Help me love swype

[Shadnic]

So I've had this phone since launch day. Swype is one of those things that sounds perfect and I'd love to jump on it and really get flying with it...but I just can't seem to make it feel "right". Don't get me wrong. I like it a lot. I can use it very easily and pretty quickly, but it just feels weird at times.

I'm great with software keyboards, and when using swype, my left hand feels like it should be doing something, but yet it has to sit there because swype is a one-handed ordeal. I'm so used to typing quickly, that when I use a touch-screen keyboard, my fingers just fly around hitting things, and while I can use swype pretty quickly, the fact that i'm not doing my usual motion means I have to occasionally think about where I'm dragging my fingers. Basically I can't just mindlessly type away at the speed of light...dragging with one hand just feels slower than pecking away with two.

If I'm walking down the street or something, I do find swype to be more convenient and faster, but when I'm sitting down with both hands ready to go, I find myself going much more slowly on swype than I would with a normal soft keyboard.

I know that people can swype faster than any other keyboard (the world record business and what not). So are there any tips, advice, settings, suggestions, anything that may help me here? I've been using swiftkey beta for the last 2 weeks. It's just fine except it's kind of laggy so if I type too fast it just messes up...which is the opposite of what I need. The text prediction is pretty handy I have to say though.

I appreciate any feedback

 

[epbb]

I only use swype one handed and in portrait mode. Landscape, it's always the slide out keyboard.

 

[Ricolando]

It's a completely different experience so your mileage may vary. I personally use it for almost anything that's not a long email and love it. It can even do a lot spanish words which is a huge plus for me.

 

[ragnarokx]

I use Swype to send out short bursts of texts - no need to rotate the phone, bring the keyboard up again and then start typing.

BTW does it bother anyone else that when you rotate the phone the keyboard goes away making you click on a text field again?

 

[elbaso]

I only use swype one handed and in portrait mode. Landscape, it's always the slide out keyboard.

Ditto. I've tried using Swype in landscape mode, but I find that my thumb has way too far to travel for me to hold the Epic one-handed.
It's an easy movement to slide out the keyboard at that point.

 

[spectator52]

That's the beautiful thing about this phone: You have the physical keyboard at your disposal. I probably SWYPE 95% now that I have really gotten the hang of it.

 

[njbianco#AC]

I hate swype I turned it off and use the stock android keyboard

 

[thirdeye7]

Swype is cool but I always have issues on the upper left side of the keyboard. it often will stop my word and just give me the last couple of letters. Anyone else have this issue?

 

[xtn]

I feel the same way as the OP. I think he nailed it in his description of why it is hard to adapt to.

We just have certain muscle memory motor habits ingrained into our brain from years of QWERTY typing. A decent typist doesn't really have to think about where the keys are any more. His just thinks the words and his fingers hit the keys without conscious thought.

I think we can eventually get that way with swype if we start using it a lot, but it isn't going to happen over night. I mean when QWERTY boards first came out I'll bet everybody was thinking, "WTF these keys are in a totally random order that's just going to slow me down."

I think eventually, if you use the tip of your thumb for example, your brain will start to memorize the movement patterns for words and stick them into your subconscious. Words you swype a lot will become natural sooner than words you don't swype a lot.

I got annoyed trying to get words with double letters and with apostrophes, but then I went through the tutorial and learned how to do them. I'm still quite a bit faster typing normally with two thumbs on the screen, but I'm trying to make myself use swype as much as possible and I can tell my speed is starting to pick up some. It can only get better with time.

xtn

 

[ShaLea]

Swype takes some gettng used to. coming from BB worls, I'm just getting used to the Android keyboard. I just d/l SwiftKey to give that a whirl. I had a hard time gettin used to Swype, especially w/the double letters.

 

[Luckie]

I've actually found myself using the voice translation a lot. I've heard that it doesnt work that well for everyone but for me, it's been a lifesaver. I must have stubby thumbs or something because I have trouble reaching the center of the keyboard.

I think I'm using the voice translation in places where I used to touch type on my palm pre - which you really can't do with a virtual keyboard or very well with a slider like this.