I just can't get used to on screen keyboards ..

[InGearX]

after many years I got so used to the physical keyboard (using the blackberry )

it's been a long while and i still can't get used to ..

I don't type as much .. I make mistakes .. (I have Galaxy s3 .. I wish Galaxy Chat came in high end .. bigger and high resolution screen .. with that keyboard ..)

what has it been like for you ?

any advice?

thank you ..

 

[breadnatty08]

Give some other third party keyboards a shot. I prefer Swiftkey, it has excellent text prediction that helps eliminate mistakes.

 

[Mehta23]

+1 for Swiftkey here. I swear by it.

Fleksy is another one which I've tried, and it came very close to replacing swiftkey, but I need English UK as an option, and using symbols was a bit harder than on swiftkey.

If you're typing when you have a computer nearby, you can use Wifi Keyboard and use your computer's keyboard to type on your phone.

 

[hiredgun]

As the old joke goes, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice." The more you use it the more proficient you will become. As breadnatty stated above, Swiftkey is an excellent keyboard to try if you are not used to an on screen keyboard because after a few hours of straight use it will learn how you type and you can actually "predict" your way through a lot of conversations. You'll have to actually "type" very little with this keyboard the more you use it. Here is a link to a thread that funkylogik was kind enough to open where you can download the beta for free. Give it a try you won't regret it.

http://androidforums.com/android-applications/844696-swiftkey-beta-update-up.html

 

[Stuntman]

I prefer landscape slider keyboards. Ever since I was forced to choose between a crappy phone with an excellent physical keyboard and an excellent phone with no physical keyboard, I've had to put up with on screen keyboards. It's been close to 2 years and I still cannot type as well on a touchscreen keyboard as I did on a landscape slider keyboard.

I've tried a number of touch screen keyboards. Here is my assessment of each:

Kii Keyboard -- This is the one I currently use most of the time. This keyboard has my personal favourite because it has the landscape layout that I like the most. I am able to type with the fewest errors with this layout compared to any other layout of any other keyboard I have used. It also has a Canadian English language. The significance for me is that the spelling is like UK English and it has the dollar sign. The auto-correct is average. It is easy to add new words to the dictionary and to blacklist some words as well. It also has a number of other features such as layouts with number keys and gesture typing.

Swype -- This is the secondary one I use, only in portrait. Swype is the best gesture typing keyboard I have used. It is a step better than any other keyboard I have used. Gesture typing makes it easy for me to type while using the phone with only one hand. Some people like gesture typing and use it regularly.

SwiftKey -- This keyboard has the best auto-correct/text prediction of any keyboard I have used. It is very good at predicting your next word. It analyses your typing style and learns from it.

Thumb Keyboard -- This keyboard has a lot of different keyboard layouts. I used this when I first got a keyboardless phone.

MessagEase -- This is a non-standard keyboard with a non-standard layout. Typing with this keyboard requires both taps and swipes to type each letter or symbol. Of all keyboards I have tried, I have made the fewest errors with this keyboard and by a significant margin. The reason I don't use this is the huge learning curve required to become proficient enough to type at a reasonable speed compared to other more traditional keyboards. If you are new to typing on a touch screen and haven't become proficient with traditional keyboard, perhaps you should give this one a try. Be warned, that there is a significant learning curve.

My advice is to try a number of keyboards. I would suggest you try both Swype and SwiftKey. These are amongst the most popular alternate keyboards used on Android phones. Swype has a great gesture typing feature and SwiftKey corrects your errors and predicts your typing the best. Try others if you don't like them.

When I was using physical keyboard, I never used auto-correct. My typing was accurate enough to not need it. When I switched to a touch screen keyboard, I struggled for months trying to type. I didn't use auto-correct as I wanted to learn to type accurately. After 6 months, I gave in and activated auto-correct. I felt that there was no way to type without making massive numbers of keying errors without any type of tactile feedback from a physical key. The keys were just too small.

Only with MessagEase could I type without auto-correct, because the keys were huge. There were only 16 and required either a tap or a swype to type a character. MessagEase was really slow to use and required a significant amount of practice. If you feel up to it, then give it a try.

 

[Stuntman]

As the old joke goes, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice." The more you use it the more proficient you will become.

I've practiced for 6 months and was unable to type on a touch screen keyboard with a reasonable degree of accuracy. In contrast, it only took me a few weeks to be able to type well on the two keyboard phones I have used prior to a touchscreen only phone. On those physical keyboards, I did not need auto-correct and am able to type very accurately and quickly. I have never been able to do the same on any touch screen keyboard I have ever tried and I have tried several. I felt I've put in enough practice on touchscreen keyboard to conclude that they are far inferior to physical keyboard for accuracy.

Autocorrect is a tolerable workaround. It corrects most errors, but there are certain specific errors that I continually make that autocorrect consistently correct. Here are the errors that autocorrect fails to correct:
-- Accidentally pressing the spacebar. Autocorrect assumes you finished a word and tries to correct based on what you typed not knowing you have many letters to type in that word.
-- Accidentally pressing a number key. Autocorrect assumes you mean to type a number and does not correct the word. This happens when you have number keys on your keyboard.
-- Accidentally pressing the shift key. Autocorrect often assumes you mean to capitalise the letter.

I'm hoping that Ara will offer me a phone that has a landscape slider keyboard and that doesn't suck. I'll have to wait until next year to see if this is the case.