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alright. so i have noticed that there are many different keyboard styles, features, and fuctionalities.
but there is one huge thing missing. and it took me until right now to figure out what it was.
we are missing personalization and versatility.
i am on a mission to create the best onscreen keyboard that xda has ever seen.
obviously i cannot do this alone.
i am great at graphics and anamations but programming isnt exactly my strong point. so ifanyone and i mean anyone is intrested in this project, definitly post here..and also a pm. to me would be greatly appreciated.
i have high hopes for this project and i hope everyone else does too.
you can also post here if there are options/features that you look for in an on screen keyboard.
or you can just wish us luck!
thanks everyone =)
What I would like to see:
A combination between the finger-usable PCM Keyboard,
and the gestures of the WM5-keyboard
Something like TouchPal from CooTek but taking up a little less screen realestate would be amazing.Wish i could help with the coding, but I've only taken one class of c++ and I know I wouldn't be any help. Good luck with this project, sounds really cool.
I think a 1/2 screen finger-friendly qwerty is ideal. One that has basic punctuation keys (Period, comma, exclamation, question) on the primary input screen.
Unfortunately, I don't have skills/time to work on initial development, but very willing to test as I am in search of the best on screen keyboard and I can provide experienced and thorough feedback.
PPC6800- Titan
WM6 2.17.651
Radio 1.47.01
I suggest the main keyboard window to be one or two lines with option and buttons which show the main keyboard layouts with tap and hold to navigate to the desired letter. So the layout window that can be semi transparent to allow see what you write not need to be all the time on screen and covers a big part of her. Hope you understand what I mean cause my english are not so good.
brilliant idea
text assigneable keys, as in assigning '[email protected]' so it can be called at any time, and other assignable texts. I like the touchpal keyboard, but it does take up too much space and there is a lot going on. Resco just updated their's and I am not sure I like the new one, it is very much like the pocketcm keyboard, so why pay $19 for resco's??? I can't program, but will help in usability testing, so count me in if you think I can help the project. Good luck.
It's clear that there will be as many different visions of a "perfect keyboard" as there are people posting here. What is worst, there'll be many conflicting ones: "can the keys be bigger?", "the keys should be smaller", "i need one more page with numbers only", "who the hell needs a page with numbers only, it's a waste of memory", etc...
So i'd say that what a program with such ambitions would need the most is full customizability. Here's a roundup of features i'd like to see:
-key layout customizable trough an xml file.
-multiple pages switched by button actions (tap, hold, gesture) so we can have one default page, one with numbers, one with national symbols, etc.
-gestures, but not only right/left/up/down, like in default keyboard, but also diagonal, and ability to use a key from a different page upon a gesture, eg. when you press a letter and drag in bottom right direction, you'll get a lowercase national (like accented one) character, if you drag in top-right direction, you'll get an uppercase one.
-dynamic key binding: you copy a text to the clipboard, and with a certain key combination (set in the config file) you can bind it to some unoccupied space left for that purpose (you could use it for single letters/symbols, e-mail addresses, or even a bit longer texts - say up to 256 characters).
-did i mention customizability?
I guess that these features would be a good starting point and more functions could be added on the way.
So in short, my vision of the perfect keyboard would be actually just a framework, a tool, enabling the users to experiment with different layouts and functions and create their own perfect keyboard. And the XML config file plus additional graphics would be the keyboard itself. It would be for text input what BatteryStatus is for Today screen plugins.
Example config could look a bit like this:
Code:
<Keyboard name="example">
<Page name="Default" background="image.png" height="200">
<Row>
<Key name="A" image="key_normal.png" image_pressed="key_pressed.png" caption="A">
<Press action="typeText" argument="a"
<DragR action="specialKey" argument="Space" />
<DragBR action="overrideCaption" argument="ą" action="typeText" argument="ą" />
(...)
</Key>
(...)
</Row>
(...)
</Page>
(...)
</Keyboard>
Available key gestures could be tap, hold, double tap, drag - sideways, up and down, diagonally. Actions could be something like type text, override caption (replaces default key caption until the key released, so that you can see what you're typing), permanently change page to a defined one, change page to a different one for one keypress (like the shift does i the default keyboard), cycle pages, etc. Each key could trigger multiple actions - so it could type some text, and then change page to a different one (example - you have a page with large assignable buttons, so you can bing something like an e-mail address there. When you press that key and the address is typed, the keyboard will return to its default page).
Anyway, that's just my 2 cents. Good luck with the project, whatever direction it goes in.
