Alternate keyboard for IiPone

[mikestock]

I have had, probably 8 or 9 different Samsung Galaxies over the years. For the first time ever I decided to get an iPhone 11 as my 16 family members from the next two generations to swear by. They have tried, for years, to get me to try the iPhone, telling me how much better they are. Of course, none of them would ever be caught dead using anything but the iPhone.

So far, it has been a disaster for a 77-year-old to make the change. The first problem for me is that punctuation, numbers, and letters are not on the same keyboard. For them, this is no issue but for a hunt-and-pecker with arthritic fingers, this is just an added aggravation. I did find one alternate keyboard that adds numbers but no punctuation.

My kids type with flying thumbs and I have tried to cultivate this method but there are sooo many errors.

I have watched the 96 minute Youtube video twice. Hopefully I'll adapt to some of the iPhone differences, but so far I can make calls, type by voice-to-text and read emails. The rest of the phone features are mostly a mystery to me. I'm kind of back to the flip phone era, as far as useful features. I let the kids talk me out of returning it when I could. Wish I had.

[mikestock]

I use these but miss ?,!,$,#,(,),",:,;,=,+,-,_. These are just the ones I use. There are others I rarely use and I don't miss. Maybe I don't say the right words to create these symbols. Example: if I say exclamation mark it prints what I say.

[2012Coleman]

Press the microphone button and speak. If you want a period, say "period" Same for all punctuation, spaces, new line, etc.

[mikestock]

Gdetrailer wrote:
Hmm, funny, my Galaxy and all of my other Andriod phones with "soft keyboards" that I have had never had numbers or caps on the same "keyboard", always had to hit the Shift

A difference in semantics. To me, hitting the shift doesn't change keyboards. I never considered my old Royal typewriter to have two keyboards, just a shift key.

[mikestock]

What pocket do you keep it in?

That was my first thought, also.

on edit: I did take a serious look at the USB and BT keyboards and can't imagine having to carry one of these around. I'm not about to carry around a "man purse".

[hypoxia]

wa8yxm wrote:
How about using a blue tooth keypad.

What pocket do you keep it in?

[mchero]

wa8yxm wrote:
How about using a blue tooth keypad. Of course it eats battery power but you can find a whole lot of 'em at places like Staples and Worst er, best buy even Amazon has 'em for sale. I have used them from time to time (Well actually I used a USB keyboard with an adaptor) with my 'droid but ... Mostly I don't KB on the Droid save for short google searches and such so no need for puncutation.

I was about to suggest the same ^^^^

Google is your friend!
Try Googling bluetooth keyboard for iphone 30 bucks, I thin you will love it!

[MrWizard]

I too use punctuation, commas and periods are at the bottom of the board either side of the space bar
the question mark Is on right side of bottom row
I use one finger typing most of the time
I mainly use the slide finger typing
Put finger on first letter of word, do not lift finger
Slide finger across keyboard to next letter,
Then onto the next letter of the word
Lift finger only after you stop at the last letter in the word, not as many errors as pecking out each letter in the word, and amazingly fast once you get used to doing it

[hypoxia]

mikestock wrote:

Not available anymore, but Gboard and many others also do this
There should be something similar for the iPhone

I did download Gboard and got numbers but no punctuation.

My son says he can't imagine why changing keyboards to add a $ sign is a problem but he is not a hunt-and-pecker and does not battle arthritis in his fingers. I aim my finger at a g and may get a g,h or f. This gets worse as years go by.

My granddaughter talked me into changing to iPhone and I should not have listened. So far, I see several negative and no positive reasons for making the change. But, on the bright side, its got to get better.

I'm in the same boat. It has a leak and is nearly swamped. I recently switched to iPhone 11 and iPad Pro 11". Apple fanboys will vigorously defend the product, I just wish there was a little commonality between apple and android. Both have good and bad.

When you put another keyboard on it you have to agree to give total access of everything you type to the app developer.

