How to use SlideKeys on Android
Nov. 11th, 2010 12:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liam_on_linux2 weeks of Android phone ownership & I already really hate onscreen keyboards! & I have a big-screen phone with lots of room for a relatively big 1, too.
So my interest in alternative input methods is becoming keen.
Sadly most I've found are payware, which I'd rather avoid. A friend recommended ThickButtons but it seems not to work on 2.2: it crashes on the 1st keypress for me.
So I am trying SlideKeys. It's a weird but very clever free input method that effectively leverages 1 of the strengths of modern touchscreens: detecting drags.
But I couldn't find any instructions, so I had to puzzle it out. Here is how you use it.
SlideKeys shows you a standard phone numeric keypad, with the same arrangement of 3 or 4 letters per number as any phone. BUT the letters are in an odd pattern: arranged NSE or NSEW if there are 4.
The reason for the arrangement is key (sorry) to how SlideKeys functions.
Tap a key, you get a number, as many frustrated comments in the Android Market attest. To enter letters, tap a number, keep your fingertip on the screen & slide it off the key in the direction that the desired letter is on the key.
So, for instance, WXYZ are all on 9, arranged WNES respectively. Tap 9 for a 9. For X, press 9, keep your fingertip on the screen and slide it off upwards. It doesn't really matter how far - nice long slides seem to work best.
You type by dragging off each key. Proficient number-key typers have an edge as the letters are in the expected positions but it will take time to learn to be fast.
It's clever and it does work. It badly needs integration with Android's predictive mechanism & some method of guessing when you actually want numbers - it enters digits FAR too readily.
But for free, I'm not complaining!
UPDATE: that was pretty much all typed with SlideKeys, if it was not apparent from the odd abbreviation. I thought it was about time someone described how it worked, since when I got it, I couldn't find any such info anywhere. I get a lot of mistyped digits; I am not sure if practice will improve this, since considerable accuracy is required. It's pretty unforgiving of errors.
I think it might also better suit very small screens - its square window is huge on my Desire HD & leaves only ½ the screen visible.
I've not covered installation or activation as I don't know if these vary from phone to phone.
But, still, a clever, novel & viable alternative text input method, entirely free, is not to be sniffed at.
A hint: tap the Alt button to cycle through punctuation and caps and back to normal text. Slide up from the Alt button to turn on Caps Lock; slide down across it to turn it off.
It automatically capitalises the letter after full-stop+space but doesn't capitalise "I" or any other words on its own & there are no predictions or suggestions, sadly.
Posted via LjBeetle
So my interest in alternative input methods is becoming keen.
Sadly most I've found are payware, which I'd rather avoid. A friend recommended ThickButtons but it seems not to work on 2.2: it crashes on the 1st keypress for me.
So I am trying SlideKeys. It's a weird but very clever free input method that effectively leverages 1 of the strengths of modern touchscreens: detecting drags.
But I couldn't find any instructions, so I had to puzzle it out. Here is how you use it.
SlideKeys shows you a standard phone numeric keypad, with the same arrangement of 3 or 4 letters per number as any phone. BUT the letters are in an odd pattern: arranged NSE or NSEW if there are 4.
The reason for the arrangement is key (sorry) to how SlideKeys functions.
Tap a key, you get a number, as many frustrated comments in the Android Market attest. To enter letters, tap a number, keep your fingertip on the screen & slide it off the key in the direction that the desired letter is on the key.
So, for instance, WXYZ are all on 9, arranged WNES respectively. Tap 9 for a 9. For X, press 9, keep your fingertip on the screen and slide it off upwards. It doesn't really matter how far - nice long slides seem to work best.
You type by dragging off each key. Proficient number-key typers have an edge as the letters are in the expected positions but it will take time to learn to be fast.
It's clever and it does work. It badly needs integration with Android's predictive mechanism & some method of guessing when you actually want numbers - it enters digits FAR too readily.
But for free, I'm not complaining!
UPDATE: that was pretty much all typed with SlideKeys, if it was not apparent from the odd abbreviation. I thought it was about time someone described how it worked, since when I got it, I couldn't find any such info anywhere. I get a lot of mistyped digits; I am not sure if practice will improve this, since considerable accuracy is required. It's pretty unforgiving of errors.
I think it might also better suit very small screens - its square window is huge on my Desire HD & leaves only ½ the screen visible.
I've not covered installation or activation as I don't know if these vary from phone to phone.
But, still, a clever, novel & viable alternative text input method, entirely free, is not to be sniffed at.
A hint: tap the Alt button to cycle through punctuation and caps and back to normal text. Slide up from the Alt button to turn on Caps Lock; slide down across it to turn it off.
It automatically capitalises the letter after full-stop+space but doesn't capitalise "I" or any other words on its own & there are no predictions or suggestions, sadly.
Posted via LjBeetle