I have tried a couple of keyboards but im always end up uninstalling them and end up with the standard keyboard. I was hoping to find one with larger letters but not in a phone format. Any Suggestions
POST IN ERROR; WRONG THREAD
here...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2332129&postcount=4
Resco is my favorite, using oem keyboard,no way man.
im using pocketcm keyboard 0.14 with MM skin. large buttons and customizable and extra function if you hold any letter. pretty cool
spb
i like the SPB keyboard if you use it then........you will know what im talking about if u install it
First and LAST warning laccattacc...This is not a warez site. That means no reg keys or key generators are allowed. Understand? Next occurance will be dealt move harshly!!
nice keyboard here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=2526683
I use Pocket CM Keyboard. It is fully skinnable and there are a large variety of skins to choose from. I also use SIP Change to make it my default keyboard on startup.
Regards,
Devin
Am I the only who took a huge step back in terms of the quality of word completion prediction when I upgraded from 1.6 to 2.1? I had used the default keyboard on 1.6 and I'm talking about the default keyboard on 2.1 now. On 1.6, text prediction was brilliant. On 2.1, it's like a joke.
Here are some of the things that used to happen on 1.6:
1) When I hit, say, the letter "T" as the beginning of a new word, the list of suggestions I got looked something like this:
to
today
tomorrow
through
time
So, with the most common words, I could simply type a single letter and pick the word from the suggestion list, in most cases.
2) Recently used words were aggresively brought to the beginning of the suggestion list. For example, if I'm entering a couple of repetitions of a phrase like "parametric equalization" into a list, after typing the first instance in its entirety, on the second instance, when I hit the "P" key, the word "parametric" would be the first item on the suggestion list. After picking that suggestion, as soon as I typed an "E" for the beginning of the second word, "equalization" would be the first item in the suggestion list.
3)There were two rows of suggested words available. (At least, it was an option I could pick.)
After upgrading to 2.1, none of that is true! Here's what now happens with the default keyboard on 2.1:
1) When I hit the letter "T", here is the entire list of suggestions I see:
t
r
f
g
y
Is this a joke? Where are my full word suggestions? Where are the suggestions of the "T-words" that I've just typed in the preceding sentence? These are not "word completion suggestions"! There's no "completion" to speak of here. These are T9 input options. Is someone asleep at the wheel?
2) I no longer see a way of enabling two rows of suggestions to be displayed. Did I do something wrong in order to cause it to be taken away? Was I bad boy?
3) When I set "Spelling correction" to "off", I lose completion suggestions altogether. What? Since when do "spelling correction" and "word completion" mean the same thing?
So, am I missing something? I didn't see many complaints voiced on this forum about these issues. Am I the only one bothered by these?
I know that a common suggestion such complaints is to switch to using another keyboard such as the HTC_IME. I've tried it. That one behaves almost identically to the default 2.1 keyboard, in terms of the issues I explained above. The sole improvement it provides is that it's slightly more inclined to include longer words in the suggestion list than the default, but only after you type the third letter or so. Not the same thing as what I had in 1.6. Not good enough.
And, by the way, in my case, there doesn't seem to be a way of eliminating spelling correction on the HTC_IME keyboard. I turned off all spelling correction options that I could find. When I type "for", I want only words that start with for- to be shown on my suggestion list. Instead, here are the suggestions that I get for "for" with all spelling correction options turned off:
for
got
god
cor
fir
foe
In what universe are those "not" spelling corrections?
Oh and, by the way, thanks for the brilliant idea of wasting the space for one suggestion (the most likely one, actually) by presenting what I have typed myself in the first place. It's not like I could have just hit Space and continued if that were in fact what I meant to type. Which Nobel laureate came up with that one?
Does anyone know of a third-party keyboard that behaves in the way I explained in the "used to" list above? I looked through a few of them, but the details of the behavior to this extent is usually something not covered in the feature lists shown for these or covered in reviews.
I use the Japanese IME for English, while not ideal, works exactly like the 1.6 English keyboard did, in terms of prediction.
Then again, sometimes I need to type in Japanese, so using the Japanese IME works for me.
You may want to try swiftkey
I'm finding exactly the same thing. Surely there must be a way of changing this?
I've tried all the options and, like you said, if you turn off spelling correction, everything turns off. Bit pants really.
Sent from my X10i using XDA App
I spent a good chunk of my weekend "upgrading" to 2.1 and found this as well. Guney, it's like you're inside my head, although far more polite than I was when I saw the new keyboard!
