I detest the Onscreen Keyboard. What am I doing wrong?

[CalypsoArt]

I detest the Onscreen Keyboard on my SP4 since the day I got it. I am accustomed to the excellent SwiftKey keyboard on my phone, so perhaps am I doing something wrong with the Surface. I find the Surface's handling of misspelling, predictive text, and suggestions is mindbogglingly awful.

Often when there is a misspelling, it will underline in red, but it does not offer suggestions. Touching the misspelled word does nothing. Sometime while typing, the predictive words will show up in the upper bar. sometimes it will not. However, the biggest annoyance is when it suggests a word that if chosen, then attaches itself to the partial word already typed. Now I must go back and erase it. Backwards travel multiple times! That is not a system that is productive by any measure.

It was always bad, so I used the machine with the keyboard cover. However, I've been lately using it more as a tablet, and it brings me to s standstill every time I type. When I first got the machine, I was told that, like apple, MS does not allow 3rd party Keyboard apps. Is that still the case? It seems like the onscreen keyboard is worse that I remember. From the recent upgrade? Is there a setting I'm not configuring right?

In today's world, a keyboard should:
1. Offer a choice of corrections to misspelled words. Touch the highlighted word, choose a replacement from an offered list, or add corrective text.
2. Learn the user's regular syntax and offer a choice of "next" words.
3. If a spelling/prediction is offered, REPLACE the partial word with the complete word! Do not append the full word to the typed fragment.

Umpteen android keyboards have this. Please, show me that I'm just missing a switch or setting, and I'll gladly apologize.

 

[jnjroach]

I detest the Onscreen Keyboard on my SP4 since the day I got it. I am accustomed to the excellent SwiftKey keyboard on my phone, so perhaps am I doing something wrong with the Surface. I find the Surface's handling of misspelling, predictive text, and suggestions is mindbogglingly awful.

Often when there is a misspelling, it will underline in red, but it does not offer suggestions. Touching the misspelled word does nothing. Sometime while typing, the predictive words will show up in the upper bar. sometimes it will not. However, the biggest annoyance is when it suggests a word that if chosen, then attaches itself to the partial word already typed. Now I must go back and erase it. Backwards travel multiple times! That is not a system that is productive by any measure.

It was always bad, so I used the machine with the keyboard cover. However, I've been lately using it more as a tablet, and it brings me to s standstill every time I type. When I first got the machine, I was told that, like apple, MS does not allow 3rd party Keyboard apps. Is that still the case? It seems like the onscreen keyboard is worse that I remember. From the recent upgrade? Is there a setting I'm not configuring right?

In today's world, a keyboard should:
1. Offer a choice of corrections to misspelled words. Touch the highlighted word, choose a replacement from an offered list, or add corrective text.
2. Learn the user's regular syntax and offer a choice of "next" words.
3. If a spelling/prediction is offered, REPLACE the partial word with the complete word! Do not append the full word to the typed fragment.

Umpteen android keyboards have this. Please, show me that I'm just missing a switch or setting, and I'll gladly apologize.

Click on the Keyboard Settings with the OSK open and select the Swipe Style Keyboard.

 

[CalypsoArt]

Click on the Keyboard Settings with the OSK open and select the Swipe Style Keyboard.

View attachment 8776

Thanks for the response. However, I'm not looking for swipe capabilities. I actually don't use Swiftkey in swipe mode. What I want to fix is the predictive text and spelling corrections.

 

[jnjroach]

What application are you typing in that it isn't giving you predictive text? It's working for me...

 

[CalypsoArt]

All applications, but it is erratic. However, the appending of the word to one partially typed is the most annoying.

Example, assuming you typed Wha to get the predicted options in your image. And what you wanted was Whatever, so you selected that, what will show up on screen is WhaWhatever.
I am not the only one who has complained about this, but I have seen no answer on how to cure it.

 

[jnjroach]

All applications, but it is erratic. However, the appending of the word to one partially typed is the most annoying.

Example, assuming you typed Wha to get the predicted options in your image. And what you wanted was Whatever, so you selected that, what will show up on screen is WhaWhatever.
I am not the only one who has complained about this, but I have seen no answer on how to cure it.

I had the problem on Facebook with a couple of the Insider Builds but haven't seen it in a while. Other that it works for me on Edge and Office which is what I spend 90% of my time using.

 

[gdgates]

The predictive text is horrendous on 10 (on my phone) compared to 8.1. My surface book had the same problem with appending suggestions to what's already typed, but only on Facebook. Didn't seem to do it anywhere else. I returned my Surface Book to Best Buy when they started popping up on Amazon for $800. Still haven't decided whether to buy a Book off of Amazon or go with a 2-in-2 from HP or Asus.

 

[Bthoazitmay]

Click on the Keyboard Settings with the OSK open and select the Swipe Style Keyboard.

View attachment 8776

That little Swype keyboard doesn't work, I can type but not swype.

 

[feduchin]

The predictive text is horrendous on 10 (on my phone) compared to 8.1. My surface book had the same problem with appending suggestions to what's already typed, but only on Facebook. Didn't seem to do it anywhere else. I returned my Surface Book to Best Buy when they started popping up on Amazon for $800. Still haven't decided whether to buy a Book off of Amazon or go with a 2-in-2 from HP or Asus.

This was exactly the reason that I changed to a Sony X using Android last May. However, I still have the Windows phone, and actually liked it a lot apart from that problem. The interface of the Windows is fun, that of the Android and iPhone is pretty horrible. Of course you get more programs with the Android/iPhone, but you can use only so many. It's never made any difference to me.
ALSO the copy and paste of the Windows is FAR superior to the Android; indeed there are hundreds of complaints about that.
So, you win some and lose some..

 

[clouds5]

Yep it's pretty bad. The issues for me are:
- It's slow. When I write fast it doesn't get all keystrokes, sometimes it lags behind (maybe there is something else wrong with my SP4? But regular typing with the keyboard cover is perfectly fast...)
- It doesn't pop up consistently. Sometimes it doesn't pop up when i hit a writing box. Sometimes it doesn't go away without hitting the X on it.
- I miss a lot of options. I want to reduce the key spacing, make the longpress pop up faster
- The alignment of the keyboard in fullscreen mode is wrong. There is a small gap on the right side and sometimes there is a gap on the bottom. What is this? A beta?

 

[Exhile]

The on screen keyboard/writing panel does have its software bugs. I hope the software developers in charge of the Tablet Input Panel don't wait until Spring 2018 when Redstone 4 is released to fix these problems since these bugs are quite annoying.

The TIP not going away without hitting the X button is an issue for me.

 

[feduchin]

It's kinda surprising that Microsoft should have ANY problems at all with the on-screen keyboard OR the predictive speller.
Let's face it, both iPhone and Android more-or-less fixed both of these 'problems' at least 3-4 years ago..
To be blunt about it, do NOT all these manufacturers actually steal each others' ideas and try to improve on them? Has MS actually not looked at the way the competition fixes these things? I can't believe they don't.
Do any of us actually give a damn whether or not they are all involved with industrial espionage? Come on guys, get with the program: Steal some bloody ideas for God's sake..