Android keyboards

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Tom

Tom

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One thing (well, four) I miss on my Samsung Galaxy (Android) tablet is/are the up/down/right/left arrows. I've tried several Android keyboards, but haven't found one with these 'keys'. Any Android users found one?
 
I searched my Android phone and can't find the arrow keys either. But then again I rarely use my smartphone for typing, I do my typing on my Chromebook.
 
ThanksTom. I rarely type on my Android smartphone, but type extensively on my 10" Samsung tablet. My next smartphone will probably be more conducive to typing.
 
Thumb Keyboard by Beansoft has the arrow keys.  Multiple layouts and extensive user customizing.  I use it on both phone and tablet.
 
Thanks Appsol. I purchased the app based on your recomendation but I don't see the arrows. Did I miss something? Do you provide a refund?
 
Assuming that you downloaded Thumb Keyboard by Beansoft the arrows are there, but not in all configurations.  Once you install and select Thumb Keyboard 4 as your input method you will need to go into the keyboard and change the settings to choose a layout.  Not all layouts have the arrow keys in portrait mode.  I'm using a 7" tablet (Nexus 7) with the Tablet 7" split - normal layout and they appear in both portrait and landscape.  In 7" split - Large layout they do not appear in portrait, only landscape.  Try the various layouts on your device and I'm sure you'll find the keys appearing.

On some devices a power cycle/reboot is required after installation and selection of the input method to make it fully functional; most likely because the keyboard drivers are loaded on boot and don't completely change with the installation of the app.  Refund.... what's that? :)  I wish I'd created this app, in which case I'd be glad to refund your money if you weren't happy with it.  However, if you can't make it work based on my recommendation let me know... I'll be glad to twice your purchase price to the cost of running this forum!

(also Tom, appsol being a contraction from my company name Applied Solutions)



 
Thanks but color me dumb. I don't see arrows or any way to configure them. Probably operator error.
 
OK I tried rebooting but still don't see arrows. I retire to the bench  :-[
 
What vision do you show installed? Mine is 4.5.2.... downloaded from the Play Store.  I see online comments that some other sites including the Amazon App Store have older versions.  Screenshots of what I see...
 

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Thanks for the screenshots. Mine don't look like that. I downloaded the app via Android Market, and assumed it was the latest rev.
 
Problem solved - put it down to operator error; I missed the setting for keyboard layout; It was set to 'phone', and when I switched to the 10" tablet option, all was revealed. What a difference! Thanks again for pointing me to this keyboard and apologies for being slow to figure it out (a couple of hours sleep helped). I can see that I still have a lot of things to explore with this tool.
 
I'm glad you figured it out, Tom!  If you ever have need of certain dedicated keys like ESC and programmable F# keys when using programs like LogMeIn on legacy servers you'll enjoy the configuration options.
 
Just a brief follow-up. This soft keyboard (Thumb keyboard) is worth every penny. The 4-way arrows alone were a huge improvement, given my style of typing and repeated typo corrections. Also adding significantly to efficiency is the inclusion of all symbols and other stuff on a single numbers page; This required continual switching between 3 pages (4 total) on the original Android keyboard.

Thumb Keyboard has a number of optional views and settings. More details and screenshots in the Android Market.

Again, a big thanks to Appsol for the recommendation.
 
Note that most Android devices come with their own soft keyboard variant, supplied by the device manufacturer rather than using base Android OS keyboard. And even the base Android keyboard has some differences across versions.  It's all but impossible to talk "keyboard' with someone else unless you have the exact same device or have installed the same aftermarket keyboard software. 
 
My original question had a very specific need for a specific device, and not addressed by anything that came with this device. I received only one suggestion, and it turned out to be a good recommendation. I was merely providing feedback as a way of recognizing the responder. No intent to apply to any other device owned by anyone else, but I will be installing it on one,or possibly two, of my other Android devices, and I'm report back later.
 
I made that observation so that other readers would be aware that the shortcomings of your OEM keyboard may not apply to other Android devices. I have two Android tablets and a smart phone and all three came with different keyboard software. Even the two from Motorola (tablet and phone) have different ones!
 
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