Related
I though I would start a new thread as my previous thread had a lot of great ideas that have lead to this new version.
Please read the other thread for background on this skin and other versions:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=349647
This layout and skin were developed from many other skins and layouts I have come across or created. Primarily it is based on the iPhone look, but uses similar buttons to the RescoPro keyboard.
You can see all the layout features (pop ups) from the screen shots. I tried to put commonly used characters or key combinations to pop up from the comma, space and period keys.
To install this version, you need to have the latest version of PCM Keyboard (link in my other thread) and you need to select both the Eng 2many layout AND 2many skin, in the settings of PCM Keyboard. A soft reset is sometimes necessary, once you have set both layout and skin for the layout to function.
Looks cool. I like it. Thanks for your work!
Agreed. Looks great.
Nice, I like it.
As I am French, I put my layout... French with many symbols...
Nice! The best iPhone-like keyboard I've seen yet...been waiting for a while to find something like this. Thanks a bunch man!
2manyphones said:
I though I would start a new thread as my previous thread had a lot of great ideas that have lead to this new version.
Please read the other thread for background on this skin and other versions:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=349647
This layout and skin were developed from many other skins and layouts I have come across or created. Primarily it is based on the iPhone look, but uses similar buttons to the RescoPro keyboard.
You can see all the layout features (pop ups) from the screen shots. I tried to put commonly used characters or key combinations to pop up from the comma, space and period keys.
To install this version, you need to have the latest version of PCM Keyboard (link in my other thread) and you need to select both the Eng 2many layout AND 2many skin, in the settings of PCM Keyboard. A soft reset is sometimes necessary, once you have set both layout and skin for the layout to function.
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Click to collapse
Hi:
Looks amazing!
Any chance for a black version?
Thanks!
Awsome.
Do you think, it would be possible to add a "ctrl" button?
(like in ctrl.c...)
nice! this is the best touch keyboard that feels good. thanks. Now i have to find a way how2 make a french canadien layout
2manyphones said:
I though ...... layout and skin for the layout to function.
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Really thanks so much for your sharing......
wow. this is awesome. i was about to give up on the crappy keyboards built in here..
any way to build in a period being inputted when you hit space twice like the iphone?
Thanks
Thank you so much for the work you do......I love the layout
Peace
mike
SCtud said:
wow. this is awesome. i was about to give up on the crappy keyboards built in here..
any way to build in a period being inputted when you hit space twice like the iphone?
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Thanks. Glad you like it.
There is a dedicated period key or if you press and hold the space key you will get a period and a space. I find both of these faster than my iPhone.
2manyphones said:
Thanks. Glad you like it.
There is a dedicated period key or if you press and hold the space key you will get a period and a space. I find both of these faster than my iPhone.
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hey i just installed it on my touch. the keyboard looks and feels awesome. however i dont get the period when i hold on to the space key nor do i get the most commonly used symbols when i hold the comma key. what am i doing wrong?
You have to make sure you set the keyboard skin AND skin for the hold keys to work.
Great skin -- been my most used for a while now. Very easy to hit and it looks great!
This is very, very good. I like using this a lot.
I tried out the iphone the other day in a shop and had a go with the keyboard. There was no trouble hitting the keys but the screen was very hard. I like the "give" on the wm phones. I think this keyboard (esp for the screen size) is actually a bit better than the one on the iPhone.
Well done!
mack said:
hey i just installed it on my touch. the keyboard looks and feels awesome. however i dont get the period when i hold on to the space key nor do i get the most commonly used symbols when i hold the comma key. what am i doing wrong?
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Didn't work for me either until after a soft reset...
You always want to select the skin then change the layout. Even if you end up changing the layout to another one and then back to the one you had selected. A soft reset works to.
This is outstanding work and has made my new HTC Touch Cruise much more enjoyable and efficient to use. Thank you very much!
