Using the default browser I've been finding it very hard to edit text fields at times - ie: Google Docs and generic web forms. On one site in particular I needed to remove a comma from a list of emails in a textbox, and it literally took me 10 minutes to position the cursor correctly. Since the box was scrolling off the screen, clicking in different positions kept jumping around and in general not reliably scrolling, let alone selecting a given character.
I've noticed that a number of Android Apps have that little magnifier-thing to simplify editing, but that doesn't seem to work for the default browser. Is there some other way of accurately editing text in the default browser, or do one of the other browsers work better?
In more generic terms, is there a better method of moving the cursor in Android, given that the Atrix lacks any physical trackpad? There do appear to be a few premium keyboard alternatives out there that include cursor keys, but I don't particularly feel like paying for something that should be part of the stock system (particularly on a phone without arrow keys!)
I couldn't agree more. Having the delete key as the only positioning key sucks. Given the four different keyboard screens on the stock virtual keyboard, each having only a delete key, it's clear that this was a decision rather than an oversight. Stupid. Sure makes me appreciate all of the things I took.for.granted in WinMo.
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I have found the trackball so hard to maneuver to the most simple locations in any kind of compose window -- to go from beginning of a line to end of line, top of composed text to end of text block... I would really like for it to move much faster in those situations.
Also in scrolling up/down a web-page for simply reading.
At the same time. I find it way too hair-trigger and uncontrollable when trying to locate the link you want to click, or the field you want to edit on a form or any page.
Is this all Android-controlled, or does HTC hardware and its Sense UI add controllable refinement and adjustments?
Thank you.
(Bonus question which I will search for by myself: Are the hard buttons remappable to other functions. If so, is it possible to multi-function a hard-key by having it do one thing with a very light touch, and another with a press & hold ? )
These issues, as well as my Q re capacitive vs resistive screen are all about discomfort from Repetitive Stress having to place fingers and finger tips is positions completely different from using Windows Mobile devices. I am sure there much be advantages I am missing. I really look forward to those.
I'm designing an App with several layers of menus (on the screen, not from the menu button) which lead to several content pages each, so in total I'll be looking at probably 6 screens of Menu and about 30 content screens (just a picture, text and some buttons).
Should this be just 1 activity for the entire application and with each menu and content page loading a different layout xml? If so how do I do change the layout?
Or should each menu screen and content screen be its own activity as well as having it's own layout xml?
Thanks very much for any help.
I usually use dialog box for simple user infos and I prefer activities to do something more complicated, but it's my opinion. I prefer activities because are simplier than using different dialog boxes or anything else, and so my code doesn't become an incredible mess
I don't think it would work to have dialog boxes to display buttons, like I need for my menus or content pages.
If I did only use 1 activity for it, what's the best way to redraw the layout from a different xml when you click a button? Just have the onClickListener call setContentView(R.layout.new_layout)?
PrometheanFire said:
If I did only use 1 activity for it, what's the best way to redraw the layout from a different xml when you click a button? Just have the onClickListener call setContentView(R.layout.new_layout)?
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Ok, I understand your needs. Unfortunately I didn't use a new layout in the same activity after a button click, it should be tested.
For my game, I have on the same screen different buttons, textviews, and imageviews that appears and disappears, even after a button click. I putted all of them in the same layout xml (one above the other, what a mess!) and I set the different visibility suitably the buttons clicks (the OnClickListener). It works for me because I have 7-8 items to manage, but maybe not so smart for a lot of different items.
In general, Google recommends using different activities, I remember reading about it in the Dev Guide somewhere.
Although maybe your case is different.
The default recommendation of Google is to use activities. But it does depend on your usage - if everything you are doing is related to the same "activity" (for want of a better word), it may make good sense to keep everything in the same class.
You should also think about what behavior you would like the app to have. Do you want the user to be able to use the "BACK" button to step backwards in your menus? If so, it may make sense to implement this as multiple activities (which will give you this behavior for free), rather than implementing it manually.
I think I'm leaning towards activities as from all I've read it does seem to be best programming practice, it just seems a bit of a waste for me to have 1 activity just displaying a menu! However yes, it would be much easier to use activities then just have user press BACK to navigate backwards.
Also with having 1 activity just switching layout it would mean a massive onClick() 'switch' with at least 30 'cases'! I had thought about implementing my own Back button on the screen but that would be a pain to code.
Thanks for the replies, think I'll go with separate activities and see if it works ok, like I said my main concern was that it's a waste of an activity to have it do something so basic!
Maybe ViewFlipper will be useful?
ViewFlipper just seems to add an animation to changing the layout, no? I'm wondering whether I should just change the layout per screen or to start a new activity per screen.
I've worked it out and I've got 27 Menus, each of these is a ListActivity and 62 Content Pages (each of these is an activity calling a RelativeLayout and some onClick Listeners).
In total this is 89 activities, is this too many for one application? I like the idea of having a different activity per page as that means the user can just press the Back button on their phone to go back up the menus rather than coding in one myself. I've got it working with all the menus but only 1 content page and it's ok, but I can imagine that if I add the remaining 62 contents it may get bogged down?
