Poll: + or = or - or _ for Onscreen Keyboard
 

There is a rather trivial aspect to the onscreen keyboard that always irks me. The lower-case keyboard -- which is what everyone uses primarily -- has a "+" key and an "=" key, but you have to move to Upper Case if you want to type a "-" . Well, I'm often having to change case just for the darn "-".

I've considered listing this in bugzilla as a "bug." But it's not really a bug exactly, and maybe my preference isn't as usual as I think it is. So I thought I'd find out. Hence this poll.

If only two out of these four possible keys are included in the lower-case keyboard, which two keys do you prefer to have there? (Oops, part of the poll question got cut off; but the bold question here is what the question is.)

Re: Poll: + or = or - or _ for Onscreen Keyboard
 

Just to make sure, you are familiar with gestures, right?

Re: Poll: + or = or - or _ for Onscreen Keyboard
 

Yeah. I use - a lot more than +. And _ more than =.

While they are at it, get rid of the "En" key and give us back the Caps!!! We can change the Text Input using the Control Panel!

Re: Poll: + or = or - or _ for Onscreen Keyboard
 

Maybe it's a matter of practice, but I've found getting the Upper Case by moving the stylus (a "gesture") hit-and-miss, and since it often gives me the wrong output I find it more trouble than it's worth.

Re: Poll: + or = or - or _ for Onscreen Keyboard
 

I agree 100%! Somehow I hadn't even realized it wasn't there until I started using matchbox-keyboard; but now that I have realized it, I sure wish Caps were there.

Re: Poll: + or = or - or _ for Onscreen Keyboard
 

I want the pipe!

|

Re: Poll: + or = or - or _ for Onscreen Keyboard
 

also a good suggestion. It is too much of a royal pain to find that, when you need it. It might actually be quicker to find my iGo keyboard, pair it up, and continue with that instead of the on-screen keyboard...

Re: Poll: + or = or - or _ for Onscreen Keyboard
 

You know you can edit the virtual keyboard layout right?

(I once had pipe w/out pressing shift)

Re: Poll: + or = or - or _ for Onscreen Keyboard
 

How?

...........

Re: Poll: + or = or - or _ for Onscreen Keyboard
 

Re: Poll: + or = or - or _ for Onscreen Keyboard
 

OK, a shameless bump! Any more poll-takers?

Hey, also, anybody know what to do with the results, like is there any way to let Nokia know that we would like them to make a different choice for these keys on the keyboard in the next OS release?

Re: Poll: + or = or - or _ for Onscreen Keyboard
 

Somehow, I've managed to get a '-' instead of a '=' on my virtual keyboard. I'm really not sure how it happened, but I think I may have selected UK keyboard vice a US keyboard?

In any case, I have '-' and '+' both showing on the keyboard when I use it.

Re: Poll: + or = or - or _ for Onscreen Keyboard
 

I'll be darned! Switching to the UK EN keyboard gave me, not a '-' and a '+' but a '-' and a '='. Not bad! Also gets the '_' into Upper Case instead of Symbol. Lost some stuff, no doubt, not sure what yet. But I'm going British!

Re: Poll: + or = or - or _ for Onscreen Keyboard
 

woot, UK ftw :P

Re: Poll: + or = or - or _ for Onscreen Keyboard
 

The problem with this poll is that it ignores the keyboard language chosen by the user. I notice that you are US based so I guess that you've selected 'English (USA)' as the keyboard language. If you switch to 'English (UK)' you will get a different result - one that includes '-' and '=' in the lower case.

If you experiment with different languages you will see a lot of variation. Since you can choose two languages to switch between, it might be worth including both UK and US so just a single tap on 'En' to flip between the different layouts.

Re: Poll: + or = or - or _ for Onscreen Keyboard
 

Well, I got fancy and just copied the /usr/share/keyboards/en_UK.vkb file to /usr/share/en_US.vkb.

When I rebooted, I could only do handwriting, so don't do that. :)

desiv
p.s. I made a copy first, so I could go back. ;)

Re: Poll: + or = or - or _ for Onscreen Keyboard
 

What a poll. Why not ask "Would you rather beat your wife or beat your kids?" (in a game of cards). OF COURSE I want a full 102 key ASCII keyboard with function keys F1 - F12. Duh.

Re: Poll: + or = or - or _ for Onscreen Keyboard
 

ASCII keyboard?
Beats an EBCDIC keyboard, I guess.

Re: Poll: + or = or - or _ for Onscreen Keyboard
 

My on-screen kbd is set so that I can switch between my own locale and UK English, and in UK English mode I get the '-', just as I want it. In my own locale I get '-' as well, on the letter keys instead of the numeric keypad, which is fine. Now, the major reason I need the UK English kbd at all is that the '|' (pipe) sign is missing from my own locale kbd! Argh! Those designers must start to realize what kind of letters are wanted on a *nix-based system.