Database Users

How do I change my keyboard?

Hello,
I've been struggling with my keyboard settings since I got my Touch HD. At first, it was a complete QWERTY keyboard. I wanted to change it to a normal keyboard, like on a regular cellphone. I didn't know how to do this. But suddenly, without knowing what the hell I was doing, I accidentally got the keyboard to change. But now my problem is... Well, you know the layout is as such:
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
Shift 0 Symbol
...I have two problems with this. The first is: I can't type any letters, even if I hold the keys down, so basically, I can't text message to anyone. The second problem is that I have no idea how to change it back. If you could just tell me how to change keyboards, AND how to make the regular cellphone keyboard layout WORK (I have chubby fingers), I'd be really, really grateful.
Thank you for your time.
EDIT:
Oh. I see. How irritating. How am I supposed to know that there are actually two buttons in the center button? Oh well. This still doesn't change my ABC / Numeric problem.

Hi Alfa Jez
Assuming that you have not tweaked your phone in anyway.
There are two ways to change the keyboard settings on your phone.
First, is to go to Settings and within settings your Windows menu option (press window flag top left hand corner of the screen, settings is the second from bottom menu item) and then it gives the option of "Input" showing a keyboard and from there it gives you the option to set your "Input Method" as well as other options on word completion etc.
Secondly, you should be able to change the input settings directly from the middle bottom of your screen once your virtual keyboard has been activated. There is a little up arrow which if you press should give you the option of "Touch Input Settings".
Hope this helps. This information is in the manual.
Best wishes
Kaid

Thank you for taking the time to reply, but I'm afraid this doesn't help me. What you've told me so far, I already know.
Although, I have tweaked my phone with HD Tweak. But no big changes at all.

What does your keyboard look like right now?
Are you stuck on a number-only pad or symbols-only pad or do you see letters on the keys?
Here are some pictures. Tell us which one is the one you have right now.
You should be able to switch through these pads via Sym, 123, ABC keys in the different keypads. You also see that the symbols keypad has 13 different pads to scroll through and it can be "locked" (lock key). That causes it to stay there after pressing different keys. When unlocked, it automatically goes to the normal letters/numbers pad after you have entered one symbol.

Well, my problem is that, even though I have the one with the letters, (of course, it's needed to type letters) I can only type numbers. If you see my problem. I can see the letters and the number, but it seems only to want to use the numbers. Even if I hold the keys down, no letters appear.

Hmm, if you what you have is the second picture above and yet you can only type numbers, then I don't really know what to do. On that screen I only get the numbers if I tap and hold for a second. A quick tap gets me the letters.
Maybe someone else might know what is wrong there.
Did this start recently or have you always had that problem on your HD? Or did it start after you installed a certain program or made some kind of registry change?

Alpha Jez said:
Thank you for taking the time to reply, but I'm afraid this doesn't help me. What you've told me so far, I already know.
Although, I have tweaked my phone with HD Tweak. But no big changes at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suppose you turned on T9 in HD tweak? If so, turn it off, then soft reset. This problem is being brought up on an almost daily basis.......

michi123 said:
I suppose you turned on T9 in HD tweak? If so, turn it off, then soft reset. This problem is being brought up on an almost daily basis.......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did turn it on, yes. But I read other people having the same problem, and they were also told to turn off T9, so I tried that as well. Haven't tried soft resetting, though. (Soft resetting = Turn off, and back on, right? ) Will do!
EDIT:
After soft resetting, it worked! Thanks to both of you, I'm jumpin' up and down as we speak. ^^

Glad it worked. Just a word of caution: as you don´t seem too familiar with windows mobile (soft reset is one of the most used word/actions as it´s still windows...) just be careful when using different kinds of tweaks (HD tweak, advanced config) or modifying the registry directly. Don´t just change/turn on/off something because it sounds good. If you don´t know what you are doing it can mess up your device real bad......
Been there, done that......

I'll be cautious, and try to control my curiosity. ^^

Are you still jumping up and down? Or has the excitement worn off?
I'm glad it works now.

Keyboard - Are you happy?

