Motorola Xoom™: Companion

Using the Keyboard

You learned some basic techniques for using the keyboard in Chapter 1, “How Do I Get Started with the Motorola Xoom.” If you skipped that chapter, return there to get up to speed. Chapter 1 discussed how to type upper- and lower-case letters, how to insert special characters, and how to hide the keyboard. You need to know other things though, like how to easily insert an emoticon (such as a smiley face), how to access secondary keys, and how, when, and why to use long and short touches.

To show the keyboard, you simply tap inside any field that offers the capability to accept text. The keyboard appears automatically. If you open Browser and tap in the Search field, the keyboard appears, as shown in Figure 2-1. If you want to buy an app from the Market, the keyboard appears when it's time to type your credit card information. And if you tap in the body of an email, the keyboard appears so that you can input your message. As noted in Chapter 1, to hide the keyboard, tap the down arrow located in the bottom-left corner of it.

You've been typing on phones, keyboards, and perhaps even other tablets for a long time. You can use the techniques you've already learned to type words on your Xoom. You won't always want (or need) to type entire words using classic typing techniques though. And you won't always want to tap three or four times to access a special character you use often. In that vein, here are a few tips and tricks to help you get more from your keyboard: ...