Swype is a fast way to enter text. It lets you type a word by drawing through letters. Swype a word, then lift your finger.

Put your finger on the first letter of the word and draw a path from letter to letter, lifting up after the last letter. Swype will insert spaces where necessary.

To enter double letters, scribble slightly or make a loop on the letter. For example, to get the "ll" in "hello", scribble on the "l" key.

If you prefer, you can also enter a double letter by making a loop on the key. Use whichever gesture feels easier to you!

To accept the suggested word in the Word Choice List, just keep Swyping. Otherwise, scroll through the list by dragging your finger, and select the word you want.

You can customize the way the Word Choice List behaves while tapping - just go to Options and select Word suggestion.

Capitalize a word while Swyping by gliding your finger from the first letter up past the top of the keyboard and, without lifting, gliding your finger back down to the next letter of the word.

Change the case of a word after you enter it or when editing your text by tapping the word in the text and then gliding from the Swype key to the Shift key before lifting. A Word Choice List with capitalization options will display, allowing you to choose lower case, Capitalized, or ALL CAPS.

To enter CAPS Lock mode, just double-tap on the Shift key.

Swype automatically inserts a space between words when you Swype the next word in the sentence. You can turn the auto-spacing feature on or off in Swype Settings.

Auto-spacing can be turned off for one word by Swyping from the Space key to the Backspace key. An icon will show on the Space key to show that auto-spacing is turned off for the next word. Example: enter "myspace" by Swyping "my", Swyping from Space to the Backspace key, and Swyping "space".

Change a word by tapping on it, then selecting the word you want from the Word Choice List.

Alternatively, if you spot an incorrect word, you can edit it by highlighting the word and pressing the Swype Key. The Word Choice List will display, allowing you to select the intended word, which will automatically replace the highlighted word.

If you don't find the word you want anywhere in the Word Choice List, simply Swype the word again and the new word entered will replace the incorrect word.

Sometimes avoiding letters when Swyping ensures you get the word you want the first time. For example, "pit" and "put" could be drawn with the same path - but notice, you don’t have to move from letter to letter in a straight line. Avoiding the "i" and the "o" when gliding your finger to the "t" ensures that the word "put" is first in the Word Choice List.

Tapping and holding your finger on any key brings up a list of all the characters available on that key, including letters with accents like "é" and "ñ", symbols like @ and %, and numbers.

To enter an alternate character explicitly, tap the Symbols key (+!=) to be taken to the Symbols layer. You can see that there are two pages of alternate characters. If you don't see the character you are looking for, press the Shift key and this will show you another set of characters.

Note that ALL of the characters are Swype-able from the main keyboard (whether you can see them or not). You can Swype using this view of the keyboard, but you will only get words that have at least one number or symbol.

Adding words to Swype's dictionary is easy. Tap in the letters of the word, then select it from the Word Choice List. Tap the prompt that appears to add the word.

To remove a word from the dictionary, highlight ONLY the word that you want to delete, and then tap the Swype key.