Can you recommend a good finger friendly task switcher? I'd like to be able to swap between apps with the push of one button. The HTC task switcher requires you to go to the Today screen first and is not finger friendly. I also installed Task Manager. While a great application, it doesn't serve well as just a task switcher. Ideas?
dlipetz said:
This is outstanding work and has made my new HTC Touch Cruise much more enjoyable and efficient to use. Thank you very much!
Can you recommend a good finger friendly task switcher? I'd like to be able to swap between apps with the push of one button. The HTC task switcher requires you to go to the Today screen first and is not finger friendly. I also installed Task Manager. While a great application, it doesn't serve well as just a task switcher. Ideas?
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Click to collapse
You may want to try the HTC enlarged start menu. While not designed as task switcher, if you press the start key it gives you icons for the last five applications you have launched (or have open).
Hi Romuald
yr Fr2many keyboard should be better if you put back the coma key (,) on the left of the space key
is there a soft keyboard out there that has a ".com" key like the iphone? i find that key very useful on the iphone and would make typing a little easier as wm.
thanks
There are skins for PCM Keyboard that have that functionality. Check here: http://pocketcm.com/phorum/list.php?14 for more info.
ultraman69 said:
is there a soft keyboard out there that has a ".com" key like the iphone? i find that key very useful on the iphone and would make typing a little easier as wm.
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
touchpal keyboard has it.
PocketCM keyboard can be configured for lots of different things. On my skin you can have .com / .net / .co.uk aswell link below.
MM
thanks for pointing me to pcm kb guys...
i've been playing with it for a few hours and the first one i tried was max's skin. i love all the stuff you have in it, but it took up too much real estate on my screen, esp. in landscape mode. so after trying out a few more, settled on the smaller htctoucher LIGHT layout for the dream skin which is a bit more compact.
also, i am finding that each time i reboot my wing, it goes back to the default wm keyboard, is there a way to have the pcm my default kb?
thanks again.
try TouchPal
There's a lil program call SIPSelect (I think) that runs during startup that changes your SIP to whichever you want
With Touchpal you can also create personal messages and select them in a second...
It has also what you are searching for...
Touchpal has a button to enter a web site address..
You can push it and you only have to enter the name of the site, "www" and ".com" are automatically written....
is there a link for touchpal? i thought it was just another skin for pcm. i'm going to look into the sipselect thing when i get home tonight.
thanks
You can find TouchPal here:
http://www.cootek.com/
it is by far the best soft keyboard out there.
you can even use gestures to control the size of the keyboard dynamically.
I don't know about you people, but I was so used to the automatic spelling correction of PCM Keyboard, that I found the Manila full querty to be a real step backwards. I also don't like the way the letter pop-up preview is actually covered by the fingers used to press the keys.
The only problem with PCM Keyboard, so far, has been the lack of a good VGA skin for it, so here is a Diamod themed skin I made for version .14 (the latest stable version).
The actual keyboard software is free and can be downloaded here: PCM Keyboard
-------------------------------------------------
Edit: I am also including my own layout, for those interested. You have to place it in the PCM Keyboard folder and select it from the options. here's what it does:
1. holding down the apostrophe brings up accented letters etc.
2. holding down the quote brings up the rest of accented letters etc.
3. holding down the 123 key brings up useful punctuation.
See thumbnails for details.
Looks good... would it be possible for you to post a landscape image?
Thanks.
Drybonz said:
Looks good... would it be possible for you to post a landscape image?
Thanks.
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Crap, I never use landscape mode, and I can't find screen rotation in the Diamond?
edan said:
Crap, I never use landscape mode, and I can't find screen rotation in the Diamond?
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Click to collapse
You could just pop up the keyboard in Opera landscape... or try the new Gyrator2 app that just got released.
Well, I started using your skin and I love it.
I really like the keypad style number layout. Works so much better for me than the qwerty "numbers in a straight line" layout.
Also, this is the best landscape keyboard layout I have seen. I replaced Touchpal because the landscape is not so hot. Now that Gyrator is working on my phone I needed a good landscape keyboard.
