Best on screen keyboard?

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YoungSkeezy

Senior Member
Jan 9, 2011
252
110
Love my note. Typing this on our. But I want a keyboard that I can type continously on.

Which keyboard do you prefer and why?

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haterbait

Member
Oct 18, 2013
39
3
I like SwiftKey.

I used the trial of SwiftKey for a bit and enjoyed it enough to buy it. I like to make the keyboard quite small and undock it and use my finger or the spen to swype my words out. I can get pretty quick sometimes. The stock one wasn't too bad, if I remember correctly, but while using the small, undocked version there was an annoying lag when summoning it after selecting a text field. Another I liked was the Multiling keyboard. I think that's what it was called.
 

jaytee23

Senior Member
Dec 8, 2013
68
3
Love my note. Typing this on our. But I want a keyboard that I can type continously on.

Which keyboard do you prefer and why?

I own three keyboards, Swiftkey, Thumb and Swype.

On the Note, I use Swiftkey in split mode (landscape). It works good for me. Not perfect, but good.

It's predictions are very good. But in split landscape mode, it only offers two suggestions at any given time even with all the space available. It would be perfect if it allowed a bit more customization and handled incorrect predictions better. The keyboard on the Palm Pre and the HP Touchpad had better correction feature where if you hit backspace, it would revert back to the word you typed and not the prediction. Thumb keyboard also does that, but Swiftkey does not. I don't understand why since it is so logical. Swiftkey has a number of sizing options and I find it to be the best fit on the Note of all the ones I've tried.

Thumb allows for a lot of customization down to customizing the alternate keys on long presses and long press timing. Swiftkey allows for customization fo long press timing, but not the long press alternate keys. With all the space available in split landscape mode, Swiftkey allows you to place a numerical keypad in the center, but stupidly, not cursor keys, even with all the space. It has cursor keys on the number/symbol page, but it could easily fit them on the main page in split landscape mode. Thumb allows many other keys in what would be the otherwise empty space in split mode, including cursor keys. Also, none allow for a dedicated 5th numerical row like the Palm Pre and HP Touchpad layout, although the Thumb keyboard does allow for a 5th row of custom keys where you could make them numbers, I suppose. But I find the predictions on Thumb to be inferior to Swiftkey by a long shot and none of the themes, sizing and layouts really work for me as well as Swiftkey.

The Swype keyboard just doesn't work well in Landscape mode. The keys are too small and there is no provision for resizing them. So that's just out as an option.

You're best off downloading the free versions and toying around to see what you prefer. But I would try Swiftkey and maybe Thumb.
 
Last edited:

KwestJones

Senior Member
Mar 22, 2008
302
96
NJ
I started using SwiftKey in mini mode undocked. It goes under my right thumb and I swype one hand like a phone. Not perfect but it works

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gramps50

Senior Member
Feb 1, 2011
127
12
I have Kii on all my device. I like the fact that it can be configured different for portrait and landscape. Like in landscape I don't like the keyboard the full width, I type with one finger so full width is a stretch. I put a 25% margin on the left & 5% on the right. Can have a number row on top or nav arrows on the bottom. Will also do swipe. The predictions aren't as good as Swiftkey but still okay. Themes, lots of configuration, split for thumb typing, themes. You can try the premium features for hour then they reset.

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