non-english keyboards: what are your experiences?

[Jalik]

Hey guys!

There seem to be contradicting experiences with the german keyboard in particular. I'm using a Lumia 800 and while I find it very pleasant to use the english keyboard (word prediction and auto correction are very good), I think that the german keyboard stinks. For me, it never gets the most obvious word suggestion but rather related stuff I didn't want to write or complete garbage. It helps to use the german keyboard in landscape mode since I mistype far less and auto correction cannot try to screw things up. I thought this is the result of a limited german dictionary. However, another user reported that he really likes the german word prediction. I dunno whether he's using the WP7.5 or WP8 keyboard or how big his screen is, therefore I'm opening this topic to learn about your impressions with non-english keybords. Do you like it? If yes, why? Don't like it? What device and WP version are you using? Have you tried WP7.5 and WP8 keyboards and did you notice a difference?

Thanks for your input!

 

[HaibaneReki]

hi, on L800 there was no CZ spellcheck library (I had to teach it my words one by one), but on L920 I have to say it's BRILLIANT! It even predicts common phrases consisting of several words. When I first saw the keyboard featured in the keynote I was like, alright, yet another thing that won't localize for CZ, but hey, it works better then I wished for. The only thing I would change is an option to type without special characters like š, ř, etc.. to save characters (160 vs. 7x in one SMS)

other than that, I love it, it makes the iOS keyboard look hilarious

 

[Simon Tupper]

English and french are working flawlessly for me.

 

[despertador]

The Korean keyboard in WP7 is okay, it has the standard QWERTY layout and (surprisingly) a few more. In WP8 the Korean keyboard gets a dictionary and word prediction!

 

[Chregu]

I seldom write in German on my phone, because for personal stuff I write in my crazy Swiss German dialect and for serious mails I prefer a real keyboard.

In the few cases I activated the word prediction it worked fine for me, but I really think the English word prediction is much better. Maybe we just realize this to this extend because we use both languages and have the direct comparison?

 

[Jalik]

This could well be. And maybe I realize it because Swiftkey on Android was such a fantastic (German) typing experience for me and I therefore know how good it can get if you do it well. That's partly why I started this topic. I wanted to know whether it's just me and my weird way of typing and everybody else has no issues or if it's a general problem. And of course if ppl see improvements in WP8 compared to WP7. I'm still not really sure. I should give it a try in a store where I can have a direct comparison.

 

[Chinocop]

The traditional Chinese keyboard is fantastic on WP7.

 

[Jalik]

The traditional Chinese keyboard is fantastic on WP7.

Out of curiosity: is there only one type of Chinese letter or do you have some kind of "written language" (like arab letters which have to be merged to a complete word to make sense). If the latter, how does the WP 7 keyboard handle it?

 

[Chinocop]

Out of curiosity: is there only one type of Chinese letter or do you have some kind of "written language" (like arab letters which have to be merged to a complete word to make sense). If the latter, how does the WP 7 keyboard handle it?

Hi Kilaj,

I use the BoPoMoFo (Zhuyin fuhao) keyboard. With WP, it automatically presents the next character to you after you input a word. Compared to Windows 7, it's light years ahead.

 

[Jalik]

Today I was able to compare the German keyboard of a Lumia 920 with that of my Lumia 800. Its night and day. I'm genuinely impressed. I typed really really fast, not paying attention to hit every letter properly. Except for one missed space and one accidental double space-tab which resulted in the premature start of a new sentence, it got EVERYTHING right. The bigger screen probably helped but the word correction was spot-on. Whatever MSFT did to the German keyboard in WP8, it worked.

 

[IceDree]

The Arabic keyboard on WP8 is great , it also have prediction & everything ! Frankly I haven't typed on an Arabic Keyboard this good before !
I write in English most of the time , but when I switch to Arabic its the same typing experience ! excellent ! although I occasionally hit the letter "M" instead of delete when I'm speed writing !

Note , I only type in Portrait mode while holding the phone in my right hand & I type with my right thumb only !