Keyboard print layouts and functionality

[EskeRahn 5,471]

spam71, sounds reassuring. But I guess we have no way of knowing if they are doing it the same way on this all new device.

And hopefully it can be done without rooting, as not all users might be comfortable rooting.

[Siani_8 105]

Well I don't mind rooting for keymapping if that is necessary but for the life of me I can't figure out why the Pro 1 has the microphone voice command button on both sides but not Alt. My G1 had it as well as G2 and the MyTouch 4G Slide in the past. it wasn't until the Blackberry Priv that I suffered the awkwardness of alt only being on the left side of the keyboard.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

Siani_8, what do you mean by "microphone voice command button" ? I'm pretty sure the yellow arrows are like "Fn" on many laptops, accessing the extras printed in yellow.. And I assume the "Logo F" is to launch their own suite of programs optimized for landscape.

[spam71 55]

All you have to do is edit 2 text files: 1 in /system/usr/keychars and 1 in /system/usr/keylayout. To do it, root access is required. Since ICS, these are simple text files.

[Siani_8 105]

EskeRahn: I'm talking about the key to the right of Cntrl key on both sides of the Pro 1 keyboard. I suppose it could act as Fn key but assumed it was the voice command key standard on android keyboards. Still, even if it's like the Fn key, most keyboards only have one of those as it's a less used function so I see less of a need for two of those wheras Alt is used ALL the time and would be way more useful to have one on each side.

 

Spam71: The last time I rooted a phone was the Galaxy S3. I wasn't necessarily planning on depending on root functionality to get a standard keyboard function or even rooting the phone period. Assuming someone with the knowledge at XDA makes that process simple, I suppose I could look into it though and assuming someone with the knowledge buys the phone to make it happen to begin with because I'm no programmer and work outside on the railroad. I vaguely remember doing some kind of key map edit on an old MyTouch 4G Slide following forum instructions but isn't something I really get into anymore. You say it's simple and you may be right but why should I have to for a key that has been standard on the old great physical android keyboards of old when the makers of this phone could just add it before launch.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

Siani_B, on the first, it is clarly not a microphone

I guess it depends on what functions is behind the Yellow arrow versus the Alt key to say whether one is better than the other to have doubled on both sides.

 

And I agree that Hopefully rooting will not be needed to handle different layouts.

[Siani_8 105]

I can definitely see it's an arrow in that picture lol. well I guess we'll see if the logic of having two of those and no second alt holds when it's released. I'm gonna pre-order regardless by the end of the month and start shopping for some leather pouches that will fit cause I'm not a fan of the case. I wish they took a page from BlackBerry Priv at least and did a two piece to protect the top half.

[spam71 55]

Isn't rooting a standard procedure required to get most of one's phone? ;-)

I only noticed, that if rooting is possible, potentially there's no problem with keyboard layout tweaking. :-)

[netman 1,424]

It's for certain feasable to adjust the keyboard layout by writing an IME that translates the letters, which wouldn't require root but it would replace the software keyboard in vertical mode (I have done this for a chinese android phone with a numeric keypad). Someone would have to do it though. I'd definitely root the phone personally though, it's pretty much required or else you have to just live with ads in youtube etc.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

Oh I'm not talking for or against rooting with the previous. I'm just saying that I hope there will be a more elegant solution not requiring rooting.

 

In my world there is nothing wrong with rooting BUT it is a bit like working on your PC with an admin account in daily use. It is easy, but it comes with a higher risk of something going haywire if you make a mistake, or you use software with malicious side effect. So it is definitely something I think only people that 'know what they are doing', should do, not the 'average' user.

[OliverTypes 152]

Greetings from Germany! Put me down for a QWERTZ keyboard! :)

Is there a vote on layouts somewhere on the forum? I looked around but did not see one.

[raphaelcno 21]

For people interested in the QWERTZ keyboard, have a look at this new topic:

https://www.fxtec.com/forums/topic/design-the-qwertz-layout/

[illie-vanilli 58]

I have a question about the layout of the keyboard.

 

This might already have been answered but browsing the forum I couldn't find it.

From a picture of the keyboard on Facebook I noticed that they made two keys for brackets in the second-lowest row before the Z, instead of after the P on the second-highest row. Also there is a `-key between Tab and Q, instead of above the Tab.

 

What is the reason for these deviations from the 'regular' keyboardlayout? And will it affect typing blind?

I'm personally afraid it will cause mistypes because of the placement, but also have a feeling this choice has been made for a reason.

 

Kind regards,

Ilse.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

I have a question about the layout of the keyboard.

 

This might already have been answered but browsing the forum I couldn’t find it.

 

From a picture of the keyboard on Facebook I noticed that they made two keys for brackets in the second-lowest row before the Z, instead of after the P on the second-highest row. Also there is a `-key between Tab and Q, instead of above the Tab.

 

What is the reason for these deviations from the ‘regular’ keyboardlayout? And will it affect typing blind?

