Database Users

swype and voice input

ok, so i enjoy the swype keyboard but realized there is no voice input button for it. Am i pretty much out of luck with this unless i want to use my old keyboard or is there a way i can use voice input somehow with this like with a long hold of something.

for speech to txt you have to use the stock keyboard for now... Swype will probably have that option in the future but for now, no such thing

So grabbing the official version is no better than using any of the of swype apk download links floating around?
It is tough to ask us to switch to a different keyboard when that keyboard takes away the voice input option that Android has given us.

no- just check the version #. (Current as of today: 1.56.30.7625.t100)
The 'official' version is the same just handed out by Swype

i think swype blows anything else out of the water when using the keyboard itself. I never really used the speech to txt unless driving so I just switch back when I need it.... a long press in the text box, then select the original keyboard.

anothen said:
i think swype blows anything else out of the water when using the keyboard itself. I never really used the speech to txt unless driving so I just switch back when I need it.... a long press in the text box, then select the original keyboard.
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Yeah, I'm just being difficult today.
I do really like the Swype keyboard. I'm not a big texter, I barely text - but I'm a big fan of technology and am a programmer so I definitely can appreciate the Swype keyboard app. I just want that damn button.

yeah, I hear ya. I'm sure it will come eventually.... They say in their forums on their website that they are aware of the demand and that's basically it. At least they've acknowledged it so I'm sure it will come.

Wow I've using swype today for the first time and its amazing!

When using swype, instead of swyping hit menu from there you have a speak button for talk to text

If we wanted to add in multiple button presses to get to things we'd get an iPhone ... lol
j/k .. obviously we have to live with it for now, but at least they are "aware" of it. Not that they're going to change anything though.

I just found the arrow button screen by swyping from swype menu button to alt button, there's open spot there for it.

superflysmith said:
When using swype, instead of swyping hit menu from there you have a speak button for talk to text
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Darn. My version doesn't have that.

rfarrah said:
Darn. My version doesn't have that.
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Mine either :/

I think he means hold down the Search the physical button on the phone that however only uses the google search integrated in your phone it cant be used for inputing text into specific entry fields

I use handsent, and yes when you hit menu with swype keyboard on screen you have option of "speak" and it enters into the message area.

waynester said:
I use handsent, and yes when you hit menu with swype keyboard on screen you have option of "speak" and it enters into the message area.
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Just tested and mine doesn't do that. What version of Swype are you using?

mtxpert said:
I just found the arrow button screen by swyping from swype menu button to alt button, there's open spot there for it.
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On my inc, I get to the same menu by swyping form the swype menu button to the SYM button right next to it. Hope that helps others that can't find it, it may be difference on your hardware version.

superflysmith said:
When using swype, instead of swyping hit menu from there you have a speak button for talk to text
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I don't see a microphone. Could you explain how this works?
What app are you in at the time?

The "speak" option is part of Handcent, not a function of the keyboard. I think a lot of people have been confused by the lack of clarity there.
There is no way to use speech input with Swype itself without switching to the stock keyboard. Any option to speak while the Swype keyboard is selected is purely a function of the application you happen to be using at the time.

rmk40 said:
The "speak" option is part of Handcent, not a function of the keyboard. I think a lot of people have been confused by the lack of clarity there.
There is no way to use speech input with Swype itself without switching to the stock keyboard. Any option to speak while the Swype keyboard is selected is purely a function of the application you happen to be using at the time.
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I think you are partially correct. I DO have the "Speak" option when using Handcent and Swype. I DON'T have it when using K-9 and Swype, though.

Can't change keyboards?

My girlfriend has an Aria, and recently tried to install a new keyboard. We went into the keyboard settings and checked the new keyboard, but whenever the new keyboard comes up, it's the stock HTC one. Has anyone else experienced this?

You have to long press in a text box then choose input method you can then choose the new keyboard there
Sent from my Liberty using XDA App

yes, although you enabled the new keyboard, you didn't choose it as your default keyboard.
open something where you can type (text message, note, browser address bar, whatever). press in the text area and hold your finger there until a box pops up. this box should have your keyboard options, select whichever you would like to use.

I am still trying to figure out how to get a keyboard with voice options so i can talk into it

mikehe said:
I am still trying to figure out how to get a keyboard with voice options so i can talk into it
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The stock Aria keyboard has a microphone icon on the bottom left. Press it and it will enable voice recognition.
Note: only works whilst connected to the internet.

If you can get your hands on a copy of the newest swype that
has the option for audio input as well. Not sure if the beta is still open or not.
Sent from my Liberty using XDA App

Stock keyboard activation

I know I have seen this discussed but my searches didn't find them so I am asking now.
I was trying to complete a form in a website this morning but I couldn't get the standard keyboard to pop up. Has anyone found a way to do this? By the way, I am trying to use the stock browser as well.
Thanks.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App

So I take it when you click/touch on a form field, the cursor appears but the keyboard does not?
Try going to Settings >> Language & Input >> Under "keyboard Settings", chose "Current input method" >> Then select "English (US) Keyboard."
Give that a try and see if that works.

please delete. posted wrong place.