Hi All,
I've tried for the past several days to find any word on what it's like typing on the TD2/Pure keyboard and cannot seem to find anything substantial. I like the look and feel of the phone and think I want one. However, I need to know from someone who has had one for a while what it's like typing on it daily. Speaking for me, I've got short stubby fingers and thumbs. Is that a problem? Will I end up using the stylus most of the time?
Also in the store, the keyboard wouldn't switch to landscape in anything other than the messaging applications. When I tried to use it in Word, it stayed in portrait mode.
Thanks in advance.

I've had my Pure for 3 days. I been using the Fuze for the past year. It's taking a little while to get use to the on-screen keyboard. I too have fat fingers. A friend of mine just bought a Sprint Hero. I really like the on-screen keyboard that comes with it. If I can find a similiar one for the Pure I'll be a lot happier. In the meantime I'll keep using the stylus when I need to type quickly and accurately.

had my Topaz since may 7th, many texts every day and its good Not as fast as a physical keypad, and you cant touche type well with it ofc. BUT, it is easy. It has auto correction built in, so you almost always get the right words. I run mine atm in Phone keypad mode, (2abc 3def etc) because the keys are bigger, altho the full Qwerty is also good
Also i by no means have small hands and i almost never use the stylus ;P

I got fat fingers as well and no nails. (I bite) and I can say I type really quick on the keyboad. I would type quick on the original HTC Touch aswell and that screen sucked. What I've noticted is that people use the tip and or pad of their thumb which blocks the screen. I type and use the phone by using the inner top edge of my thumbs. I get a bettr view of the screen and can type very accurtate in portrait view. I use both thumbs when typing aswell.
Oh and this is on the qwerty keyboard. People are surprised at how fast I can type on it. Way faster than using a normal keyboard. (1-9) I would a like to sugest to try out the 20key qwerty if you are having problems with the full qwrety. type a blackberry.

This is the first device I've used that didn't have actual keys, and for the first couple of hours, I got frustrated and resorted to the stylus. However, after another couple of hours making a good attempt to get used to the keyboard, I did, and my accuracy and speed are both pretty good now.

I use Fingerkeyboard and I am very happy. Of course it was better on my blackstone than on my topaz due to the bigger screen, but I found that I can type faster on this on-screen keyboard than I could on the physical keyboard of the xperia... On-screen keyboards are more sensitive IMO.

Well - After everything I had read and studied, I made the leap yesterday and purchased the Pure. It was a bit awkward at first and the typing was pretty much hit and miss. After burning through a few emails and texts, I think I've got the hang of it. It does seem that part of my problem is the screen calibration is a bit off. I figured this out by using the stylus in the contact list and if I hit the "T", the "S" list came up. The typing was easier than I expected but it's amazing how much screen real estate the keyboard takes up in landscape mode.
Thanks for all the replies.

Yeah you can recallibrate in the settings, will help Glad you got one.

I love it!
Here's a tip... Instead of pecking at the letters, if you hold your finger on the letter for just a tad longer, it will "popup" the letter. Got the wrong one, just roll your finger a little until the right one comes up.
You don't have much time to do this, but it's very easy to get used to!

OracleBlue said:
Well - After everything I had read and studied, I made the leap yesterday and purchased the Pure. It was a bit awkward at first and the typing was pretty much hit and miss. After burning through a few emails and texts, I think I've got the hang of it. It does seem that part of my problem is the screen calibration is a bit off. I figured this out by using the stylus in the contact list and if I hit the "T", the "S" list came up. The typing was easier than I expected but it's amazing how much screen real estate the keyboard takes up in landscape mode.
Thanks for all the replies.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's strange that it's off like that. My Topaz came precalibrated just fine. Go to Settings in Touchflo then Menu>All Settings>System>Screen and you should be able to re-calibrate. If its like the original TD2 it you won't be able to re-calibrate unless you flash a cooked ROM.
Do you use both thumbs or one hand and one finger to type. Both thumbs work grand for me.

The keyboard itself is wonderful, nice layout and everything. But sometimes even if I press kinda hard the key I pressed don't show up which means I always have to press kinda hard to be sure to get the key I pressed.

Does anybody have the 20 key keyboard .cab? I might give it a go again. Can't seem to find it...

