Issues with soft keyboards

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I have tried a number of soft keyboards - SpbKeyboard, FingerKeyboard2, PCM Keyboard, as potential replacements for the hardware keyboard, or even the soft keyboard that comes with the device. I have two issues with them all, and I wonder if others in this forum share this view or have a way round the issues:

1. The fact that none of them has readily accessible arrow buttons makes them clumsy. If I need to move the cursor to a particular position, in many cases, I would have to use the stylus; this defeats the purpose. If the x7510 had a joystick it would not be a problem, but it doesn't. FingerKeyboard2 does have arrows, but you would have to press two other keys to bring up the arrow keys.
2. The second issue is related to the first: When filling a form on the screen, the keyboards often cover the entry fields. Because there are no readily accessible arrow keys, I often have to set aside the soft keyboard for either the hardware keyboard or the stock keyboard.

Any ideas on how to get round these issues, or is there a soft keyboard that addresses them?

I can highly recommend TouchPal from Cootek

Its word completion is second to none (but needs a little learning!) and it has access to arrow keys via the navigation screen (there are screens for alpha, numeric, special and navigation all selectable from a row of icons)

It doesn't always move the underlying screen up so you can see what you are typing, but is better than Fingertouch, and at least you have all the navi and editing keys to hand.

Currently costs $9.75 using the promo code SPM2TP

I have used Resco Keyboard until now because the keys are so large that even my large fingers can cope easily. However I sorely miss having arrowkeys, punctuation (comma and period) and also ctrl on the top screen, so when I want to write quickly I often end up with the extremely tiny and sucky standard wm keyboard which is kind of ironic when I installed the other keyboard for ease of use. So right now I'm looking for a better alternative.

As above- TouchPal has a screen dedicated to navigation and text management, so although it doesn't have a Ctrl key, it does have buttons for Cut/Copy/Paste etc and it has common punctuation on the main keyboard screen.

I always find it annoying when the soft keyboard covers the screen in browsers, especially when I'm using the hardware keyboard. Is there a way to disable the software keyboard from popping up unless requested?