Thanks for the tip. That is my default. I was hoping there would be a manual method for bringing the keyboard up.
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OracleBlue said:
Thanks for the tip. That is my default. I was hoping there would be a manual method for bringing the keyboard up.
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Are you looking for some kind of keystroke/tap that brings up the keyboard whenever? The only thing I know of that brings up the keyboard is clicking on a text entry box or something else that will take text. Some applications(like a remote desktop client) have a menu option to bring up the keyboard, but as far as I know there isn't really a way to just "summon" the keyboard when it isn't needed.

Have you used a bluetooth keyboard lately? I notice that, unless you have the settings right, even when the bt keyboard is off, sometimes no onscreen keyboard comes up.

No. I've not used a Bluetooth keyboard. I am trying not to need one.
Yes. I was hoping I could have a keystroke to bring it up. The application I was trying to enter text in is a Yahoo crossword puzzle. I do those when I am bored and just tried it Friday. The puzzle comes up nicely but one cannot enter text into the grid.
Thanks
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[Q] Move Cursor in Browser or Text Window?

Ok, this is going to probably sound really dumb, but it's driving me nuts.
I've used Android for a few years now, and I've never sorted out if there's a way to scroll left and right in a text area.
No matter what keyboard I've used, I just end up deleting the whole dang thing, and typing from scratch, if it's text in a small window.
For example, if I typed a long url, and I realized after hitting enter that I must have made a typo. I'd like to go left to right in that bar and look for it easily.
I guess this has plagued me on every Apple and Android device I've owned. On RIM it was easy enough, and on older Symbian it was fine.
What the heck am I missing here?
Thanks!

Tap anywhere on the entered text - wait - there will be a blue arrow cursor below the text. Drag it whenever you want to start typing from.
/thread

Fatal1ty_18_RUS said:
Type anywhere on the entered text - wait - there will be a blue arrow cursor below the text. Drag it whenever you want to start typing from.
/thread
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Nifty. That works in the URL bar, but what about other input areas?
I can't seem to make that work in say the google search input window.

bladebarrier said:
Nifty. That works in the URL bar, but what about other input areas?
I can't seem to make that work in say the google search input window.
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Works for me.

Fatal1ty_18_RUS said:
Works for me.
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Ah, it's a Firefox issue then. I tried chrome and it works in that (though I never really use chrome).
Ok thanks.
I was hoping there would be a convenient left and right key option on the keyboard itself, so that it wouldn't matter what app I'm using, but I guess it's tied to the app itself. That kind of stinks. It's rather awkward in design.
Do you know of an alternative keyboard that supports that type of functionality? I like the "Swpe-like" setup in the stock keyboard, but I'd much rather have an easier correction method built in.

You can enable the function to move the cursor using the volume rocker. It's in Settings - Language and Input - and that option will be down below the input methods
I miss the big keyboard with arrows from HTC Flyer though - it's pretty awesome to use in portrait mode, though not as useful in landscape since it takes much more space than N7's does
And no, I don't know about other keyboard since I don't use them, I prefer stock

Fatal1ty_18_RUS said:
You can enable the function to move the cursor using the volume rocker. It's in Settings - Language and Input - and that option will be down below the input methods
I miss the big keyboard with arrows from HTC Flyer though - it's pretty awesome to use in portrait mode, though not as useful in landscape since it takes much more space than N7's does
And no, I don't know about other keyboard since I don't use them, I prefer stock
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Excellent. That will work just fine.
Thanks a bunch for your help!

Software behind the hardware keyboard

So I have found the keyboard to be somewhat fraustrating. Not because it is virtual, but because of the software behind it.
First of all, it is rather strange that you cannot set more than one keybaord. Essentially, the device can have two keyboards that you might regularly swap between: the hardware keyboard and the one screen keyboard one might use while in tablet mode. The hardware keyboard uses the autocorrect of the keyboard you have set as your software keyboard. You cannot set seperate keyboard engines for the hardware and software keyboard.
As I said, the autocorrect/engine behind the hardware keyboard is dependant on your choice of software keybaord. However, as far as I can tell, only the defualt TouchPal keyboard provides any autocorrect for the hardware keybaord. The stock android keyboard offers no autocorrect with the hardware keyboard.
On a related note, TouchPal is awful. The autocorrect works pretty badly and is basically very annoying to use. I won't bore you with the details, but things like autocorrecting to a new word when you go back to edit a mistake. This makes it almost unusable.
Also the touch pad is very bad. No two funger scrolling means that again, it is pretty much useless.
I think the Yoga Book is a great device in most respects. Its intersting that all of these problems relate to the software and could potentially be fixed by Lenovo or there may even be fixes out there now.
Has anyone found any solutions to these problems? Thanks, Liam

I completely agree with you and am having the same frustration with the software behind the keyboard. So far the best solution I have found is to use SwiftKey or Swiftkey Beta (not sure which is best yet). With a bit of tweaking you can get decent auto complete and auto correct using both the halo and on screen keyboard. Much better than Touchpal at least. A couple of issues I have found using Swiftkey and halo keyboard: 1) auto complete seems to turn off when resuming from sleep mode (tapping the keyboard button on the top row reactivates it) 2) in WhatsApp Tablet app, after pressing Enter to send a message, the next message gets double words - I. E. Auto correct adds to what you type, doesn't replace it.

