For most people, the whole point of a smartphone like the Droid 2 instead of a 10-key cellphone is the keyboard. Once you get past voice calls and move on to text messaging, email, and web surfing, you need an easy way to enter text, and once again the Droid 2 comes through with flying colors. It gives you three keyboards: two onscreen ones—multi-touch and Swype—and a physical one that you can slide out whenever you need it.
This chapter is about all the things the Droid 2 lets you do with text. From basic typing, you move on to editing, searching, text messaging, and chatting. Warm up those fingers and read on.
Whenever you tap somewhere you can enter text—like an email message, a text message, in the address bar of a web browser—a keyboard appears. The Droid 2 starts out offering you the simplest, most basic keyboard, the multi-touch. You can then switch to the Swype or physical keyboard if you prefer.
Multi-touch. This keyboard is typically the one you see when you first turn on your Droid 2. It works as you would expect: Tap a key to enter it.
Swype. With this keyboard, you don’t tap individual keys when you want to enter text. Instead, you tap a key, and then drag your finger over each letter in the word you want to input. Swype enters all the letters in the word, using built-in intelligence to figure out what you’re entering. It’s much faster than tapping individual letters. Yes, it takes some getting used to, but you can master it in a few minutes. Once you get used to the Swype, you may never go back to the standard keyboard.
To switch to Swype, tap and hold the ?123 key
, and on the screen that appears, select “Input method”. On the next screen, tap Swype.Physical. Using the physical keyboard is a snap—just slide it down and start tapping away. Most people find that it’s easiest to use two thumbs to hit the keys, but you may prefer to hold the Droid 2 in one hand and tap with the index finger of their other hand. You can also place it on a surface and tap with two fingers.
When you slide out the keyboard, your phone uses horizontal mode, which can take a little getting used to at first, because the phone’s physical keys (such as the Home key) will be arranged along the right side of the screen rather than across the bottom, as you’re normally used to.
Tip
If you use Swype, there’s no similar shortcut method for switching to the multi-touch keyboard. To switch between the two keyboards, press the Menu key (when you’re on the Home screen or a pane), and then select Settings→“Language & keyboard”. Tap “Input method”, and then tap the name of the keyboard you want to use.