ArtieQ said:
The keyboard itself is wonderful, nice layout and everything. But sometimes even if I press kinda hard the key I pressed don't show up which means I always have to press kinda hard to be sure to get the key I pressed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hold they key on the screen it should pop up the letter to verify. Maybe that's a euro td2 vs usa pure thing?
My unlocked diamond did this out of the box, so hmmm.

syntrix said:
Hold they key on the screen it should pop up the letter to verify. Maybe that's a euro td2 vs usa pure thing?
My unlocked diamond did this out of the box, so hmmm.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe I confused you a little, I mean when I press on the screen nothing happens which means I have to press harder than I want to. It might be the TD2 screen itself because if you press on it you can feel that goofy thing, it's like some plastic glass instead of real glass (like on Diamond).

I gotcha.
I have a diamond too, and the screen seems just the same.
I have noticed that the actual LCD is sunk a little more down on the TD2 over the TD.
I actually welcome this as there's less glare and better readability of the screen.

try cliquick keyboard its the largest i can find lol

Keyboard Configuration

I'm trying to understand why during sms or email typing I do a lot of typing errors. I saw that so many times I touch the keys on the on screen keyboard in the right place but I release it in the wrong one. So I can see there is a little movement of my hand and thinger that causes keyboard misunderstanding.
I tried a lot of tweaks but what I wantto try now is the possibility to configure the oem htc on screen keyboard to accept keys on press and not on release.
Can anyone help me finding registry tweaks about?
thank you!

Bisis said:
I'm trying to understand why during sms or email typing I do a lot of typing errors. I saw that so many times I touch the keys on the on screen keyboard in the right place but I release it in the wrong one. So I can see there is a little movement of my hand and thinger that causes keyboard misunderstanding.
I tried a lot of tweaks but what I wantto try now is the possibility to configure the oem htc on screen keyboard to accept keys on press and not on release.
Can anyone help me finding registry tweaks about?
thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It needs to accept on release because a long press has a different effect to a short one.
I know what you're saying, and I sympathize. I had problems at first, but I simply changed my typing style to suit the screen and now I'm very fast, and only make as many mistakes as I would on a real keyboard. Just get used to hitting the keyboard and lifting your finger, without moving it on the screen. It works - you just have to get used to it. It doesn't take long

johncmolyneux said:
It needs to accept on release because a long press has a different effect to a short one.
I know what you're saying, and I sympathize. I had problems at first, but I simply changed my typing style to suit the screen and now I'm very fast, and only make as many mistakes as I would on a real keyboard. Just get used to hitting the keyboard and lifting your finger, without moving it on the screen. It works - you just have to get used to it. It doesn't take long
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I know this. But testing can be a good starting point.
I can also imagine that a "new keyboard" can accept keyboard on press and change pressed keys if I don't move my finger for a long time. If I don't remember bad I already saw a keyboard that works in this way... if I press a key it writes the key, then if I don't remove the finger from that key it changes the pressed key with the additional one.
So, there is not any way to change working way?

I think the thing is that if you can't get used to the HTC keyboard, just use another SIP if a good one is available, or wait until someone makes a new one...
The one in opera mini beta 5 seems good, would be great ig they could make a similar one system-wide...

kilrah said:
I think the thing is that if you can't get used to the HTC keyboard, just use another SIP if a good one is available, or wait until someone makes a new one...
The one in opera mini beta 5 seems good, would be great ig they could make a similar one system-wide...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, there's plenty of alternative ones out there. Fingerkeyboard, for example, seems very popular.

johncmolyneux said:
Yeah, there's plenty of alternative ones out there. Fingerkeyboard, for example, seems very popular.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used FingerKeyboard a lot with Blackstone but with Leo I don't like it so much... I prefer to have bigger keys and HTC sense integration with the original keyboard.
The problem to change keyboard is also this one.. you can loose some integrations.
So all of you can confirm me that original keyboard is not modificable? So there are not registry configurations?

is there any help for my request?

Hit instead of release !
I do agree with you. I have tried the keyboard on the iPhone a lot, and I don't think anyone would disagree that it is much better. And the only difference is like you say that the iPhone registers where you hit the screen, instead of where you release the screen. Fast typing means you have to move your finger sideways all the time. Can it be so hard to make a keyboard that registers hit instead of release ?
Have tried several keyboards to the LEO, including Fingerkeyoard, but they all seem to have the same problem when used on the LEO.
It's a shame since the rest of the phone is genious. Let us hope someone who is capable of modifying or rewrite a complete keyboard take the challenge.

