A keyboard that allows text selection...?

[Aidan Bell]

Can anyone help me with finding a keyboard? I currently use Swype because it is the ONLY keyboard I have ever managed to find that allows text selection with up/down/left/right arrows. However, I have no interest in any kind of prediction or automation, and I find Swype's permanent "words choice bar" above the keyboard very distracting, and it takes up useful real estate.
Does anyone know any other Android keyboards at all which facilitate text selection using left/right/up/down arrows (and ideally have prediction/automation that can be completely switched off)? I must have tried more than 10 by now and can't find any.
Thanks.

 

[chanchan05]

The only ones I know of that can do that also has a dedicated bar above the keyboard for prediction that can't be removed.

 

[gtbarry]

A lot of people rave about the customization of the kii keyboard layout (free in Play Store). It uses arrows if you choose to. Not sure if you can turn off the prediction though.

Just out of curiosity, where would you rather the words predicted to be? Do you just want to get rid of it?

 

[Aidan Bell]

Thanks guys.

Chanchan05, which other keyboards do you refer to, please? I'd be interested to audition a couple of others, and see if I prefer them to Swype. Thanks.

Gtbarry, I'll try Kii, thanks. Regarding prediction, I'm old-fashioned; I like to type every word myself, I don't like any kind of prediction, auto capitalisation, auto anything.

 

[Stuntman]

Does anyone know any other Android keyboards at all which facilitate text selection using left/right/up/down arrows (and ideally have prediction/automation that can be completely switched off)? I must have tried more than 10 by now and can't find any.
Thanks.

Can you please, clarify wha you mean by "text selection using arrows?" Do you mean selecting text in edit mode using arrow keys? Not sure what you mean by this.

In any case, for a while I was using Thumb Keyboard. I used it with all text prediction, auto correct, auto capitalisation, auto spacing and auto punctuation off. The Kii keyboard also allows you to turn these features off.

I have recently switched to SwiftKey as my landscape and Swype as my portrait keyboards. I found that the text prediction capabilities with SwiftKey enabled me to type faster and more accurately than any other keyboard. I still have auto correct off, but do use text prediction. It does take up screen space, but overall, I felt it was worth it. Swype is the best one handed keyboard I have ever used.

 

[Aidan Bell]

Thanks for the help and the questions.
I'm very old-fashioned, I don't want the software to help me in any way, I want the keyboard to behave like a physical qwerty keyboard, I'm happy with cap-lock but that's about it!! I don't use the Swype function with Swype, I use Swype only because it's the only keyboard I know that allows text selection using arrows. So what do I mean by that? Well, I mean that using only keys on the qwerty keyboard, not touching the text at all; iI press the highlight key, after which I can select text by pressing the left/right arrow keys to select letters or words, or the up/down arrow keys to select entire lines or paragraphs, and can then delete or copy/paste the selected text. This is all done using the keys of the keyboard, not the blue markers that most people use to select by moving them with their fingers around the text.

 

[gtbarry]

I agree with you in that I rely on swype (I dabble with the others) and I just find it annoying to stop sliding and tap on a word above. Kind of like when I type on a computer keyboard and have to reach for the mouse. I would rather just backspace over the last three or four words I typed to correct a typo and retype.

 

[chanchan05]

You could try Kii, and Go Keyboard. Perfect Keyboard is also an option.

 

[Pep]

Swift key gives you the option to have the 4 arrows, and i believe you can turn the prediction bar off totally.

Pep

 

[Aidan Bell]

A lot of people rave about the customization of the kii keyboard layout (free in Play Store). It uses arrows if you choose to.

I spent some time yesterday trying to access the arrows, and completely failed! Could you let me know where I can find them? Thanks.

 

[uniqdevi1]

I spent some time yesterday trying to access the arrows, and completely failed! Could you let me know where I can find them? Thanks.

Adrian, dude try touchpal keyboard. You might like it. Let me know if you download it & try it.

 

[Aidan Bell]

Adrian, dude try touchpal keyboard. You might like it. Let me know if you download it & try it.

Hey, thanks man. Wow! I'm very impressed, I'd like to use it, but for two problems. Could you help me with either of them?
1: when you use voice dictation the text doesn't go straight onto the page, but into the bar above the keyboard, and then you have to select it. Can that be changed?
2. Same as Swype, there is a suggested words bar above the keyboard, and whenever I type it says "Touch to save" and a progress bar appears.
Can that be switched off?

 

[uniqdevi1]

Hey, thanks man. Wow! I'm very impressed, I'd like to use it, but for two problems. Could you help me with either of them?
1: when you use voice dictation the text doesn't go straight onto the page, but into the bar above the keyboard, and then you have to select it. Can that be changed?
2. Same as Swype, there is a suggested words bar above the keyboard, and whenever I type it says "Touch to save" and a progress bar appears.
Can that be switched off?

Good question, as far as it's settings go, no you can't. But I find it useful because sometimes voice recognition doesn't understand you therefore allowing you to verify that that's what you want to input before it does input it. Wouldn't you agree?

 

[gtbarry]

I spent some time yesterday trying to access the arrows, and completely failed! Could you let me know where I can find them? Thanks.

Settings > Keyboard Layout & Keys > Show bottom Arrow Row (about the 5th one down).

Sadly I see now that it is a premium option. Which means you can use it an hour at a time to test it and see if you want to pay for it.

 

[Aidan Bell]

So ... !

PERFECT KEYBOARD
This would be my top choice because you can turn absolutely all prediction completely off. However, it doesn't have arrows so I can't use it.

KII
Another excellent keyboard, on which one can largely turn off prediction. And thanks to Gtbarry I've now found the arrows, cheers. However, what use are arrows with out a "select" button. What a shame.