I can type so much faster now.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
edan said:
I don't know about you people, but I was so used to the automatic spelling correction of PCM Keyboard, that I found the Manila full querty to be a real step backwards. I also don't like the way the letter pop-up preview is actually covered by the fingers used to press the keys.
The only problem with PCM Keyboard, so far, has been the lack of a good VGA skin for it, so here is a Diamod themed skin I made.
The actual keyboard software is free and can be dowbloaded here: PCM Keyboard
All comments welcome...
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Any chance you can upload DiamondSkin2? Or do i have to edit it myself? How?
Those two thumbnails refer to the same skin. One is simply showing it in an SMS and the other is in Word.
edan said:
Those two thumbnails refer to the same skin. One is simply showing it in an SMS and the other is in Word.
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Click to collapse
Weird cos this is what i'm getting on my Touch Pro. It's missing "," & "."
Just wondering.....any chance you can make the format like those i've attached?
Scann69 said:
Weird cos this is what i'm getting on my Touch Pro. It's missing "," & "."
Just wondering.....any chance you can make the format like those i've attached?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What you are talking about is affected by the keyboard layout file, not the skin. Look in the PCM Keyboard folder on your touch pro and you will see a file like "english.layout" or whatever you chose as your layout.
Open that up in notepad and change the keys to whatever you want. There is a lot of information on the PCM Keyboard site linked in the first post regarding layout customization. The skin will adapt itself to whatever you do with your layout file.
To place the comma and period on the sides of the spacebar as in my thumbnails change your "keyboard_layout_1=" in your file to:
Code:
keyboard_layout_1=qwertyuiop\nasdfghjkl'\n\2zxcvbnm\B\B\n\M\M, .\N\N
very nice !!!
thanks
I decided to include my custom layout. It's English, though it does have a ton of special letters and symbols. The numbers pad is pretty complete as well.
edan said:
What you are talking about is affected by the keyboard layout file, not the skin. Look in the PCM Keyboard folder on your touch pro and you will see a file like "english.layout" or whatever you chose as your layout.
Open that up in notepad and change the keys to whatever you want. There is a lot of information on the PCM Keyboard site linked in the first post regarding layout customization. The skin will adapt itself to whatever you do with your layout file.
To place the comma and period on the sides of the spacebar as in my thumbnails change your "keyboard_layout_1=" in your file to:
Code:
keyboard_layout_1=qwertyuiop\nasdfghjkl'\n\2zxcvbnm\B\B\n\M\M, .\N\N
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for the explaination Managed to get it the way i like it already
Scann69 said:
Thank you so much for the explaination Managed to get it the way i like it already
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Click to collapse
Edan, I am interested in changing the "123" button to "abc" when on the number screen (a technicality, but would look nice). Just wondering if this can be edited in the layout file or if it is theme specific.
Also, have you tried your skin on the .15 version of PCM? I noticed they have more customization options in that version.
Thanks.
Drybonz said:
Edan, I am interested in changing the "123" button to "abc" when on the number screen (a technicality, but would look nice). Just wondering if this can be edited in the layout file or if it is theme specific.
Also, have you tried your skin on the .15 version of PCM? I noticed they have more customization options in that version.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have managed to create a new key with an ABC button. The real problem lies in assigning an action (switch layout to layout 1) in the .ini file.
Almost everything related to customizing version .14 has been removed from the site. So, it's a little hard now... unless we can get some tips from the author.
Version .15 is not even beta stage, and is extremely unstable on the diamond. It's really just a big mess at the moment... not worth the headaches...
edan said:
I have managed to create a new key with an ABC button. The real problem lies in assigning an action (switch layout to layout 1) in the .ini file.
Almost everything related to customizing version .14 has been removed from the site. So, it's a little hard now... unless we can get some tips from the author.
Version .15 is not even beta stage, and is extremely unstable on the diamond. It's really just a big mess at the moment... not worth the headaches...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I noticed they still claim .14 is the stable version but the tutorial is for .15. I wasn't able to get much further than changing a couple symbol keys in the layout file.