I'm asking this just from when I was using Blackstone but it seems that developers don't like to make keyboard sensible to press and not release.
Please help us!

Love my HD2 but my fingers are too big for it? :S

Hi Guys,
Just got my HTC HD2 last night on O2 Ireland (Silent release yesterday),
Love the phone but one thing that is really annoying me is the onscreen keyboard, the qwerty and compact qwerty are useless to me, even in landscape mode, but I can use the numeric keypad one although I often have the odd mistake here unless I type really slow and think about it.
Basically what normally happens is as I have quite big fingers, sometimes I tough most of the key I want and a small amount of the key underneath, which is really irritating me as it's taking me 10x longer to send a message than it does on my N95 8GB.
I love the phone but the slow text entry really is making me stick with the N95 8GB right now. I was wondering if anyone had any advice? I wish I could have some nice bigger keypad like when you put the pin in when you turn the phone on and that would be much easier for me!
Is there any way I can use or install any other text input options, or what about bluetooth keypads (Keyboards not really acceptable as they're too big but a keypad could work)
Cheers for any advice

Dear JustinJJ,
I had the same problem, until I relaised I had a hardware screen problem. There are a number of tests you can do to find out if you have a hardware problem.
Just have a look on the forum.
Regards and best wishes with your typing.
Oh, just to let you know, I am on my third HD2 in less than a month, and this is the first time I can type the A-Z without making a mistake. So it was hardware not my fingers.
ADC (Yateley, UK)

Try another keyboard, like Swype?
It needs lots of practice, especially when you were using phone with keypad in the past.

I was going to try Swype over the weekend and see how that goes, it looks quite good but I have doubts because of the much smaller key size which makes me worry a little bit.
I've already tried to recalibrate the screen which helped a little bit, but it's still nowhere near as nice as typing with an actual phone keypad.
It really annoys me as I love the phone so much for everything else apart from text entry!

Practice makes perfect seriously though, it just takes a bit of time to get used to it. Back in December someone made a handy little programme - I think it's called touch mark - which plots where you touch the screen and compares it to where you should be touching the screen, quite handy to "retrain" your finger/eye coordination... will go see if I can find the link to it.
Edit: found it http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=594158&highlight=touchmark

going from resistive to capacitive screen is a big jump; you WILL make a lot of mistakes on the "fat finger" phenomenon, but eventually you will get better (right now i can type faster and with better accuracy on the iphone screen than my X1a keyboard )

Isadora said:
Practice makes perfect seriously though, it just takes a bit of time to get used to it. Back in December someone made a handy little programme - I think it's called touch mark - which plots where you touch the screen and compares it to where you should be touching the screen, quite handy to "retrain" your finger/eye coordination... will go see if I can find the link to it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed,
Touch mark can be quite helpfull to retrain your touching skills
Grtz,
Degake

I use swype and it's mostly great (using it now, in fact) quite surprising how inaccurate you can be with it and it still gets it right.
regarding the capacitive screen in general, the angle of your finger can make all the difference, the pad being recognized much more accurately than the tip/edge, and even the temperature.... cold dry skin = jumpy detection.
I also found that no matter how much I align the screen, for best results my aim must always be slightly up and left if where I'm aiming....not much, just a bit.

I used Cootek touchpal on my HTC HD. I use the predicitive text feature with the 3 letters in each box. It does a hell of a job predicting my words. I find that it types faster than when I was on my blackberry. As in all things new you have to train yourself on it and eventually it becomes natural.
The only typing I never wanted to master was the number pad t9 crap. I got so fed up with it I didn't use it went to blackberry...

