Using on-screen mini keyboards

[olbeggaols]

Hello,

I am an old man and my experience trying to set up a Kobo was a nightmare because of the small size of the on-screen keyboard.

I see I will not be able to change things like the fact that my finger hits the wrong letter, but one problem may be an easy solution that I do not know:

I use underscores and special characters in my user names and passwords and I had a devil of a time getting the keyboard with the understore to stick. Similar problem just trying to get the period (dot, stop) to print.

Is there a tutorial on how to use these keyboards?

[Quoth]

They are dreadful. eInk slightly worse than phones. And yes, a decent passphrase is terrible to enter on anything other than a full physical keyboard!
Practice?
Finger not thumb.
Sometimes a suitable stylus helps.

Three flaws with keyboard software.
Putting dot space makes the next letter a capital.
The first letter is always a capital. Tap right arrow to go to lower case as tap on shift will go to caps lock if it's on caps.
If the first letter is punctuation keys, it automatically switches back to text after entry.

Touch keyboards are horrible. It's made worse by the assumption of the programming. I use it a lot for annotations. These are almost never real sentences or starting with a capital, so it's very annoying. Also the dead space between keys is too small.

[olbeggaols]

Thank you Quoth for your response. However even what you are saying is a mystery to me. This is the first time I have encountered these mini keyboards and I do not know how to operate even the simple things like switching views (I have succeded this far by random jabbing. I need a basic fundamental operation How To. "Press this and hold to get; tap this x times to get; how to keep the screen from flashing off before I have had time to tap the key, etc.

[Quoth]

There is no press and hold on the Kobo. Only taps. It's true other devices might have hold but only ONE button at a time. No two buttons at a time!
The Up Arrow on the left (under A, left of Z) cycles Cap, Cap Lock and Lowercase.
The #&+ button switches to symbols. ONE tap. It changes to ABC, one tap to go back, but sometimes it goes back automatically.
The ÉÀÇ button switches to Accented Letters. ONE tap. It changes to ABC, one tap to go back, but sometimes it goes back automatically.
The <X] button right of . is Delete Backwards
The dot or period . is left of the <X] button
Both are above the SAVE button on ABC mode and #&+, but the dot is missing on the ÉÀÇ view.
The comma , is only in the #&+ view and beside the .

[olbeggaols]

Again, thank you! Very helpful. Still there are two problems: The automatic switching back happens 9 times out of 10 and before there is time to tap a key; and the period/dot either does not print at all or does so with a delay. Are you saying I need to live with that?

[Quoth]

Maybe you are tapping twice! A slow double tap will put back the orginal state.
Do not hold. Only tap and wait for keyboard layout to change.
Tap the centre of the pseudo buttons.
It is slow.

[Paperbackstash]

I feel your pain. I like to jot notes on my Oasis when reading for later reviewing, especially after a short story in anthologies, but the stupid thing accidentally deletes text I painstakingly get on there with the horrible bouncing keyboard. Part of the issue is that, while the current hardware is fine for smooth reading, it doesn't give out smooth texting on the device with notes or typing, or much browsing. One reason I wish they'd speed up the hardware just a tad with these eink devices.

I don't have much suggestion other than at least you probably wont have to use the onboard keyboard much after it's all registered

[olbeggaols]

Thanks both.

I will watch my bouncing fingers.

Q: how come when i visit the site I do not see this thread then after a time I see it.

[olbeggaols]

Thank you both. I will try and control my bouncing fingers.

How is it that this thread appears only sometimes under the General Discussion forum? I visit, I don't see it, I go back and I see it.

Is this because I am still in probation?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by olbeggaols

Thanks both.

I will watch my bouncing fingers.

Q: how come when i visit the site I do not see this thread then after a time I see it.

New users are frequently queued for moderation as an anti-spam process.
(and PM's are not allowed).
After a short good-grace period, these are relaxed.

[MikeOsborn]

I completely agree with you, not a convenient option for writing. Maybe there is a replacement?