Database Users

Cursor Madness...

I have a question on how to make this phone better... I've never used the iPhone really, other than to jailbreak it for my fiancee. Now that I have the Vibrant, I noticed ridiculously difficult it is to place your cursor in a particular spot. You can't use a stylus, there's no "magnifying glass" like the iPhone has, and there are no arrow buttons on the on-screen keyboard (as there was on my HTC Touch Pro 2). Basically, it'll take me 5-6 taps (or more) to get the cursor where I want it.
Is there any app or hack that can fix this?

If you are using samsung keyboard, then keep pressing the "123" button until more controls shows up, theres cursor control.

You can flash or wait for froyo release it comes with a cursor

Thanks to both of you. The 123 option is a PITA, but it's something. Good to know that Froyo is gonna have a cursor. Thank goodness....

Flapjack said:
Thanks to both of you. The 123 option is a PITA, but it's something. Good to know that Froyo is gonna have a cursor. Thank goodness....
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I couldn't the 123 option to work. When I press the 123 button, I get four pages of symbols... no directional cursor movements. What am I doing wrong?

If you are using the Swype keyboard, drag your finger from the Swype info button (bottom left corner) to the SYM key (next one to the right). Several cursor control options there, plus a few other handy items.
Also, if you didn't know, dragging from the Swype info button to the "F" key will switch the keyboard into a number keypad.

Flapjack said:
I couldn't the 123 option to work. When I press the 123 button, I get four pages of symbols... no directional cursor movements. What am I doing wrong?
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You need to hold 123, not just click it.

BronzedDroid said:
You need to hold 123, not just click it.
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Awesome. Thanks for the help. It's exactly what I needed. Will hold me off until Froyo.

Alternativelly you can use the HTC_IME (which is the HTC keyboard) and set the volume buttons to work as up and down. Pretty handy when you want the cursor to skip a few characters. Though indeed the lack of cursor buttons always visible on the keyboard is kind of irritating especially if you come from an HTC.

stormrain said:
Alternativelly you can use the HTC_IME (which is the HTC keyboard) and set the volume buttons to work as up and down. Pretty handy when you want the cursor to skip a few characters. Though indeed the lack of cursor buttons always visible on the keyboard is kind of irritating especially if you come from an HTC.
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I actually went through the process of installing the HTC keyboard, which I loved on my Touch Pro 2. It was laggy as hell and basically unusable. I also did not notice any directional arrows.
I've been meaning to try that keyboard again, since I did the one-touch lag fix. I'll do that right now.
**EDIT**
I can't find the option to use the volume buttons to move the cursor. It's also nowhere near as fast as the Samsung keyboard. Not sure why, but I have to seriously slow down my typing to get it to recognize each key press individually. I was hoping it would be better once I did the lag fix. I guess it's a separate issue...

Flapjack said:
I actually went through the process of installing the HTC keyboard, which I loved on my Touch Pro 2. It was laggy as hell and basically unusable. I also did not notice any directional arrows.
I've been meaning to try that keyboard again, since I did the one-touch lag fix. I'll do that right now.
**EDIT**
I can't find the option to use the volume buttons to move the cursor. It's also nowhere near as fast as the Samsung keyboard. Not sure why, but I have to seriously slow down my typing to get it to recognize each key press individually. I was hoping it would be better once I did the lag fix. I guess it's a separate issue...
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Click to collapse
Hmmm I do not have any lag issues with the keyboard.
Have you tried Calibrating it? That option is in Settings (within the program, activated by long pressing the language toggle key)>Text Input>Calibration tool.
Unfortunatelly, indeed, there are no directional arrows in the layout.
The option to set the volume buttons is in Settings (again, within the keyboard itself)>User Interface>Volume Keys.
EDIT: I don't really have any opinion about the default samsung keyboard as it does not support my language (go figure lol) so I have never used it.

[Q] Droid X - Soft keyboard close?

First post after having my DX an entire week, trying to find what I can without being too noob but can't seem to find a solution to this.
I tend to type 99% of the time in landscape and seeing how the keyboard takes up 90% of the screen, I often can't see what fields I'm entering for the text. The keyboard automatically opens when attempting to input and assumed if I pressed outside of a text field, it would close the keyboard but no go.. Is there anyway to close the keyboard, even if it's just to scroll on whatever page I'm on to see what else is there then come back to the keyboard when I'm ready by clicking within the text area?
That probably made no sense but hopefully you get the jist of it. Thanks in advance.
EDIT: The back button seemed to work, disregard.

You can also swype from the top of the keyboard to the bottom and it will minimize.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

Also you can press/hold the menu button to close. You can also do this to raise the keyboard at any time.

How much do you use the slide out keyboard?

