Why can't cursor control be included in virtual keyboard?

[amajamar]

I love my Droid and I really like the virtual keyboard, especially the landscape mode, however I can't understand why there can't be some simple cursor control built into it. They have space for really unneeded symbols, like TM and others, why can't a couple of buttons be used for cursor control? I don't care if they are on the main layout or not just should be somewhere. It is not really easy to stick a finger on some of the really small textboxes.

 

[tbever]

I love my Droid and I really like the virtual keyboard, especially the landscape mode, however I can't understand why there can't be some simple cursor control built into it. They have space for really unneeded symbols, like TM and others, why can't a couple of buttons be used for cursor control? I don't care if they are on the main layout or not just should be somewhere. It is not really easy to stick a finger on some of the really small textboxes.

Agree 100% !!! This should be simple to implement!! And while they are at it why can't there be simple cursor controls on the physical keyboard rather than having to use the D pad?? There are a couple of blank keys on the keyboard that maybe in Droid 2 could be made into cursor keys. It makes cut and paste needlessly tricky. I use a PPC for a database app and have the Fitaly keyboard which is awesome! I wish they would come out with this for Android.

 

[phone]

I agree. Most of the time when I switch to the physical keyboard, it's because I need cursor control.

 

[amajamar]

Why these things don't come up in r&d is beyond me…

 

[takeshi]

Probably because it's not an issue for most? I've never run into this problem myself.

Besides, its Android. An alternative keyboard could be developed. I'm not sure why everyone thinks Android should be perfectly tailored to each individual person out of the box.

 

[apeshitninja]

You can move the cursor around by touching the screen, its not perfect but it works.

 

[gloster]

Yes, you can move by touching the screen. But, like the OP, I would really benefit from cursor controls on the virtual keyboards

 

[hookbill]

I never even thought of this as being an issue. I just move the cursor with my fingers, that works fine. Anyway as pointed out there is a way to do it on the physical keyboard. Just pull that out and use it for that purpose. I mean how many times are you going to move the cursor anyway?

It cracks me up the "outrage" that I see from some posters over minor issues like this. Or maybe I just perceive outrage. Either way it's not really an issue IMHO.

 

[tbever]

I never even thought of this as being an issue. I just move the cursor with my fingers, that works fine. Anyway as pointed out there is a way to do it on the physical keyboard. Just pull that out and use it for that purpose. I mean how many times are you going to move the cursor anyway?

It cracks me up the "outrage" that I see from some posters over minor issues like this. Or maybe I just perceive outrage. Either way it's not really an issue IMHO.

I wouldn't call this "outrage". Minor annoyance may even be too strong a term.

I have to bang out a fair number of emails and texts in a day on the droid, and when I am typing very quickly with the physical or the virtual keyboard , it's not uncommon for me to make single letter typos, typically hitting 2 keys at once.

Having a cursor keypad on the virtual keyboard would simply make correcting this type of mistake faster and more efficient: I don't want to waste any time to hunt and peck to fix typos. You can get close to the place where you need to delete or backspace with your finger but it is pretty tricky to get right next to the letter you want to delete at least with my big fingers. Cursor left/right keys would make that a bit easier. There is even room for them at the bottom left and bottom right of the physical keyboard. An implementation like that other touchscreen phone which shall remain nameless where there is a little magnifying glass that automatically pops up to help with corrections would be nice also.


If a laptop did not have cursor keys it would be dead in the water.

I think everyone recognizes this is a work in progress and there is room for improvement. People use their devices differently.

 

[LordKastle]

I don't think it would be that difficult to implement a cursor and have it controlled by pre-set keyboard buttons on the physical keyboard or the d-pad when activated and turned on. It's just a matter of Google wanting to implement the feature in Android.

 

[amajamar]

I am not "outraged", nor do I think that Android should be "perfectly tailored to me". I was just asking a question. I have several times needed to control the cursor especially in portrait mode and some of the text boxes are extremely small.

That said, my feeling is that if you are designing a new "operating system" or something like that, for a phone that essentially has no buttons, and cursor control is required occasionally or more often by some, that would have been determined during the r&d phase. You would think that someone would have felt that including that function would have had a higher value than being able to insert a registered trademark symbol or other infrequently used symbol. As a matter of fact some of the letters have several variants that can be used. That means that some of the symbols could have been put on a fly-out button and a couple of buttons could have been used for cursor control. You really only need two.

Motorola designed the physical keypad to have cursor control. They obviously thought that it was an important function to have on a keyboard. I am just surprised that the Android virtual keyboard designers didn't feel the need for the same.

Maybe they only used the physical keyboard to do their work, after all, it had a cursor control pad...

 

[cbatters]

Virtual keyboard with better cursor controls

I concur. Droid needs better cursor controls.

I originally opted for the Moto Droid over the HTC Droid from Verizon because the Moto Droid had a physical keyboard and was already running Androind 2.0 with Navigation which works great. In hindsight, I wish I had gone for the HTC Droid with trackball and waited for the 2.0 upgrade.

Still looking for some enhanced virtual keytboard that has a better edit mode that suppported:

o 2X zoom when editing for better selection
o Select edit location (single click with up-down-left-right arrow control)
o Word select (double click)
o Range select (double click and drag to select region)
o Operation select (cut, paste, copy etc)

TouchPal keyboard looks promising but they pulled it from AppMarket and no ETA on when it will return. Please post a link or PM me if you know where I can get a copy of the original free version.


Clint

 

[LordKastle]

touchpal | All | By date, Androlib, Android Applications and Games

 

[cbatters]

touchpal | All | By date, Androlib, Android Applications and Games

Thanks for the link but if you follow it and use the QR barcode to get to the Android Market, you will find that it is not available. (been there - done that)

Looking for a source outside of the market.

Note: Anyone who has TOuchPal installed can easily use Astro to back it up to their SD card and email it to my gmail account.

Bender is now ASTRO v1.1.0 Application for Android | Tools

 

[markmicallef]

Agree 100%, I end up deleting words or part of and retyping cuz I cant get the curser exactly wwhere i need it.