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Help 3rd party keyboard with curser arrows

A

Aidan Bell

Well-Known Member
I've just successfully updated to 2.2. One of the features I'd been most looking forward to was finally replacing the 1.6 stock keyboard with a better one. I've been looking through several third-party keyboards and I'm really disappointed that I actually cannot find one which has arrow keys (i.e. the ability to move the cursor left and right, up and down). This is a function that I find it incredibly difficult to manage without. Can anyone please recommend a keyboard which has arrows?
 
Thanks. I just upgraded to Froyo 2.2 where Swype is the default keyboard. Certainly the arrows are useful, but it's a complete pain to have to swype into a different keyboard in order to get to them, and then to have to press "ABC" to get back into the qwerty layout. What I'm looking for is a keyboard which has the arrows with the qwerty keys.
 
You can try out this one if you have Android v2.2 or better.


ak.jpg


Search "Arrows Keyboard" in the market.
 
Many thanks. It looks great, but before I buy, can you tell me please; does it work in Landscape? I want it for my Streak? Cheers.
 
akland.jpg



Yea, I think it's actually better in landscape, as most keyboards are due to there being more space. Here is a screen shot of landscape.
 
Thanks very much, Adam.
I bought and installed "Arrows Keyboard" but am very disappointed that the keys are so tiny. I've been using "Swipe keyboard" which, although the arrows are on a second page which has to be accessed, is a wonderful size and very comfortable to type on. Regrettably I can't use "Arrows Keyboard" because even on the huge screen of the Streak the keys are so small (quite a lot smaller than in your screenshots?!).
 
No problem enjoy Swipe.

Maybe the small size you saw with Arrows Keyboard is due to something native to the Streak.

The app appears the same size as the screenshots show on all other Android Devices.
 
So finally I've found something I don't like about the Streak! It's a shame because I like the look of Arrows Keyboard very much, but perhaps there will be a way to alter the size later, on a future update. Meanwhile, thanks again for the suggestion. :)
 
Aidan,

If you want to go to the trouble of sending me a screen shot of Arrows Keyboard on your Streak, our developer can take a look and see if it is something we can fix with an update.

We just spent over a week fixing an issue where the keyboard would appear mini-sized on the new Droid2 and a few other Motorola devices. We found it is due to a Motorola firmware bug that we had to work around. We may be able to do the same if the keyboard is appearing freakishly small on your Streak.

Usually you can only do a screenshot on a rooted device so even just a normal camera picture of your phone's screen will be fine so we can take a look. Thanks.

- Adam
 
Thanks for that. Here are the screen shots, indeed very crude photos, but they still show the keyboard size on screen.
 

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Thanks for the speedy screen shots!

Can you confirm you are running the latest version of Arrows Keyboard which is v2.2?

This last update to v2.2 repaired the issue of the small keyboard. Let me know if you are running Arrows Keyboard 2.2. And then we'll take a look at it if you are and still getting the small size.
 
adam619 said:
Can you confirm you are running the latest version of Arrows Keyboard which is v2.2?
Click to expand...

I can if you can tell me where to find this information! There is no "About" in the Arrows keyboard settings.
Also, in case it helps, I'm running Android 2.2, on 02 in the UK. Not rooted.
 
Two Ways:

1) Go to your Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > Click Arrows Keyboard and it will show you app data including version number installed.

2) Or go to the Marketplace and bring up Arrows Keyboard and it will say "Update Available" if you are running less than Arrows Keyboard v2.2. Always good to check "Allow automatic Updates"

Another way in the market is you can also press MENU > MY APPS to bring up a list of your downloaded apps and it will show if an update is available.
 
Update available, please download Arrows Keyboard v2.3. We did some fixes for tablet devices. Let me know if it fixed your issue or not. Thanks!
 
"Arrows Keyboard" update now available (v2.4).

Users requested that when you press and hold the arrow keys they should repeat like on a real keyboard, so we made that upgrade.

Also the smiley face menu will stay up, even if you stop long pressing. This was a big complaint for a lot of people with the new Gingerbread Keyboard. So we fixed it.

Let me know what you think. Thanks for the help!


- Adam
 
I've installed the update on my Dell Streak and yes, it is much better now, many thanks. A nice, comfortable size. There are, however two bugs, one major, one minor. The minor bug is that there's no response-vibration when pressing the arrow keys, while there is with every other key on the keyboard. The major error is that when holding down the period/full stop key to get the two rows of alternative punctuation, it is impossible to select anything from the bottom row, only the top row works. This currently leaves me without a comma which is quite crucial.
 
I was able to reproduce the error in landscape mode only. Portrait mode is fine.

We will jump right on this and provide a fix ASAP. Update coming. Thanks!
 
Oh dear, I've just discovered another possible flaw; is there no way of selecting text? That's critical for me. Hopefully it's just a key-combination that I haven't found yet?
 
Hey Aidan,


Ok download the latest update: Arrows Keyboard v2.6!

We fixed all your issues you brought to our attention. Fixed the bug where you could not select the bottom row of symbols on the symbols pop-up menu in landscape mode.

Also added vibrate and/or sound on key press for the arrow keys if you have those enabled in the keyboard settings.

The vibrate and sound also trigger for when you long press the arrow keys and they repeat. Kind of like a machine gun when you hold them down, let me know what you think. I think it's kind of cool :cool:

In regards to your last post, simply long press the text input area you are working with for your text selecting options. You can choose to "Select Text" which lets you select a portion fo the text, or "Select All".

And of course you have your copy and paste options there as well.

Thanks so much, you are a great keyboard tester! If anyone else is using Arrows Keyboard we would like to hear from you as well and earn your postive rating in the Marketplace.

Regards

- Adam
FullyInvolvedMedia.com
 
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