"better keyboard"

itwerk

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anyone else have this? i downloaded it and have been using it for a few hours, but for some reason when i bring up the keyboard (sms or browser) the first keyboard format that pops up is the 2-letter per button layout. not sure if i can make it to where the regular keyboard comes up as the primary keyboard. any help would be awesomely awesome!
 

Briankbl

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anyone else have this? i downloaded it and have been using it for a few hours, but for some reason when i bring up the keyboard (sms or browser) the first keyboard format that pops up is the 2-letter per button layout. not sure if i can make it to where the regular keyboard comes up as the primary keyboard. any help would be awesomely awesome!

On the keyboard, long press the ?123 button. You will get a menu that pops up. From there, go to Better Keyboard Settings (or something along those lines). There will be a setting I believe that lets you choose which KB you want as default. Also, in the long press menu, you can toggle the compressed qwerty keyboard on/off, although I am not sure if this setting is saved if you restart your phone.

Just a heads up, I highly recommend you install Swype instead:
Swype keyboard preview for Droid leaked DroidMuff.in

I tried Better Keyboard too, but it would crash a lot and when you restart it, you can't see what you are typing in the text field. Swype is awesome! I sometimes bring up Handcent or Notepad just so I can Swype, lol.
 
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DigiK

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"Better" has had the same random close/slowdown bugs for months, where the keyboard will just close out and not reappear for some 5-10 seconds. Additionally, the auto-correct is quite poor. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was the developer's rude and patronizing email response to me after I alerted him to some of the issues I was encountering on Moto Droid. For my four dollars, I don't like being treated like a child. If you can't provide a civil respond to a civil inquiry, just say "Thanks, I'll look into that." :rolleyes: If you're under 24 hours, you're better off getting a refund, because you'll end up being disappointed.

Swype is fun and can be quite efficient, but I found that speed improvement compared to the standard keyboard is negated as soon as you start bumping up against non conventional cases or special punctuation. You end up fiddling more than typing.

Smart Keyboard is conventional keyboard which implements multi-touch and long-press on alpha keys for common symbols. Even in its early state without auto-correct, it's VERY fast & accurate, has a small footprint, and programmable swipe functions. The developer Cyril mentioned he's looking to get the version with auto-correct out next week sometime. It's free; give it a try.

The 2.1 Android keyboard is also a nice improvement on stock 2.01 since it has text-to-speech, but I believe it's only installable with root unless there's a 2.01 .apk floating around out there. Bugless Beast ROM is really worth looking into for that, though! ;)
 

KZIWarrior

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^^Swype, give it a few days, you'll probably LOVE it and not want to go back to a regular 'tap' interface. Less you're in the 1% club, lol:icon_ banana::icon_ banana::icon_ devil:
 

robotkiller

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"Better" has had the same random close/slowdown bugs for months, where the keyboard will just close out and not reappear for some 5-10 seconds. Additionally, the auto-correct is quite poor. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was the developer's rude and patronizing email response to me after I alerted him to some of the issues I was encountering on Moto Droid. For my four dollars, I don't like being treated like a child. If you can't provide a civil respond to a civil inquiry, just say "Thanks, I'll look into that." :rolleyes: If you're under 24 hours, you're better off getting a refund, because you'll end up being disappointed.

Swype is fun and can be quite efficient, but I found that speed improvement compared to the standard keyboard is negated as soon as you start bumping up against non conventional cases or special punctuation. You end up fiddling more than typing.

Smart Keyboard is conventional keyboard which implements multi-touch and long-press on alpha keys for common symbols. Even in its early state without auto-correct, it's VERY fast & accurate, has a small footprint, and programmable swipe functions. The developer Cyril mentioned he's looking to get the version with auto-correct out next week sometime. It's free; give it a try.

The 2.1 Android keyboard is also a nice improvement on stock 2.01 since it has text-to-speech, but I believe it's only installable with root unless there's a 2.01 .apk floating around out there. Bugless Beast ROM is really worth looking into for that, though! ;)

Smart Keyboard is by far the best keyboard app out there. Using multitouch -- especially in landscape -- makes all the difference. The lack of autocorrect really kills it in portrait mode. I would love to pay for a pro version, if it included autocorrect. It's damn near perfect.
 

NickWgnr

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I have better keyboard installed and just downloaded smart keyboard. Both seem to be the same to me. If your looking for a good free keyboard then smart keyboard would be my recommendation but if you want to customize and also have a good keyboard then better keyboard is worth the coin.




Wagner :motdroidvert:
 

robotkiller

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I have better keyboard installed and just downloaded smart keyboard. Both seem to be the same to me. If your looking for a good free keyboard then smart keyboard would be my recommendation but if you want to customize and also have a good keyboard then better keyboard is worth the coin.




Wagner :motdroidvert:

I bought Better Keyboard too. In portrait mode, the two are similar. It's in landscape where Smart Keyboard is superior. Better Keyboard (like the stock keyboard) is laggy in landscape and the lack of multitouch hurts it there.
 

Briankbl

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I have better keyboard installed and just downloaded smart keyboard. Both seem to be the same to me. If your looking for a good free keyboard then smart keyboard would be my recommendation but if you want to customize and also have a good keyboard then better keyboard is worth the coin.




Wagner :motdroidvert:

I bought Better Keyboard too. In portrait mode, the two are similar. It's in landscape where Smart Keyboard is superior. Better Keyboard (like the stock keyboard) is laggy in landscape and the lack of multitouch hurts it there.

Smart Keyboard, even though it has multi-touch, still didn't win me over. A virtual Keyboard on a smartphone WITHOUT auto-correction or predictive text isn't worth it, IMO. I will give it another shot when their paid version hits the market.

Swype is perfect for me. Super easy to use in Portrait OR Landscape, Predictive Text, Auto-Correction, easy to go back and fix mistakes that Swype may miss, and it is fun to do lol. Also, if you don't like to "Swype", the button size/layout makes it easy to text like you normally would.
 

hookbill

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I've been using Better Keyboard (Android) since day 1 and I don't have any issues with it.
 

hookbill

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I've been using Better Keyboard (Android) since day 1 and I don't have any issues with it.

It's good when it works. It just crashed a lot on me, so I moved to Swype.

I wanted to like Swype, I really did but I just couldn't use it. I'm very familiar with the keyboard, it was just doing it with 1 finger that I had an issue with.
 

Briankbl

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I've been using Better Keyboard (Android) since day 1 and I don't have any issues with it.

It's good when it works. It just crashed a lot on me, so I moved to Swype.

I wanted to like Swype, I really did but I just couldn't use it. I'm very familiar with the keyboard, it was just doing it with 1 finger that I had an issue with.

It definitely took me some getting used to. I mean, it's so different than anything I had ever used before. But now I am able to Swype with my thumb, holding the phone comfortably in one hand via portrait, and I can type more swiftly/accurately than I can in landscape with most other keyboards.

Oh, and I am not a spokesperson for Swype, lol. I know I have brought it up in a lot of my posts/threads lately. Sorry, I just want to get the word out about it, since it isn't in the Market so a lot of people probably don't even know what it is. It really upgraded my texting/typing experience, as well as the "feel" of my Droid. Anywho, that's just me :)
 
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