TOUCHPAL
I really liked this one, but I can't understand what the coloured progress bar is all about. What is it busy processing every time I type? This is another close contender, but again one can't completely shut down prediction, ie the "Touch to save" business.

GO
Not bad. It TOO has a huge bar at the top (Perfect Keyboard is the only one that doesn't), but the thing that preventing me from choosing this one is an outright winner is the fact that when using the arrows, it's only possible to select text left and right, not up and down. Is this a bug?


So in conclusion I still haven't found the perfect keyboard, and it's only two functions that I'm looking for:
1) The keyboard must have arrows for easy text selection.
2) It should be possible to utterly switch off all forms of prediction and automation.

Any more suggestions, anyone?

Cheers,
Aidan

 

[chanchan05]

Perfect keyboard has arrows. swipe the spacebar upwards. Then to close the arrows, you swipe downward on the spacebar.

On Touchpal, to turn off prediction, swipe on the spacebar sideways. You can see a little switch there.

 

[Aidan Bell]

Perfect keyboard has arrows. swipe the spacebar upwards. Then to close the arrows, you swipe downward on the spacebar.

Many thanks (but how on earth are people supposed to know that!!).
Well, we're halfway there, then. Now I have arrow keys, but I have no way of selecting any text with them

 

[Aidan Bell]

On Touchpal, to turn off prediction, swipe on the spacebar sideways. You can see a little switch there.

Again thank you. But switching off prediction doesn't stop words appearing in the bar above the keyboard and the "Touch to save" message.

In fact, turning ON preduction DOES stop "Touch to save"! But what I want is to have neither!

 

[uniqdevi1]

So ... !

PERFECT KEYBOARD
This would be my top choice because you can turn absolutely all prediction completely off. However, it doesn't have arrows so I can't use it.

KII
Another excellent keyboard, on which one can largely turn off prediction. And thanks to Gtbarry I've now found the arrows, cheers. However, what use are arrows with out a "select" button. What a shame.

TOUCHPAL
I really liked this one, but I can't understand what the coloured progress bar is all about. What is it busy processing every time I type? This is another close contender, but again one can't completely shut down prediction, ie the "Touch to save" business.

GO
Not bad. It TOO has a huge bar at the top (Perfect Keyboard is the only one that doesn't), but the thing that preventing me from choosing this one is an outright winner is the fact that when using the arrows, it's only possible to select text left and right, not up and down. Is this a bug?


So in conclusion I still haven't found the perfect keyboard, and it's only two functions that I'm looking for:
1) The keyboard must have arrows for easy text selection.
2) It should be possible to utterly switch off all forms of prediction and automation.

Any more suggestions, anyone?

Cheers,
Aidan

The progress bar on touchpal just shows how fast you're typing. You can turn it off.

 

[Aidan Bell]

The progress bar on touchpal just shows how fast you're typing. You can turn it off.

Thanks. Can you possibly tell me how, please? testing all these keyboards I'm finding their settings very counter-intuitive. Either that or there's a pre-knowledge of how keyboards work that I haven't yet learned.

 

[uniqdevi1]

Thanks. Can you possibly tell me how, please? testing all these keyboards I'm finding their settings very counter-intuitive. Either that or there's a pre-knowledge of how keyboards work that I haven't yet learned.

Yes sir follow the screen shots.

 

[Aidan Bell]

Many thanks.
Quite ironic, really; far from "feeling speed", the bar progress gives you an impression that something is busy processing and that the chip is going to be slowed down!!

So, I'm almost winning with TouchPal now. All that's left is to find a way of stopping "Touch to save".
I presume this is TouchPal offering to add words to my dictionary (which I also don't use). Unfortunately Jellybean doesn't seem to have any dictionary options (Such as "I don't want one, turn it off"!), but my device is rooted, would anyone know a workaround? What if I were to perhaps Freeze my dictionary with Titanium, or might that cause other issues?

 

[uniqdevi1]

Many thanks.
Quite ironic, really; far from "feeling speed", the bar progress gives you an impression that something is busy processing and that the chip is going to be slowed down!!

So, I'm almost winning with TouchPal now. All that's left is to find a way of stopping "Touch to save".
I presume this is TouchPal offering to add words to my dictionary (which I also don't use). Unfortunately Jellybean doesn't seem to have any dictionary options (Such as "I don't want one, turn it off"!), but my device is rooted, would anyone know a workaround? What if I were to perhaps Freeze my dictionary with Titanium, or might that cause other issues?

Try freezing, but before you do that boot into CWM & make a backup just in case.

 

[Aidan Bell]

It turns out I already froze my dictionary some time ago when I first rooted the phone. I'll email TouchPal help about getting rid of the bar, but I doubt it's possible to do so.
I have managed to now tweak TouchPal into being definitely the front-runner for me, so I'll live with it for a few days now and see how I get on.

Many thanks, Uniqdevi1, for the TouchPal tips, and many thanks to everyone who responded to my initial enquiry with suggestions for keyboards.

I'm certainly open to, and would be grateful for, any further suggestions (especially any that might help get rid of the "Touch to save" message), but for the time being I'll give TouchPal a good test run.

 

[uniqdevi1]

It turns out I already froze my dictionary some time ago when I first rooted the phone. I'll email TouchPal help about getting rid of the bar, but I doubt it's possible to do so.
I have managed to now tweak TouchPal into being definitely the front-runner for me, so I'll live with it for a few days now and see how I get on.

Many thanks, Uniqdevi1, for the TouchPal tips, and many thanks to everyone who responded to my initial enquiry with suggestions for keyboards.

I'm certainly open to, and would be grateful for, any further suggestions (especially any that might help get rid of the "Touch to save" message), but for the time being I'll give TouchPal a good test run.

You're welcome, told ya it's a good keyboard. I do agree on the bar though. What phone do you have?