I can confirm that switching to SwiftKey makes the hardware keyboard usable! I'm actually using the keyboard to type this now. Naturally, I'm making tons of mistakes but it is catching and correcting almost all of them!
Can confirm that SwiftKey easily switches between physical keyboard and on-screen keyboard when the physical keyboard is toggled on and off.
If anyone is still using the default software keyboard, switch now!!!

Thanks for the tip! This makes a big difference! Have either of you found a way to get auto capitalise to work? The setting is enabled but it doesn't do anythig.

My issue with SwiftKey is that there is no good ways to select a suggested word. You always have to click with your finger on the screen which completely ruins ten finger typing for my.
So I ended up with disabled word correction as it's faster to remove some mistyped words and type again, than to click on the screen.
How do you handle suggestions made by SwiftKey?

faeArai said:
My issue with SwiftKey is that there is no good ways to select a suggested word. You always have to click with your finger on the screen which completely ruins ten finger typing for my.
So I ended up with disabled word correction as it's faster to remove some mistyped words and type again, than to click on the screen.
How do you handle suggestions made by SwiftKey?
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I have found that SwiftKey enters the main suggested word when I press space. This is good for most of the time, but annoying when:
-I want to select a suggestion that is not the main suggested word (particularly a new word that it doesn't recognise)
-I want to add punctuation directly after the main suggested word (here, because I input the punctuation rather than pressing space, the suggested word is not entered)
I have certainly found using SwiftKey to be the best experience. It's quite a passive autocorrect that doesn't get in the way too much. I got so sick of TouchPal which really gets in your face with its incorrect predictions.
But still there is a lot of room for improvement. It's such a shame that it's terrible software that lets down this keyboard. In particular I don't understand why:
- Some keyboards (like the Google Keyboard) don't offer any correction or prediction when enabled. Does Android maybe treat the Halo keyboard as an external keyboard (which I suppose you wouldn't want predictive features for)?
- Keyboards that do offer prediction don't seem to respond to changes to their settings (I can't get SwiftKey to auto capitalise the first letter of a sentence for example). @thespinner02 mentioned tweaking with SwiftKey settings- I assume they meant for the onscreen keyboard because these settings don't do anything for the Halo keybaord.
I wonder whether there is a keyboard out there in the Play Store that works better with the Yoga Book. I'll try a few and let you guys know if I find one.

I tried several solutions but couldn't find anything good. Hardware keyboards are not that common on Android platform, I guess.

Even using Swiftkey I sometimes get different results depending on the app being used. Auto capitalise is working OK for me, in Word for example.
There are specific options in Swiftkey for Physical Keyboard: in settings, Typing, Voice & Other Input. In Physical keyboard section I have Autocorrect and Auto capitalize on. Everything else off.

thespinner02 said:
Even using Swiftkey I sometimes get different results depending on the app being used. Auto capitalise is working OK for me, in Word for example.
There are specific options in Swiftkey for Physical Keyboard: in settings, Typing, Voice & Other Input. In Physical keyboard section I have Autocorrect and Auto capitalize on. Everything else off.
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Thanks! I didn't notice that- smart spacing etc makes a massive difference!
Pretty much my only problem with SwiftKey now is that it sometimes creates its own weird textbook instead of typing directly into the text field. But that's not a massive problem.
Also I sometimes accidentally change input method. Maybe I'm using a keyboard shortcut by mistake?

thespinner02 said:
Even using Swiftkey I sometimes get different results depending on the app being used. Auto capitalise is working OK for me, in Word for example.
There are specific options in Swiftkey for Physical Keyboard: in settings, Typing, Voice & Other Input. In Physical keyboard section I have Autocorrect and Auto capitalize on. Everything else off.
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In settings for hardware keyword I get no harder key found?
Went into Swift settings in onscreen. How to get settings for Halo?

With Yoga Book in laptop mode. Settings / Language & input / SwiftKey Keyboard / Typing / Voice & Other Input

You also need to make sure 'show input method' is not enabled in the keyboard settings/selector popup.
Does anyone else experience a problem with SwiftKey where in some text fields your text goes into a little popup text box at the bottom of the screen as well as the intended text field? And then to get rid of the popup text box you have to tap 'next'. This occurs in the Facebook messenger app for example.
Any way to disable it?
It seems to do this when the text field is small, but other keyboards just expend the text field as you type. The popup text box it creates doesn't expand anyway, so it doesn't offer extra functionality and is just an annoyance.