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    Android Colemak Keyboard

    • Started by jhmorgan87
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    • Registered: 05-Sep-2019
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    I just switched to Colemak last week and now that I am familiar with it, I would like to change my android keyboard to Colemak. I tried using the Colemak Keyboard by Softcrust Solution, but it has ads everywhere. What is everyone else using?

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    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
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    Colemakoid MessagEase. Check my BigBag. On a touch screen it's better to combine tapping with swiping to tap into the vast potential that gives, so to speak.

    If you insist on keeping those small tap keys, I'm not sure Colemak is all that good for this. Colemak is built partially on the principle that hand rolls are good and those don't work well on a tap screen layout.

    Last edited by DreymaR (06-Sep-2019 08:32:29)

    *** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
    *** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***

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    Thanks. I finally got to where I can get at least 20k on all of the games using 1 finger. Do you use 2 thumbs to type or just 1 finger?

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    • From: Viken, Norway
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    I use two thumbs for the most part, like the previous record holder Cheng Wei did in his videos. But I know that some other people got quite fast with one finger so I think it's up to you. If you do use two fingers, make sure you set multitouch to two or more or you'll get misfires.

    Also note that the pad size can matter a lot for your typing comfort and accuracy/speed. Experiment to find what works best for you. I used a too small pad for a long time to save screen space, but my speed jumped up when I finally made it bigger again.

    Last edited by DreymaR (09-Sep-2019 10:27:14)

    *** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
    *** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***

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    Ok well, I just got a new Galaxy S10+ so mine seems too big even though I have it set to 20 which is the smallest I can go before it no longer goes all the way across the screen.

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    • From: Viken, Norway
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    Interesting. I have a Note 3 which has a large screen too, and 20 seems perfect to me now. That's for two-thumb typing. The pad doesn't span the screen but has gutters on each side, that's how I like it best actually. Less finger movement.

    I'm not entirely happy with using MessagEase on the larger Galaxy Pad screen, but I'm not sure what'd make me happy on that. I typically type while holding the pad and that's obviously not easy. I use a 3×3 pad in each corner, but often end up typing with only one thumb and obviously more slowly than on the phone. I guess it's largely a matter of training since I haven't typed that much on the Pad.

    Note that since size 20 fills your screen but not mine, I guess the settings don't compare directly.

    On a side note, since there are gutters representing unused screen "real estate" the way I use MessagEase, I once suggested making an alternative layout with one more column that you could switch to if you wanted to. But it would be too hard to implement and a bit confusing to the newcomer I guess.

    Last edited by DreymaR (10-Sep-2019 09:56:18)

    *** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
    *** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***

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    • Registered: 12-Oct-2017
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    You can try with Gboard or Fleksy. Both are excellent, and had Colemak when I was on Android. For 2 thumb typing, I find Colemak very good on mobile, and I find it better to have consistency everywhere.

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    I am liking the messagease keyboard. The typing game really helped a lot. After getting at least 15 WPM on each game mode, I'm fairly adapted to it now. I also set up some sample text in keyhero (15 Bible verses that I am trying to memorize) and typed each one of them until I got at least 20 WPM.

    If nothing else, its worth it just for the reactions I get from others that see me using it! I have thought about using the blank keyboard mode in advanced settings, but I don't think I'm quite there yet. It won't be long though, maybe just a couple more weeks.

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    • From: Viken, Norway
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    Nice! Are you using my Colemakoid layout for MessagEase, or the default?

    I ended up doing a few things: Setting multitouch to 2 so I can use dual thumbs, and turning off the traces. I really don't need the fireworks display. I've learned the hard way that the 3×3 pad shouldn't be too small even if it may save a little space. And I use a fairly transparent and low-contrast board instead of a totally stealth mode one. That's nice for me.