So I've had mine for a few weeks now, and I can still count the number of times I've used the physical keyboard on one hand lol. I'm not even sure why. It's fine when I use it, but the onscreen one is just -so- fast and responsive. I can type much much faster with the onscreen one.
On the flip side I like that it's there just in case I need it for some reason (needing to type something really specific, etc).
But yeah, how much do you use it?

anything more than a few words and i whip out the physical board. even if the screen view is locked to portrait.

weatherx said:
anything more than a few words and i whip out the physical board. even if the screen view is locked to portrait.
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same here, mainly because for some reason the fact that my phone has a smiley button is hilarious to me. Also, just a little fun fact, the keyboard backlight will turn on when you click on an area to enter text, but otherwise stays off. Nifty, ehhh?

I use my keyboard A LOT. I never entered text using the on screen keyboard, that is, until my screen light decided to start cutting off whenever I slid it out. Now I have to use the on screen.

Me too... I use it almost every day. Just can't seem to get the hang of the soft keyboard.

I use it every day, almost every single time i type something. it is just faster and more accurate.

Anything more than 5 words and I use the keyboard
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk

i use my often as well for sms, sometime use voice to sms too, no cutout

Anyone care to tell me how to type a star (*) with the hard keyboard? I don't seem to find it anywhere....
Thanks

resol341 said:
Anyone care to tell me how to type a star (*) with the hard keyboard? I don't seem to find it anywhere....
Thanks
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You have to use the symbol key and then touch the right arrow key on the onscreen keyboard that pops up to get to it - pretty much the same way you would with the onscreen keyboard (&123 key then right arrow)
By the way, in case some don't know this, you can enter the blue (fn) function characters just by holding the physical key just a bit longer. Saves us from having to fiddle with the fn button everytime.

cmphone said:
You have to use the symbol key and then touch the right arrow key on the onscreen keyboard that pops up to get to it - pretty much the same way you would with the onscreen keyboard (&123 key then right arrow)
By the way, in case some don't know this, you can enter the blue (fn) function characters just by holding the physical key just a bit longer. Saves us from having to fiddle with the fn button everytime.
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Thanks a lot!
Best!

I also found something today. Long pressing the sym can switch input method. In my case, I can switch between English and Chinese. I might just be too retarded to find out earlier ~

[Q] How to change the input method with keyboard

Dose anyone know how to change the input method with keyboard? Thanks a lot

If you want to use the alternate character for the key you can long press the individual key, press fn for a single use or long press fn for a locked position. The up arrow works the exact same way for capitalization. The ae key brings up the special characters for the entered letter and the smiley face is the emoticon button. The sym key brings up the onscreen keyboard symbols and don't forget to use the .com button while browsing.
Take a look at page 17 of the user manual and it explains things pretty well.
Also note that if you enter the people, messaging, email and search and a couple other things with the keyboard closed you can slide the keyboard open after entering and it will place you in the text field ready to type without an extra screen press. This is a very good keyboard if you get used to it.

Keyboard mods

So let me start out by saying I like the default JB keyboard. However it is missing 2 crucial things for me. A tab button and the ability to long press keys. Has there been any modding going on yet for the keyboard?

Long press keys work fine
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

pixelchemist said:
Long press keys work fine
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I miss all the extra long-press characters, too. It used to be the top row could be long-pressed for numbers and stuff, and other keys for other symbols. I never use the accents anyway, though I think it is good that Google includes them.
I really like the new keyboard, too. I still use thumb keyboard instead, so I can have escape, tab, page up and page down keys, but I prefer how the default keyboard provides various punctuation. It's easy to get to the - and _ symbols, apostrophe and comma have their own keys, and so on.
The new look is very clean, though.

ldrn said:
I miss all the extra long-press characters, too. It used to be the top row could be long-pressed for numbers and stuff, and other keys for other symbols. I never use the accents anyway, though I think it is good that Google includes them.
I really like the new keyboard, too. I still use thumb keyboard instead, so I can have escape, tab, page up and page down keys, but I prefer how the default keyboard provides various punctuation. It's easy to get to the - and _ symbols, apostrophe and comma have their own keys, and so on.
The new look is very clean, though.
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Click to collapse
I'm going to try and use the keyboard from the cm9 rom on the touchpad since it has more options for long press keys and a tab button. Hopefully it installs.

Long press is working great on 4.1.1 keyboard. My question is if there is a way to enable popup on key press. Not only I like that feature but it helps me type also. Thanks!

Hacker's Keyboard from the Play Store will give you either the Gingerbread style keyboard or a full 5 row keyboard.
Both the Gingerbread and 5 row keyboard have the long-press feature on the number keys, with the full set of symbols. It also has popup keys.
The 5 row is a full keyboard with arrow keys, ESC, CTL, ALT, FN keys, etc. Works great in terminal emulator, it's essential with vi.
I use the 4 row Gingerbread in portrait mode and the 5 row in landscape. That's the default, but you can change it.
The only thing I don't like in Hacker's Keyboard is the click sound - it is much louder than the stock click. Probably easy to fix by swapping out a resource or sound file, but I haven't looked.