But yeah, is this too many activities for one app? It is likely at a given time the user probably won't use more than 10 of them.
trying to have a single Activity and then have it able to handle every layout you throw at it and its coorosponding functionality will be a nightmare. use multiple Activities. it will also make using the back button alot easier.
http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/design/seamlessness.html#multiple-activities
Thanks, shouldn't take me too long to create all the content (with copy paste and find/replace) so will see how it works like that.
I have figured out a way to copy and paste on the Nook Tablet (well, in editable text fields at least).
You will need to install Hacker's Keyboard, as well as Swype. There is another thread with detailed instructions how to do that here: [Tutorial] Installing alternative Keyboards on the NT.
To copy text, you hold down shift on Hacker Keyboard and use the arrow keys to highlight the text you want to cut/copy. Long press on settings button on Hacker Keyboard, then change keyboards to Swype. Your text should still be highlighted. Then use the Swype keyboard shortcut ("swype" from the Swype button to c) to copy the text. This copies the text to the NT clipboard. Then navigate to wherever you want and paste the text using Swype-v. I have tested and this works even between different apps, so there is a system clipboard.
The copy paste shortcuts in Swype are like pressing ctrl-x,c, or v in Windows (cut, copy, paste, respectively). Also I should note for developers that the stock ROM does not seem to disable the clipboard, it's just that there is no way to highlight text, and then copy and paste it as these functions are disabled in the stock UI. But we can get around that using this method.
I know, it's a couple steps and a slight hassle, but it will have to do until one of the CM (or other ROMs) are ready. This method is still better for things like copying 15 character long gibberish passwords from KeePass though, for example.
Nice fix dude ....
Will help me till CM7 (or 9) gets ready ...
Is there any app to do this ? T'would be great if a program was written for this otherwise...
Can see it becoming hit (feature to button saviour maybe)
Shortly after posting this, I caught up on my reading and realized that an alpha version of CM7 had already been released. So I thought that my little workaround had been immediately deprecated. Well, it seems that now there are some issues with CM7, so maybe (at least in the short term) my little trick will see some use after all.
There are still reasons to stay with the stock B&N firmware, so the tip is still quite useful.
A small update. In another thread here about Keyboard?, ckevinwelch turned me on to an app called Keyboard Manager, which allows you to switch keyboards based on orientation. I now have Swype in vertical and Hackers in landscape. This is handy for all sorts of things, but especially copy and paste because the part where you switch between keyboards is faster.
Also (and unrelated to copy/paste), need to move over a few characters? Or insert the cursor precisely when editing (I always have a problem with this, maybe it's my fat fingers)? Just rotate to landscape, use Hackers arrow keys for precise positioning, then rotate back to Swype for the majority of typing. It's like getting the best of both keyboards, very handy!
I want to make a little addition.
Opera Mobile Web Browser has embedded selection and copy/paste functions, which are independent from keyboard or other apps.
I've found a way to enable the copy & paste permanently for all text fields - instructions & video at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1534757. Requires root.
I discovered a way to copy and paste using google docs. This doesn't help inputting urls or passwords, but it sure is handy to use when writing text into your Nook. The copy/paste comes as part of the google docs app. What's really neat is that your writing goes into the cloud and you can access it with any other computer.So since people where mentioning copy/paste function, I thought I'd add this comment.
So out of habit from my PC, I have often pressed the "search" key and "tab" when trying to switch apps, obviously not doing anything. So I messed around for a sec, and realized that pressing "Alt" and then "Tab" brings up an app switching mode, very identical to Windows! I don't know if this was common knowledge, but it seriously made me fall in love with this thing all over again! Thought someone might find this helpful.
Most keyboard shortcuts found in Windows work in their related Android counterparts. For instance, in the stock browser CTRL+T opens a new tab, CTRL+R reloads a page etc. Copy & pasting works with CTRL+C/V in programs like Polaris Office, etc.
Some apps don't have keyboard shortcut support, but most Google apps do and a lot of top tier apps also support keyboard shortcuts.
Hi,
This is a thing that has annoyed me with Android from the start, but after a lot of searching, I have not found a way to disable or stop the behavior.
So my problem is that with all versions of Android and all the web browsers for Android I have tried, web pages always zoom in when you select a text entry field on a web page.
So for example on my Note 3 and Nexus 7 I go to, say theregister.co.uk. The phone /tab is in landscape mode and the page is set to a zoom where all the article titles are legible. There is a search field at the top right hand corner of the web page which is also a a legible size. I select it to enter text and the screen is zoomed in so that the field fills the whole of the screen, that is not filled by the keyboard.
If any of the text I start to enter brings up any suggestions, due to the zoom level, they are lost behind the soft keyboard. I zoom out to look at them and they dis-pear. I select the text field again to add or delete text, to make those suggestions come up again and I get zoomed in to far again. I then give up put the phone or tablet down and use a windows laptop etc instead.
Now I understand why this would have been desirable initially in Android, when phones had small screens and on ones with small screens today, but why is this needed on larger screens or even tablets?
It makes things like posting this forum post very frustrating on an Android device. I know there is an App for XDA, but is is not a powerful as using the forum direct through a web page. So I cannot replace having a windows etc PC around as Android does not give comparable web page interaction experience.
So I wanted to know if anyone knew of a way of disabling this behavior if so desired? Or if there is a browser out there where this does not happen?