Keyboard Password Problem

I've noticed on several occasions having trouble entering passwords on websites. I normally use the installed Samsung keyboard (which predicts and corrects while swiping, but not when tapping), though mostly with the stylus in handwriting mode. Loved the Palm, love my Note 2. At a website login, focusing the password field forces the use of the tapping keyboard (no handwriting allowed, apparently). The problem is that sometimes the password characters entered this way are all the "pipe" symbol (shift-y). I have visible passwords set, but only the most recent character isn't a bullet. Doesn't matter if this is with the stock or Firefox browsers. Once the keyboard goes into this mode--which affects password fields only--, I can only break it out by temporarily switching input to the Swype keyboard --I don't stay with that keyboard because there's no stylus input button on that keyboard, and normally Sammy's swipe input is just fine.

Has anyone else noticed this, and is there a fix?

Oh, and the Samsung keyboard is the app that most frequently crashes for me, though it always quickly restarts.

Thanks for any help.