Anyway, thanks again for the great skin and please keep us updated if you make any changes.
Drybonz said:
Yeah, I noticed they still claim .14 is the stable version but the tutorial is for .15. I wasn't able to get much further than changing a couple symbol keys in the layout file.
Anyway, thanks again for the great skin and please keep us updated if you make any changes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some problem. After like 2 minutes of use, my diamond crashed (really badly with numerous report error windows popping up). Some of the keys were not showing and some of the keys showed gibberish (some nonsense chinese words) - check out the first screenshot.
I believe it's because of the encoding when the layout files (both English layout and the one OP made) is saved. I tried opening the layout file in notepad and lots of the key assignments were gibberish. So, I tried opening it in Word and found out the original file was saved with Turkish Windows encoding. I opened it in the right encoding (so that all the keys were shown correctly) and then saved it back with unicode encoding. Then I put the revised file back to the PCM folder and it did wonders - check out the second screenshot.
So, an advice. If you find the keyboard is not showing what should be shown. Check out the .layout file that the OP posted and try modifying it and save it with another encoding (can be done in Word but not notepad). For my case (diamond with English ROM), unicode works for me.
I have attached the modified layout file (saved with unicode encoding). You can try this one if the original one doesn't work for you. No guarantee though.
I tried using the Diamond skin but the period and comma buttons are missing on the keyboard? I have to press the "123" to access the symbols keyboard. Can someone help please?
clue11 said:
I tried using the Diamond skin but the period and comma buttons are missing on the keyboard? I have to press the "123" to access the symbols keyboard. Can someone help please?
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Click to collapse
Please read this thread. All the answers are here already.
Oops. completely missed that part. Sorry and thanks for the skin!
Edan, have you considered doing a PCM Contacts skin? VGA ones are hard to come by.
Hi I'm currently using PocketCM Keyboard which is better than the default but a bit frustrating when having to use !&- etc as you have to switch to numbers then to exclamations...
I was wondering if anyone have found a better keyboard (perhaps like the iphone with everything on the one screen) but still takes advantage of the screen size?
JetMouse, you know you can easily customise the layout of PocketCM Keyboard to suit your needs? It's as easy as editing a text file to control which symbols appear on which buttons. Since I did that it's easily become my favourite software on my Touch.
SiliconS said:
JetMouse, you know you can easily customise the layout of PocketCM Keyboard to suit your needs? It's as easy as editing a text file to control which symbols appear on which buttons. Since I did that it's easily become my favourite software on my Touch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I didn't know this - can you run me through how to do it?
JetMouse said:
Hi I'm currently using PocketCM Keyboard which is better than the default but a bit frustrating when having to use !&- etc as you have to switch to numbers then to exclamations...
I was wondering if anyone have found a better keyboard (perhaps like the iphone with everything on the one screen) but still takes advantage of the screen size?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use SPB Keyboard (the new one, version 4.0) with fullscreen mode. The non-fullscreen mode is pretty much iphone-like. Don't know if it's "better" - to my taste the stock one is just perfect in all respects except for lack of support for Russian, which I need. Unlike most other keyboards, it has arrows which compensate the absense of the dpad on the device.
Sure thing:
Connect your PocketPC to your computer so you can browse the contents of the device.
Browse to \Program Files\PCMKeyboard
Copy English.layout (or whichever one you're using) to your computer's desktop
Make a backup of the file, just in case
Open the live file with Notepad
You can see four lines labelled keyboard_layout_#=
Edit the characters in those lines to change the symbols on the keys in PocketCM Keyboard
Each of the four lines contains a complete template for the keyboard. Rows are separated by the \n (newline) combination
There are some shortcuts to create special-purpose keys:
\2 seems to be uppercase
\1 seems to be lowercase
\b is backspace
\M is the symbol/text toggle button
\N is the enter key
There is a way of including smilies or combinations of characters on single keys, but I can't remember how. I also can't remember how to edit the row of quick symbols you see if you hold down the '123#?' button
Once you've made your changes, save the file on your computer and copy it back over to the PocketPC.