Will try the above suggestions and see how I go.
It's good to hear that I'm not alone with these complaints.
iead1 said:
I use the Japanese IME for English, while not ideal, works exactly like the 1.6 English keyboard did, in terms of prediction.
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Click to collapse
Hmmm. If you're talking about the built-in Japanese one, I'd be willing to give that a try if it allows typing in English as well.
shooi said:
I've tried all the options and, like you said, if you turn off spelling correction, everything turns off.
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I'm pretty sure it's a plain and simple bug. I can't understand how it slipped through. It's pretty embarrassing, really. In any case, that's not even the biggest one of my complaints. (That would be the lack of adaptive full-word suggestions.)
zephyrix said:
You may want to try swiftkey
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Click to collapse
If you're implying that Swiftkey provides most of the behavior that I've lost, then I'll try that out too. Thank you.
iead1 said:
I use the Japanese IME for English, while not ideal, works exactly like the 1.6 English keyboard did, in terms of prediction.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've just tried the built-in Japanese keyboard. I can't thank you enough for your suggestion! Like you said, its behavior is exactly the same as the 1.6 default English keyboard. It's actually an improvement over even that one, in one or two respects.
The only drawback I'll have to live with is the need to press the "Symbol" key (the keyboard mode switcher) twice to return from symbols back to alphabetical keys. (There's a third keyboard layout that I need to cycle through, which is obviously specific to Japanese text entry.) Also, the layout of the "numbers and symbols" keyboard is different, but nothing seems to be missing and it's actually arguably better than the original (the number keys are larger). I'm more than willing to live with this when all of my complaints about the 2.1 keyboard is eliminated!
And here are a few additional benefits I got from the Japanese keyboard:
The left and right arrow keys are back, for moving the cursor.
Four lines of suggestions are displayed when I hit even the first letter of a word. (Woo-hoo!) Not only that, but I can also scroll through more suggestions in that four-line space if I swipe up. (This might have been there in 1.6 but, if so, I hadn't gotten into the habit of using it.) This kind of vertical scrolling through suggestions is much more efficient than the horizontal scrolling in the new default keyboard (as well as in Swiftkey) in my opinion. Instead swiping an entire screen width's worth to see only three more words or so, you can swipe up only two line heights' worth and see two new lines of suggestions (about six to eight words, usually).
There's even a key with a smiley as its label which brings up a list of most frequenly used symbol characters in the same form as the suggested word list, saving me two taps when I need to type only a single symbol. Sweet!
I can comfortably recommend this to anyone else who has the same complaints as me about the default 2.1 English keyboard. I consider my problem solved.
I'm all for Swype. I've used it and never wanted to switch back.
guney said:
I've just tried the built-in Japanese keyboard. I can't thank you enough for your suggestion!
I can comfortably recommend this to anyone else who has the same complaints as me about the default 2.1 English keyboard. I consider my problem solved.
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Awesome! Glad to have helped! The only complaint I have about the Japanese keyboard is that four lines of suggestions means it gets in the way of seeing the text box I'm typing in occasionally. It's a good keyboard, I've always found it more accurate than the standard English keyboard as well.
Anyone managed to track down the 1.6 apk of the original keyboard and tried installing that!?
I can't stand the 2.1 keyboard. I've tried loading the Japanese keyboard but I can't find it. How do you get it to load instead of the English keyboard?
gump1376 said:
I can't stand the 2.1 keyboard. I've tried loading the Japanese keyboard but I can't find it. How do you get it to load instead of the English keyboard?
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Click to collapse
Go to any text field that you can edit, tap and hold, pick "Japanese keyboard" from the pop-up list. (This doesn't work in some specialized fields like the browser's address field, but the search field of the Market app is one place where it does work.)
iead1 said:
I use the Japanese IME for English, while not ideal, works exactly like the 1.6 English keyboard did, in terms of prediction.
Then again, sometimes I need to type in Japanese, so using the Japanese IME works for me.
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Click to collapse
thanks for the tip iead1
if you havent tried the HTC_ime mod i suggest you give it a chance. i have been using that since before my X10 and i love it. i have far less prediction problems. also if its any advantage: i find it way faster to type with the compact qwerty keyboard when i type in portrait.
jerkysans said:
I'm all for Swype. I've used it and never wanted to switch back.
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Click to collapse
Me too. Toggle between HTC keyboard & Swype.
I love my swype keyboard but I'm sick and tired of the library adding little corrections our appendages to words and then letting those add on block out the words I'm trying to type.
