Question Elderly Galaxy S5 user cannot enlarge keyboard

[silverman166]

Various solutions online suggest the following method to enlarge the keyboard:-
Settings:Language and Input Then under Keyboard and Input methods, select Default as Samsung Keyboard.

After I select the last item a message comes up 'Set up input methods' . Clicking on that brings up a 'Keyboard and input methods' screen showing 'Samsung Keyboard, multiple languages', with a small green box with a tick in it. Unlike what was suggested, there are no other options available to me, which should apparently include Enlarge screen (or similar), amongst others.

Can anyone assist please? I'm using Android 6.0.1.

Thanks.

 

[SpookDroid]

The option depends on which Keyboard app you're using and which version (if it's an older phone, these settings instructions may vary).

For Samsung Keyboard, you can either access the Keyboard's Settings through the Language and Input section, or with your keyboard open, you should see a bar atop the keys with access to emoji, clipboard, etc. There check if you have the RESIZE option (if not, tap the three dots at the right and that should expand the selection). Once you do that, you can drag the edges of the keyboard to resize as needed.

Other keyboard apps have very similar methods to re-size, but bear in mind that every app has different size limits, so you may not be able to get it as large as you need to.

 

[silverman166]

OK - thanks, but there is no Resize or similar option in the methods you have suggested.

Don't know how old the phone is, but its Model No is SM-G900F, if that helps.

 

[SpookDroid]

Can you post a screenshot showing the keyboard open? It may be easier to try to help that way.

 

[silverman166]

Attached are photos of the screen in question . Hope they help. (no further options available from 2nd photo)

 

[SpookDroid]

OK, that is a much older version, but it should still have that option. Let's try this: See the arrow next to the "Oh" prediction atop the keys? If you tap that it should hide the predictions. Do other options show up instead (like a Settings cog, emoji, etc.)? If so, either the Cog icon (Settings) could take you to the keyboard's settings or you could see a Resize icon.

 

[silverman166]

Thanks for your suggestions and sorry for the delay-it's my wife's phone and she was out last evening.

Pressing the right arrow next to Oh simply brought up more predictions.
No sign of any other options.
I'd previously also tried a soft reset but to no avail.
If I tried a hard reset would that lose all contacts, photos etc, please?

 

[SpookDroid]

Unless the data you mentioned is being backed up on a cloud service (Google, Samsung, etc.) then doing a hard reset would wipe all that data out. Let's try this another way.

If you go to your phone's settings, go to the General Management or Language and Input section (might be different depending on your Android version, but similar wording for keyboard settings should be easy to spot). There should be a Keyboard list there showing all the keyboard apps you have installed. Pick the one you're using (most likely Samsung Keyboard) and that should take you to the keyboard's settings. There should be a Size and Transparency or Size and Layout option there.

Another possible solution is to just install a 3rd party keyboard that supports resizing, like SwiftKey or Google GBoard.

 

[SyCoREAPER]

Holy Lord, how is that thing still working. You take good care of your device good Sir and/or Mam.

I would suggest GBoard as well like Spookdroid suggested. It's pretty used friendly and you can resize as mentioned to and shape or size you like.
Swiftkey isnt quite as user-friendly and in my experience not as accurate either.