    Last edited by DreymaR (21-Sep-2019 20:44:52)

    *** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
    *** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***

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    I use colemak on my android device and use gboard.
    Swipping isn't accurate always, but I am not completely comfortable with typing on it. Find typing on qwerty awkward now. :P

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    I didnt last long on MessegEase. I had some issues with the keyboard appearing, and disappearing.  And haven't warmed that well to typing on mobile at all.  I did try Dvorak on Gboard, thinking it should be good because of the alternation, with vowels on the left.  But again I didn't realise how much Qwerty was still oddly ingrained in my brain.  I have two Android devices, the smaller of which is a pain for thumbing keys because of my fat fingers.  I don't much enjoy using these, and in some way would favour a T9 system or something with really good predictive text.  It's a case of just about good enough.  But you see everyone in the streets stumbling around like zombies trying to thumb their keyboards.  It's quite a barrier, and I worry now that it's probably one of those things that is probably an established wrong.

    Last edited by pinkyache (29-Sep-2019 14:11:25)

    --
    Physicians deafen our ears with the Honorificabilitudinitatibus of their heavenly Panacaea, their sovereign Guiacum.

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    I've never used Colemak on Android, for several reasons. One is that my context for switching between Colemak and QWERTY is "looking at the keyboard". If I'm looking at the keyboard, I'm typing QWERTY. If I'm not, I'm typing Colemak. This is the only way I've been able to retain a reasonable (not great) QWERTY typing speed, which I need on other people's computers. The other is that for a long time I used swiping keyboards on Android, and Colemak absolutely destroys the distinctiveness of swiping patterns that gesture typing relies on, by moving common letters to the home row. Great for touch-typing, terrible for swiping.

    I tend to switch back and forth between a QWERTY on-screen keyboard (maybe swiping, more probably thumb typing these days) and MessagEase. My speed is about the same between the two -- MessagEase with no prediction or autocorrect is about as fast for me as a QWERTY keyboard with very good prediction and autocorrection (SwiftKey). MessagEase is more precise for places where that's needed, like in a terminal app.

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    Swiping on a touch screen turns out to be an unexpected case where Qwerty is not that bad. The fact it has common letters around the edges makes it terrible for touch-typing but actually OK for swiping. I tried Colemak on Android briefly but agree, it's not great, and I'm not willing to invest the time into MessageEase. So I'm sticking with Qwerty+swipe.

    That said, screens make for terrible text input devices, so I avoid using them for that as much as possible. For anything other than sending a quick, short message, I'd switch to using computer and keyboard.

    Last edited by stevep99 (03-Oct-2019 13:25:40)

    Using Colemak-DH with Seniply.

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    • From: Viken, Norway
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    I'm quite happy now with swiping-tapping text on my phone, thanks to MessagEase. I disagree that a screen is a terrible input device, it just needs a layout that caters to its strengths. I do agree that a proper keyboard is still better of course. My phone speed is in the 60 WPM range at best, my keyboard speed lies very comfortably in the 70–75 WPM range.

    Last edited by DreymaR (08-Oct-2019 08:43:21)

    *** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
    *** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***

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    Wow, 60 wpm on mobile is pretty impressive.

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    I'm at about 40 wpm on MessagEase, without predictions or corrections, which is faster than I get with any swiping keyboard, no matter how good the prediction is. But it's still not fast enough to make typing on mobile not a burden.

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    • Registered: 09-Apr-2018
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    I tried Colemak for a while on Android, but I ended up switching back to Qwerty. I find this to be a good balance actually as it keeps some proficiency between the two in case I need to use another keyboard and I did find that swiping using Colemak was consistently less accurate than Qwerty, which of course makes sense given the density of high use letters on the home row.

    Just another data point!

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    • Registered: 23-Oct-2013
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    Regarding my own experiences, I did switch completely to Colemak on all platforms when I first switched to Colemak in 2013. This time around (relearning over the past week) I've kept QWERTY as my layout in Android in hopes that it'll keep me somewhat reacquainted with the layout. It does not seem to have any detriment to my typing speeds with Colemak as I had previously believed it would.

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