[mikestock]

DFord wrote:
I was a gadget guy (okay nerd) before there were nerds. My first computer was a Sinclair ZX80. After moving up to Commodores, I built my own PC-XT. The guys across the hall went with the Apple line. I couldn't believe what they were paying vs. what mine cost. And when it came to software, I had my pick of tons of freeware - they had to buy Apple approved software at high prices. Time passes and now Apple selling over priced cell phones and enjoys a huge following. I've never figured out what was so mesmerizing about Apple that people wait in line to shell out tons of cash for the latest release. I've never regretted going another direction. Someone gave me a MacPro Notebook with a broken DVD drive when they upgraded to the a newer MacPro. I replaced the DVD drive so everything worked. I played with it a while and put it away where it is now. I much prefer the relative openness of the PC platform. I am tiring of fixing things after Microsoft's updates and may soon give Linux a try but for sure, if I move away from Windows it won't be toward an Apple product.

For my phone - after the days of bag and flip phones, I've been using Samsung's line of Galaxies. I've got an S7 now and see no real need to upgrade. I like all the features and use a lot of apps - mostly free to increase the usefulness. iPhone users surround me and I think they're nuts. I wouldn't use an iPhone if it was given to me.

It's pretty obvious to me who's using voice to text for sending email and text message because of the misspelling and errors in their messages. It's not okay! I have to interpret what they're trying to say. I rely on the spellchecker to ensure what I send isn't misspelled - it my be dyslexic but it's spelled correctly.

I agree with you, totally. I've never figured out the iPhone groupies. nine out of ten will tell you iPhones are superior. They will also say they have never owned a Galaxy. As I said, I have a large family. They will all say iPhones are superior but, except for my wife, they have never owned a Galaxy.

I had an S7 that had a weak battery. I looked at changing out the battery but I saw the kiosk at Cosco offered $200 trade for the iPhone and I fell for it. I sometimes think I'm lexdycsic, as well.

[Marcela]

I went from iphone 6+ to iphone 11 pro. Didn't get the pro max which would have had the same size keyboard as the 6+. I find the just slightly smaller keyboard is a pita.

Google has an app that has different keyboards available. The one I chose has just slightly larger keyboard. Helps a little. Maybe there is another keyboard available you prefer.

[DFord]

I was a gadget guy (okay nerd) before there were nerds. My first computer was a Sinclair ZX80. After moving up to Commodores, I built my own PC-XT. The guys across the hall went with the Apple line. I couldn't believe what they were paying vs. what mine cost. And when it came to software, I had my pick of tons of freeware - they had to buy Apple approved software at high prices. Time passes and now Apple selling over priced cell phones and enjoys a huge following. I've never figured out what was so mesmerizing about Apple that people wait in line to shell out tons of cash for the latest release. I've never regretted going another direction. Someone gave me a MacPro Notebook with a broken DVD drive when they upgraded to the a newer MacPro. I replaced the DVD drive so everything worked. I played with it a while and put it away where it is now. I much prefer the relative openness of the PC platform. I am tiring of fixing things after Microsoft's updates and may soon give Linux a try but for sure, if I move away from Windows it won't be toward an Apple product.

For my phone - after the days of bag and flip phones, I've been using Samsung's line of Galaxies. I've got an S7 now and see no real need to upgrade. I like all the features and use a lot of apps - mostly free to increase the usefulness. iPhone users surround me and I think they're nuts. I wouldn't use an iPhone if it was given to me.

It's pretty obvious to me who's using voice to text for sending email and text message because of the misspelling and errors in their messages. It's not okay! I have to interpret what they're trying to say. I rely on the spellchecker to ensure what I send isn't misspelled - it my be dyslexic but it's spelled correctly.

[pauldub]

Bet bet might be to try a separate keyboard as mentioned earlier.

[wnjj]

My Galaxy doesn't have numbers or punctuation directly on the keyboard but they are under the letters in small print. You can press and hold to get them. When I want to type more than a couple numbers I press 123 to switch the keyboard anyway.

I've read that on an iPhone you can press and hold the 123 button then slide over to a letter key before lifting and it will choose the number. Not quite as easy but better that pressing 123, key, then abc.

Now I don't know how easy it is for you to press and slide but that's pretty much all I do to enter words anyway.

[mikestock]

Not available anymore, but Gboard and many others also do this
There should be something similar for the iPhone

I did download Gboard and got numbers but no punctuation.

My son says he can't imagine why changing keyboards to add a $ sign is a problem but he is not a hunt-and-pecker and does not battle arthritis in his fingers. I aim my finger at a g and may get a g,h or f. This gets worse as years go by.

My granddaughter talked me into changing to iPhone and I should not have listened. So far, I see several negative and no positive reasons for making the change. But, on the bright side, its got to get better.