 

I’m personally afraid it will cause mistypes because of the placement, but also have a feeling this choice has been made for a reason.

 

Kind regards,

 

Ilse.

 

(Moved your comment to this thread)

 

The idea is that for languages only using A-Z, this shift would centre the letters more. The idea is that if you operate with two thumbs, and let the left/right thumb do what the left/right hand do on an pc keyboard, it would be a longer stretch for the right one. See the rest of this thread and also the thread on German layout here

 

(I'm not a fan of the shift either, especially for layouts with national letters)

[Pearl.852 0]

If there is a Chinese Keyboard version available, I would suggest the design as in the attachment, "keyboard-layout-zh(1).png".

 

Also, tried to attach the JavaScript version of the file, "keyboard-layout-zh(1).json", but not allowed.

[Waxberry 638]

If there is a Chinese Keyboard version available, I would suggest the design as in the attachment, “keyboard-layout-zh(1).png”.

 

Also, tried to attach the JavaScript version of the file, “keyboard-layout-zh(1).json”, but not allowed.

 

This is a very interesting suggestion. If the Chinese layout proved to be in a high demand, we would certainly consider it.

 

In the future perhaps if we can make user to do custom mapping, maybe we can just make the alternative printing / keypad and user can swap them on. :)

[EskeRahn 5,471]

In the future perhaps if we can make user to do custom mapping, maybe we can just make the alternative printing / keypad and user can swap them on. :)

 

Does the last part mean that the users can swap the keyboard themselves? That is that we can all safely pre-order the US model, and then later swap the keyboard if/when a layout fitting our needs better will be produced later on?

If so do you have an estimate for the price of an additional keyboard?

[jcp 0]

Personally I never really uses the short cuts except by accident. But the idea is nice, and hopefully the user can customize them as they please.

 

I’m not sure about Android but on Ios to my surprise some programs correctly reacts to Ctrl-short cuts like Ctrl-Z, as well as C,V,X,…

 

So that kind of ‘short cuts’ I hope will be supported too.

 

:)

 

I hope the usual CTRL-(left or right arrow) will work as usual to skip through words and SHIFT-CTRL-(arrows) for backward/foward (resp.) word selection.

On this topic I would really also like like the combination of (yellow arrow)+(arrows) could be mapped to HOME (for the left arrow), END (right arrow), PAGE_UP (up), PAGE_DOWN (down). I understand these keys are missing in the original design but there are very useful when editing a text.

I remapped these keys on my N900 and it was working perfectly.

By the way, please do allow easy key remapping; I am sure some users will want to change some of the characters depending on their needs.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

I hope the usual CTRL-(left or right arrow) will work as usual to skip through words and SHIFT-CTRL-(arrows) for backward/foward (resp.) word selection.

 

I think it is much up to the app what it reacts to. But for sure when they write their own email program optimised for landscape, I too hope they remember the various ctrl-navigation functionality.

[netman 1,424]

Androids EditText widget does ctrl-arrows to skip words already so most apps will already do it even if they didn't explicitly implement it. You can see this in action with any bluetooth keypad that has ctrl or connecting a real keyboard via USB-OTG.

[jcp 0]

predictive/corrective typing

Sorry if this subject is a little off-topic but it is closely related to keyboard functionalities.

The on-screen keyboard nowaday comes with a band above the virtual keyboard with suggestions for word completion/correction or next word prediction. Unfortunately it seems we loose this predictive typing band with a hardware keyboard.

For me the best of the worlds would be to have both : the hardware keyboard and the predictive band at the bottom of the touch screen. The predictive band would be shown only when typing. Of course not everyone will be happy with having this predictive band as it is eating some of the screen size : I suggest it could be activated/deactivated in the settings.

[jcp 0]

On-screen keyboard should be disabled when the physical keyboard is drown

I noticed with other devices with touch screen and hardware keyboard, the on-screen keyboard is usually appearing as soon as the user touches the screen on a writing field. For some of the devices it is difficult to say what is the primary input but for the Pro1 it seems clear it is the hardware keyboard when it is accessible.

[_DW_ 628]

Androids EditText widget does ctrl-arrows to skip words already so most apps will already do it even if they didn’t explicitly implement it. You can see this in action with any bluetooth keypad that has ctrl or connecting a real keyboard via USB-OTG.

 

This is usually a standard operating system feature. When you implement your own editing areas then you need to implement these features but it's rare someone does and usually it's part of the acceptance criteria for the editing area anyway :D

[bbliao 0]

Keyboard shortcuts, navigation are good features, but software optimization is a must. Videos shown in the latest tweet is not very convincing..

 

 

[EskeRahn 5,471]

Keyboard shortcuts, navigation are good features, but software optimization is a must. Videos shown in the latest tweet is not very convincing..

 

I'm quite sure they're aware that there is an optimisation phase of things before release.... They just showed that the principle of an added feature works. Even the hardware we see it used on is unlikely to be the final version...

Let us await a release candidate before judging anything.