Galaxy S II: The Missing Manual

Using the Swype Keyboard

THE SWYPE KEYBOARD TAKES a few minutes to get used to, but once you do, you’ll be amazed at how much faster you can enter text with it than the traditional keyboard. So put aside your trepidations and give it a try. Switch to it by pressing the Menu key when you’re at the Home screen or a pane, selecting Settings→“Language and keyboard”→“Select input method,” and then tapping Swype.

The Swype keyboard looks similar to the Android keyboard, although with some changes. The real difference, though, isn’t in the keyboard—it’s in the way you input text. Rather than tap each letter individually, you put your finger on the first letter of the word, and then with a single motion, move your finger from letter to letter of the word you want to input. As you do so, you’ll see the path that you’ve traced. Don’t worry too much about accuracy, because Swype does an exceptional job of interpreting the word you want to input, using its dictionary (see Auto-Suggestions and the Dictionary). Just try to get near each letter; it’s OK if you’re off a little bit. When you’ve finished tracing the word, lift your finger.

There are times when Swype might not know precisely what you’re trying to trace, and the trace might match multiple words. If that happens, Swype pops up a Word Choice window.

Tap the word you want. Press the arrow key at the bottom of the pop-up to see more choices. ...