9LT2E/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1404699793&sr=8-7&keywords=portable+bluetooth+keyboard, but some brand name I have never heard about.
That said, think about the size of phone, and how big the keyboard would really be. That size keyboard would not be that easy to use and would be cramped just for the basic letters, shift and return keys. Plus, through in the fact you need to put the keyboard on some kind of surface to use, and most people are on the go with their phones, does not make it the most useful thing. Plus, once you get rid or your phone, what are you going to do with case?
Given the limited options, maybe you need to consider when do you really need or want to use the keyboard. How much do you want carry around an extra device. Do you need something that convenient or can you have a keyboard stored your backpack, briefcase, etc.
I DO want the word predictions, suggestions, autocorrect, etc features.
What I absolutely cannot STAND, as well as cannot phantom why they thought it was a good idea, is how the stock keyboard will replace a word you typed correctly with a completely different word it assumed you "meant" to type, even when both words are in it's dictionary. The keyboard options seem to be an all-or-nothing deal from as far as I can tell, either I disable any and all types of correction and prediction features whatsoever, or leave them all on.
Yes, I know there are alternate keyboards, but I prefer the stock one. Is there any way to disable only this feature?
Settings/language and keyboard/Htc sense input/advanced. Its right there at the top it says "Word Prediction",un check the box
drlzanej said:
Settings/language and keyboard/Htc sense input/advanced. Its right there at the top it says "Word Prediction",un check the box
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Click to collapse
I don't think that's the option I am thinking of. I am talking about how it will auto-replace the current word you are typing, even if it is spelled correctly AND in the phone's dictionary, by the word it thinks you MEANT to type. Not offering suggestions to what it thinks you are typing before you are done typing it, or autocorrecting misspelled words.