Help Does anyone have any text editing tricks?

[Barryvabeach]

I have had the Droid X a week or so and love the big screen. The one thing that I prefer that the Incredible has is the optical ball - if I type in a long word in an email- I find it hard on the Droid X to move the cursor just a few letters, and end up having to backspace a lot of text. The Inc optical ball lets you move your cursor letter by letter without erasing. Anyone have any tips or apps for editing. I have tried the tap to get the magnifier, but it is still pretty hard to get it right on the right letter.

 

[dequardo]

I have the same question/need.

 

[10splaya22]

Practice is all I can tell you. Yes the optical sensor on the incredible was nice for text but thats all I found it useful for. On the X you need to mess around with it more I guess. Im still finding it a little difficult too

 

[androy]

Keep practicing with the magnifier. It gets easier after a while.

 

[mysterygirl]

Keep practicing with the magnifier. It gets easier after a while.

Yeah, I've found this to be the case. I originally missed the trackball on my old Droid Eris. But, I've ALMOST gotten use to using the magnifier. I think it takes a little practice and time to get it right.

 

[edgeman4]

Add stuff you use a lot to the dictionary. If you are in an app where the keyboard function offers you suggestions, you can always just click anywhere on a word you misspelled and the suggestions for that word will come back, and you can see if the correct word is there.

I wish they would just add some arrows somewhere to the virtual keyboard. Slowly I am getting better but my next phone will definitely have some sort of track ball or pad.

 

[Barryvabeach]

I did some searching and I found Ultra Keyboard for 2.99 in the marketplace. Odd that I don't mind spending $200 on a phone, and I am not sure about another $3, but I downloaded the trial version and played with it for a few minutes. There may be a better solution. but UltraKeyboard has a series of editing keys above the keyboard - one of them lets you move the cursor any way you want. I will probably download the trial version and give it a better try before I buy. I am still working on the magnifiier, but I keep getting the select text box, which brings editing to a halt.

 

[edgeman4]

I did some searching and I found Ultra Keyboard for 2.99 in the marketplace. Odd that I don't mind spending $200 on a phone, and I am not sure about another $3, but I downloaded the trial version and played with it for a few minutes. There may be a better solution. but UltraKeyboard has a series of editing keys above the keyboard - one of them lets you move the cursor any way you want. I will probably download the trial version and give it a better try before I buy. I am still working on the magnifiier, but I keep getting the select text box, which brings editing to a halt.

One thing I have noticed about 3rd party keyboards is that the ones I have tried at least, don't have the little microphone button the stock keyboard has that lets you basically speak the text you want. I use this sometimes to send a quick text while driving. Does this keyboard still have that button?

 

[Barryvabeach]

I also tried downloading the HTC keyboard - it has 4 cursor keys on the board it self and makes moving the cursor pretty easy. You get slightly smaller keys, but that may be a tradeoff I am willing to live with. Here is the keyboard. HTC_IME.apk

I downloaded to my pc, sent it to the downloads directory on the phone using the USB cable, unplugged the USB, used Astro to find and install the touch input, then went into setting keyboard and checked the box for touch input. Then when you are ready to type, select the touch input. In landscape it isn't perfect, there is some blank space to the side, but you can move the cursor very precisely.

 

[&roid]

If you are using the Swype keyboard, you can swype from the

key to the SYM key and get this navigation keyboard

and that allows you to move around the text field to make any corrections you need.

 

[edgeman4]

@&roid

That is just flipping awesome, thanks so much for the tip.

 

[Barryvabeach]

&roid, great tip.

edgman4, the HTC keyboard does have a mic key - though I much prefer the Dragon version that you could get with BB.

 

[Donnerschlag]

The Droid X does have an way to edit text.

You will first need to tap the input field where you are typing, this will give you a red target looking thing. All you have to do next is press inside the red circles and it will bring up a magnified area where you can just drag your finger. It will show a cursor while you are dragging, just lift your finger when you get to the correction.


Here is a video of it, sorry about the blurry camera =/

YouTube - Droid X Text Editing

 

[mortymouse]

If you are using the Swype keyboard, you can swype from the

key to the SYM key and get this navigation keyboard

and that allows you to move around the text field to make any corrections you need.

This is an outstanding post. Thank you.

 

[dookie1]

If you are using the Swype keyboard...

and if not...no eqivalent?

 

[dequardo]

The Droid X does have an way to edit text.

You will first need to tap the input field where you are typing, this will give you a red target looking thing. All you have to do next is press inside the red circles and it will bring up a magnified area where you can just drag your finger. It will show a cursor while you are dragging, just lift your finger when you get to the correction.


Here is a video of it, sorry about the blurry camera =/

YouTube - Droid X Text Editing

Perfect. Thanks!

 

[sparky07]

This is an outstanding post. Thank you.

+1 Great info!!

 

[Jayme]

good tips guys thanks.

 

[adfrank]

One clarification that I just discovered on my Droid X: an initial tap-hold anywhere in a text field opens the edit menu; an initial tap-release on any text moves the cursor to that location and displays the red bullseye; a tap-hold on the red bullseye opens the cursor-placement balloon. So, a double-tap-hold on any text reliably opens the cursor-placement balloon.