You'll need to choose a different softinput thing and then go back to PCM Keyboard to see the changes.
Don't forget to save the file somewhere in case you upgrade to a newer version of PCM Keyboard.
My favourite keyboard is Tengo. Allows very fast and forgiving typing. You might like to try it. I hope it works on Touch HD cos I have not got one to try on yet.
They have a free version, a commercial regular version, and a commercial thumb version.
the best keyboard for me is touchpal from http://www.cootek.com/
so many improvements
prospects said:
the best keyboard for me is touchpal from http://www.cootek.com/
so many improvements
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is it compatible with the TOUCH HD
Touchpal
I think Touchpal is the best.
iznee said:
is it compatible with the TOUCH HD
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Click to collapse
I just tested it, yes it is 100% compatible.
I love this keyboard, but I am trying to get it to run using the Dutch language. It is so blazing fast and accurate in English using the suretype layout, it's not even funny. I SWEAR I cannot type faster using a hardware keyboard, simply because of the fact that it is just as accurate, has big enough keys to type blind, and you don't actually have to depress a button so... works for me
Still stuck with the trial version though...
Only thing that I still gotta get used to is switching keyboards using a finger slide, I just keep pressing buttons instead of triggering the slide really cool function though as it saves button space and basically is just cool to show people
Thanks for the tip people!
EDIT:
Got my own language it in it now, easy... Also really easy to switch languages... Just pull down the ABC key and pick one. This does reveal some non-skinned ugly winmo buttons though, even while the rest of the keyboard is Diamond skinned.
wfhowell said:
I think Touchpal is the best.
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Completely Agree, it is very usefull, Fast and easy to use Keyboard
TouchPal
I would at least try the demo of this. I personally prefer TouchPal to a Blackberry hardware keyboard. I am serious. The seplling correction and word prediction is simply amazing. Completely altered my view of software keyboards.
BTW- I am 6' 2" and weigh 220 with BIG hands, and Have been happy with TouchPal since the first Touch.
Hi All,
I am sure I am not the only one to find that the keyboard SIP on the X1 is too small.
Can anyone recommend a larger keyboard to work in verticle mode ? I am hopping to be able to use my fingers to do the typing instead of pulling the stylus out everytime. Something like the size of the Iphone keyboard or the Samsung Omnia keyboard would be perfect. I also like the short "vibrate" feedback feel when you type. Anyone feeling the same ?
Here...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=441439
Additionally to the probably not quite legal copy of the HD's keyboard, there'd be also solutions like PCM keyboard (VGA skin required!), TouchPal, SPB Keyboard, and so on...
Mort said:
Additionally to the probably not quite legal copy of the HD's keyboard, there'd be also solutions like PCM keyboard (VGA skin required!), TouchPal, SPB Keyboard, and so on...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you try PCM Keyboard then you must not choose VGA but WVGA skin
FingerKeyboard2. It's amazing and should probably be on every touchscreen phone in the world.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/sho...um.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=487677
The letters on the diamond keyboard i installed used to be in bold, now they look thin and ugly after a soft reset for some reason, how to change it back?
THESpideyWVU said:
FingerKeyboard2. It's amazing and should probably be on every touchscreen phone in the world.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/sho...um.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=487677
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Click to collapse
I agree. Better than the new SE keyboard if you don't use XT9.
I second that. FingerKeyboard is the best by far. Lots of different layout are already available, but it takes you a few minutes to customize it the way you like it.
Jabe said:
I second that. FingerKeyboard is the best by far. Lots of different layout are already available, but it takes you a few minutes to customize it the way you like it.
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Thirded, ignore all other suggestions, they really don't come close to Fingerkeyboard 2
I am looking for keyboard with normal phone keypad instead of the QWERTY or Full QWERTY keyboard?
Any besides the Touch HD Keyboard and original X1 ROM R3A keyboard?
Any reason this 5-month old thread got ressurrected?