How to swipe instead of type in keypad

Never quite got the hang of tap, tap, tapping on a touchscreen keypad? If you’re using an Android phone and you’re feeling a little daring, there’s a clever—and surprisingly elegant—alternative: swiping.

For a little more than a year now, Android has boasted a clever feature called Gesture Typing, which lets you type on your phone’s virtual keyboard by swiping your fingertip from one letter to another.

You can enable Gesture Typing from the Language & Input section of the Settings app.

As you slide your finger, Gesture Typing does its best to guess the word you want to type—and luckily, Gesture Typing’s best guess is typically quite good.
Of course, typing with touchscreen gestures takes some getting used to, but it doesn’t take long to get the hang of it—and don’t be surprised if you never go back to tapping.
Indeed, within a few minutes, I found myself “typing” with ease, with my thumb making big, looping gestures across the virtual keypad on my (now long-in-the-tooth) Galaxy Nexus phone.
Gesture Typing is “natively” supported on Android phones running on Android version 4.2 and up. (Here’s how to check which version of Android your phone is running on.)
Got an older Android phone? You can still add Gesture Typing to your device by downloading and installing Google Keyboard (which works on Android phones with version 4.0 and up of the Android OS) from the Play Store.
Want to give Gesture Typing a try? Here’s how…

• Launch the Settings app, tap “Language & input,” then find the “Keyboard & Input Methods” heading.
• Make sure the Google Keyboard option is checked, then tap its settings button immediately to the right.
• Scroll down to the Gesture Typing section, then check the box next to “Enable gesture typing.” You can also tick off a few other options if you wish, including a “gesture trail” that appears as you swipe, as well as a “floating” preview of the word that Gesture Typing thinks you have in mind.
• Now, go ahead and jump to any app that requires the keyboard, and try swiping instead of typing. Neat, right?

An alternative to Gesture Typing is Swype, a third-party Android app that’s actually been in the swipe-to-type business longer than Google has.
Swype comes with a variety of features you won’t find in Google’s Keyboard app, from gesture shortcuts (which let you, say, jump to the number keypad by using a special swipe) to custom keyboard themes. You can even tweak how much of the screen the Swype keyboard fills.
The only catch: the Swype app (which is available from the Play Store) will set you back $4, while Google Keyboard is free.

Bonus tip

Don’t bother to tap the space bar as you’re swiping; both Gesture Typing and Swype will add spaces between your words automatically.

via

6 essential Android typing tips

Ever dread the thought of tapping out a text or replying to email on your slippery Android touchscreen? I know the feeling.
Here’s a half-dozen ways to make life easier on your fingertips, from long-pressing your way to the symbol keys to letting your voice do the typing.

1. Long-press for accents, numbers, and symbols

Need an accent above a vowel, or just a quick number or two?
Try this: tap and hold a key to reveal a pop-up menu of additional options.
For example, if you tap and hold a letter key along the top row of the keypad, you’ll get a shortcut for the number that shares space on that particular key.
Meanwhile, you can long-press any vowel key—say, “e”—for acute (“é”) and grave (“è”) accents, as well as umlauts (“ë”), circumflex (“ê”), and more.
You can also try the same trick with symbol keys. Tap and hold the dash key (“-”), for example, and you’ll find an em dash (“—”), while long-pressing the dollar sign (“$”) reveals symbols for the euro, the Japanese yen, and the British pound, among others.
Last but not least, tap and hold the period for a pop-up menu of many common symbol keys, including parenthesis, the colon and semicolon, the pound sign, and quotes.

Just double-click the shift key to switch to all-caps mode.

2. Double-click for caps lock

Want to type in ALL CAPS? Not a problem. Just double-tap the shift key.
When you do, a telltale blue indicator will light up, and all the letter keys will jump into upper-case mode.
Ready to return to lowercase? Tap the shift key once more.

3. Turn off auto-correct

As you type, most Android phones will display a row of alternate spelling possibilities just above the keyboard; tap one, and it’ll replace the word you’re typing (or mangling, as the case may be).
Many Android phones may also let you replace a word automatically by tapping the spacebar or a punctuation key
Android’s “auto-correction” feature comes in handy when you’re typing in a hurry, but it can also leave you a little red-faced if you wind up texting that (for example) you’re in a “can” rather than a “cab.”

You can turn off Android’s “auto-correct” feature in just a few taps.

Rather not risk any auto-correct embarrassments? Here’s how:

• Tap Settings, Language & Input, find the Keyboard & Input Methods heading, then tap the Settings icon next to “Android keyboard.” (Note: The exact settings may differ depending on the make and model of your Android phone; I tested this tip on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus, running on Android version 4.2.1.)
• Scroll down to the Text Correction heading, then tap “Auto-correction.”
• A pop-up menu will give you a series of auto-correct options, from “Modest” to “Very aggressive.” The setting we’re looking for, though, is “Off.” Go ahead and tap it. And don’t worry: you’ll still see a row of word suggestions above the keyboard, even with auto-correct disabled.

4. Speak instead of type

Don’t have a free hand for tapping out a text message? Well, there’s always the power of speech.
In the bottom-left corner of most recent Android phones, you’ll find a key stamped with a microphone icon.
Tap it and start talking—and as you do, your phone will listen carefully and start transcribing your words on the screen.
The results may not be perfect, and you may have to resort to tapping to replace a word or two.
That said, Android’s “voice recognition” feature can be uncannily accurate—and unlike the iPhone, Android will let you voice-type even without a data connection.
(Having trouble with voice recognition when your phone doesn’t have a signal? Tap Settings, Language & Input, Voice Search, and—finally—”Download offline speech recognition.”)

Even if you don’t have the latest version of Android on your phone, Swype will let you do the “swipe-to-type” trick on your handset.

5. Swipe instead of type

Is tapping on your Android phone’s virtual keypad slowing you down? Here’s a way to speed up your touchscreen words-per-minute: swiping instead of typing.
“Gesture Typing,” a feature in the latest version of Android, lets you swipe smoothly from one letter to the next, almost like you’re drawing words rather than typing them.
For using an older Android phone, there’s always Swype, a downloadable Android add-on that also lets you do the swipe-to-type trick.
Read more…

6. Use custom keyboard shortcuts

Getting tired of typing out your street address over and over, or wish you could type a phrase like “On my way!” in just a few taps?
Using the “Personal dictionary” feature on newer Android phones, you can designate your own, custom keyboard shortcuts, good for anything from common phrases to your job title.
For example, you can tap “omw” to insert the phrase “on my way” into a text or email message, or type “addr” (or anything you want) to call up your home address.

a post from heresthethingblog.com
6 essential Android typing tips