I went from a SE W910i with a physical numpad to the HD2 and the first week typing on the HD2 was torture, I dreaded typing a simple "On my way" SMS and kept everything as short as possible. After a week or two I started understanding how it works and started retraining myself in regards to hitting the right key. A few things I noticed are that you don't press the key like you would on a physical keyboard so you need a much "lighter" touch and try to just tap the screen with the tip of your finger. Patience is one of your biggest friends when learning to type and I've sat down with my HD2 for dedicated sessions on typing and have learnt a lot. I also avoid using my thumbs as they are too wide and flat and tend to not hit the keys I want, I usually hold the phone in one hand and "type" with the index finger of the other hand. Now I can type as fast as I would on a normal numpad keyboard but not as fast as I could with my G1.
I've owned a N95 and found the keys were too small and I usually hit more than one at a time which was most annoying. So I don't think your fingers are too big.
I've never tried any other keyboard program but Swype looks like it could be loads of fun as well as more accurate. So give it a week or two to get used to typing and if you still have problems then you may have a faulty screen.

i also use touchpal as it has a great auto correction. first i used the three letters in one box, but now i'm learning full qwertz to be more flexible.
never tried swype but this and touchpal seems to be the most famous osk's around.
a good way for me to reduce the sensitivity and also reduce errors is to apply a screen protector. i got one from - i think e-cell, which was recommended by a lot of users here at devs.

Tried swype, that was awful, partly because my fingers were too big and partly because I had to think about the letters and stop when moving my finger which messed the word generation up.
Tried Touchpal and found that a little better than the built in keyboard in keypad mode but the fact they moved the space to the right of the 9 key really messed it up for me, if they had it underneath it would be perfect but it really messes me up right now and the key after hitting it I always end up hitting wrong.
Then I tried Cliquick! I was in love straight away with it's huge keys this is the only editor I can type accurately with, and not make any mistakes by accidentally pressing the wrong keys. The only problem was this has no predictive text or no standard hardware style keypad mode so it is a little slow having to use multi-tap and an unfamiliar layout, but least it's accurate and less frustrating even if it is slow.
Does anyone know if they plan to release a predictive text add in or perhaps a standard keypad layour, or is there any plug-ins I can use to achieve the same effect.

So it isn't just ME...
samsamuel said:
...I also found that no matter how much I align the screen, for best results my aim must always be slightly up and left if where I'm aiming....not much, just a bit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's funny. I thought it was just ME. I realigned the screen and picked spots slightly BELOW the X.
Works great now when I actually click ON the icons...

Reduce screen sensitivity

I already have a cab installed that tweaks/ reduces the HD2's screen sensitivity to make typing a bit easier but this is till not good enough.
Typing on the HD2's keyboard is a nightmare as at the slightest touch, it presses unwanted keys as well as neighboring ones, sometimes more than one.
Is there a way to further reduce the screen sensitivity maybe via the registry and/or also to apply a touch input delay?
Thanks very much in advance for the advice!

Yes I am still finding the typing experience a bit of a pain. I hate to say it but it's nowhere near as good as typing on one of those funny Apple touchscreen phones......

adaduk said:
Yes I am still finding the typing experience a bit of a pain. I hate to say it but it's nowhere near as good as typing on one of those funny Apple touchscreen phones......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeap, exactly... the funny Apple touchscreen phones (I have one that I dislike immensely) feature a smaller screen and also smaller/even more crapped-up keyboard, BUT, I type much better there with a fraction of the mistakes i make on the HD2. Why is that? There has got to be a solution... it almost just feels the HD2 is just too fast.. before you want to key in anything, at the slightest touch, you already did!!!!

try out the suggestion from post #3:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=5786191#post5786191

CRO_Misho said:
try out the suggestion from post #3:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=5786191#post5786191
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried that one a while ago, I ran the screen alignment util whilst holding the phone portrait in my left hand whilst touching the screen with the right index finger. Still not as problem free as typing on the smaller apple screen....

ive tested both the bsbtweaks 'decrease screen sensitivity' tweak, and the stand alone sensitivity tweak in the hints and tips thread, and (certainly for use with swype) the bsbtweaks one does a better job.

samsamuel said:
ive tested both the bsbtweaks 'decrease screen sensitivity' tweak, and the stand alone sensitivity tweak in the hints and tips thread, and (certainly for use with swype) the bsbtweaks one does a better job.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about the tap time tweak in bsb tweaks? I thought that would apply more to the keyboard it self.

MobileWon said:
What about the tap time tweak in bsb tweaks? I thought that would apply more to the keyboard it self.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
never used it, it messes with teh buttons on teh incall screen. makes them unpressable.

samsamuel said:
never used it, it messes with teh buttons on teh incall screen. makes them unpressable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the response. I like my screen sensitivity as it is presently. Is there any cabs or tweaks specific to the keyboard only as far as decrease sensitivity?