I want to know if there are any apps that allow me to open up my swype library and edit it I'm a list form.
As an example it would list all entries in the library in alphabetical order and allow me to delete entries that I don't need.
Sent from my futuristic phone
Great question, I'd love to know too
It doesn't even need to be swype
Specifically but a library editor in general
Sent from my futuristic phone
I believe each keyboard has its own user dictionary and they are not shared. would make sense if they were though.
when i encounter this, i just highlight the blocking word, hit swype logo on the bottom right, delete, and it never shows again...
This is one of the major reasons I switched away from SlideIT and Swype (to Ultra Keyboard, which so far seems to be using the User Dictionary).
You can only really use the select and Swype key delete method. Personally I thought it was easier to disable automatic addons and add words.
Great question. Been wondering the same thing for a couple of weeks. Those notifications that a word was blocked really slow down my typing.
ohmyggg said:
Great question. Been wondering the same thing for a couple of weeks. Those notifications that a word was blocked really slow down my typing.
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Definetly ... And the creators of swype say ignore those pop ups until your done typing your message then go back through and edit everything ... only problem with that is that I have a short memory span lol and cant quite remember what word was meant to be there
Sent from my futuristic phone
I hope someone can figure out an app or some way to edit the swype dictonary. I really like swype and highlighting the word then pressing the swype button works just fine but i would like to edit the list of words in one shot.
mWallar said:
This is one of the major reasons I switched away from SlideIT and Swype (to Ultra Keyboard, which so far seems to be using the User Dictionary).
You can only really use the select and Swype key delete method. Personally I thought it was easier to disable automatic addons and add words.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the Ultra keyboard mention. Tried it and love it. Better than swype to me. Maybe not as accurate at first, but has tons of features and I don't have to worry about that annoying popup box.
I wish there were a way to disable Swype from automatically adding words you type, but instead having an easy way to manually teach it words. A lot of stuff I type gets added and reappears later even if it was only a one time thing.
Hello, All,
Just purchased an S5, my first on-screen keyboard phone. I'd like to have some advice about a keyboard that can do smart quotes (curly quotes), ellipses, em dashes, and tabs.
Hacker's keyboard has these features, and I'm now using its Gingerbread, 4-row keyboard in portrait, but having come from nothing but physical keyboards, I'm struggling mightily with my typing.
I'm wondering if another on-screen keyboard might help, but I do need the above-stated syntax to be available.
Many thanks for any tips,
Jake
jakfish said:
Hello, All,
Just purchased an S5, my first on-screen keyboard phone. I'd like to have some advice about a keyboard that can do smart quotes (curly quotes), ellipses, em dashes, and tabs.
Hacker's keyboard has these features, and I'm now using its Gingerbread, 4-row keyboard in portrait, but having come from nothing but physical keyboards, I'm struggling mightily with my typing.
I'm wondering if another on-screen keyboard might help, but I do need the above-stated syntax to be available.
Many thanks for any tips,
Jake
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Click to collapse
Try SwiftKey Keyboard: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.touchtype.swiftkey I use this keyboard and for me is the best
Android L Keyboard: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.shenye.android.inputmethod.latin
Thank you for your alternatives. Can these other two keyboards make smart quotes (curly quotes), ellipses, em dashes, and tabs?
Jake
jakfish said:
Thank you for your alternatives. Can these other two keyboards make smart quotes (curly quotes), ellipses, em dashes, and tabs?
Jake
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe... I'm not sure
Bluetooth keyboard
You could always get a physical I have a Tagrus folding keyboard that I carry around if I'm going to do some typing of a large amount of information, works great with both my S5 and Nexus 7 and has a small footprint when folded up. Like the other poster stated swift key is a great keyboard I use it on all my devices, you can have it do ellipsis by setting the options so a period is just a period and it has standard "" if that is what your asking about as curly quotes.
But if your going to be manuscript writing I would suggest some type of physical keyboard in the long run.
Thank you. I had looked into keyboards and found a nifty one, almost the same size as the S4 (it's designed for the S4), but it hasn't yet been released for the S5. Curly quotes aren't straight quotes, they're the ones that hook either left or right. They're obnoxious, but required for manuscript submission. Good to hear that swift key at least has an ellipsis.
Textmaker, made by Softmaker, for Windows Mobile phone is a full-blown word processor. It's as if you're on your desktop and all the arcane syntax is available. Textmaker for Android is a serious disappointment, as stripped-down as QuickOffice or the others. Not enough of a disappointment to make me go back to Windows Mobile, however
Jake