{"id":500,"date":"2010-08-02T10:31:35","date_gmt":"2010-08-01T22:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/?p=500"},"modified":"2010-08-02T10:32:19","modified_gmt":"2010-08-01T22:32:19","slug":"replacing-the-stock-android-keyboard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/replacing-the-stock-android-keyboard\/","title":{"rendered":"Replacing the stock Android keyboard"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"8781ca4f97038dd0d58a1ad8af045721\" data-index=\"3\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-6411751809866006\";\r\n\/* BlogHorizontalSlim *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"6442664612\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 468;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 60;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>Yes! You can easily customize how your keyboard on your Android phone looks and feels. It&#8217;s incredibly easy and only takes a few minutes to do-so.<\/p>\n<p>I personally like the way this keyboard behaves with its text input, and word replacement suggestions!<\/p>\n<p>At the end of it all, you&#8217;ll have yourself some awesome looking keyboards like below:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/ScreenShot-19.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-501\" title=\"CyanogenMod keyboard template\" src=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/ScreenShot-19-180x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/ScreenShot-19-180x300.png 180w, http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/ScreenShot-19.png 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/ScreenShot-20.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-502\" title=\"Custom keyboard\" src=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/ScreenShot-20-180x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/ScreenShot-20-180x300.png 180w, http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/ScreenShot-20.png 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Looks cool right! Read on to find how you can have your customized keyboard in just a few minutes.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->To begin with you&#8217;ll need to go to:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gimpsta.com\/themer\/\">http:\/\/www.gimpsta.com\/themer\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>You can visit it either from your desktop PC, or straight from your Android phone.<\/p>\n<h2>Getting started<\/h2>\n<p>Create yourself a Username &amp; Password. It only takes a second and they so far haven&#8217;t spammed me.<\/p>\n<p>Once you&#8217;re done, login (Seems obvious right?).<\/p>\n<p>You can now either create a new keyboard from scratch, or use a pre-defined template. For the sake of it, we&#8217;re going to create one from scratch.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_38.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-504 alignnone\" title=\"Custom Keyboard\" src=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_38-180x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_38-180x300.png 180w, http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_38.png 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I chose my version as v27-froyo high res, as I&#8217;m running Froyo. Hit Continue to carry on.<\/p>\n<h2>Background<\/h2>\n<p>Now you can choose the background for your Keyboard.<\/p>\n<p>In the two above screenshots you&#8217;ll see it&#8217;s chosen as black. Again, take your pick, you&#8217;re customizing it to your liking here.<\/p>\n<p>Keep in mind that if you decide you don&#8217;t like it, you can always go back and re-create it.<\/p>\n<p>For todays example I&#8217;m going to make it transparent.<\/p>\n<h2>Button style<\/h2>\n<p>Now you can choose what kind of button you want to have for your main keyboard letters \/ buttons.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_39.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-505\" title=\"Custom Keyboard\" src=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_39-180x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_39-180x300.png 180w, http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_39.png 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>You can have the standard sort of key, but just slightly modified colors. There&#8217;s also some like the blood function keys which look interesting, but I think I&#8217;m personally going to stick with something regular.<\/p>\n<p>Then, you do the same thing all over again, but for your Function Keys.<\/p>\n<h2>Logo<\/h2>\n<p>If you want a logo for your Spacebar, then you can scroll through this list.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_40.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-506\" title=\"Custom Keyboard\" src=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_40-180x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_40-180x300.png 180w, http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_40.png 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a few different &#8220;filters&#8221; at the top that you can select: All, Android, Colors, Companies, Misc and Sports.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re not in the mood to have a background on your spacebar, then you can go to Misc, and select &#8220;Blank&#8221;.<\/p>\n<h2>Symbol Set<\/h2>\n<p>Keep in mind that is is just for the symbols that you see on your screen, it doesn&#8217;t include your alphabet etc.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_41.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-507\" title=\"Custom Keyboard\" src=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_41-180x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_41-180x300.png 180w, http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_41.png 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;re obviously going to want something that will contrast well with your previously chosen Function Key button style. Again, remember that you can go back and make changes if you don&#8217;t like your selection. You can preview it prior to downloading and installing the keyboard.<\/p>\n<h2>Key text colors<\/h2>\n<p>You&#8217;re almost done, this is the final step to generating your keyboard so you can download it.<\/p>\n<p>Select your colors for your main keys (The alphabet), and you can also customize the text color of the &#8220;alternate&#8221; key that appears above them.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_42.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-508\" title=\"Custom Keyboard\" src=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_42-180x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_42-180x300.png 180w, http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_42.png 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Same goes for your symbol key alternatives.<\/p>\n<p>Hit the button to preview your keyboard, and if you&#8217;re happy with the colors of your text then hit &#8220;Generate Keyboard&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_43.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-509\" title=\"Custom Keyboard\" src=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_43-180x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_43-180x300.png 180w, http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_43.png 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;ll take a few seconds as the remote server goes and generates it, just hit the button once and sit tight and wait. It shouldn&#8217;t take longer than 20 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;ll be given a file to download. If you&#8217;re on your Android device doing this, then great, it&#8217;s already on your phone.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_44.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-510\" title=\"Custom Keyboard\" src=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_44-180x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_44-180x300.png 180w, http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_44.png 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If not, then you&#8217;re going to need to manually copy it across to your SD Card.<\/p>\n<h2>Installation<\/h2>\n<p>Select the .zip file. You may need something like Astro File Manager installed.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_45.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-511\" title=\"Custom Keyboard\" src=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_45-180x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_45-180x300.png 180w, http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_45.png 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;ll prompt you and ask you what you want to do with \u00c2\u00a0the .apk file (Which is inside the .zip). Tell it to Open App Manager.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_46.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-512\" title=\"Custom Keyboard\" src=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_46-180x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_46-180x300.png 180w, http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_46.png 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow through the next couple of prompts and you&#8217;ll be greeted with a success message.<\/p>\n<h2>Enabling the keyboard<\/h2>\n<p>Now that it&#8217;s installed, you need to first enable it in the settings before you can begin using it.<\/p>\n<p>From your Home screen, press Menu &#8211;&gt; Settings &#8211;&gt; Language &amp; Keyboard<\/p>\n<p>Tick &#8220;HTC_IME mod&#8221;, and it will prompt you alerting you to the security implications of what you&#8217;re doing.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_47.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-513\" title=\"Custom Keyboard\" src=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_47-180x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_47-180x300.png 180w, http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_47.png 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s OK, just click the button to continue.<\/p>\n<p>I also adjust the settings and prevent it from automatically applying a Space after I press the . key, as it&#8217;s incredibly annoying entering websites in a text message \/ email to somebody.<\/p>\n<p>Click on HTC_IME mod Settings &#8211;&gt; Text input &#8211;&gt; Untick &#8220;&#8230; after separators&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_48.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-514\" title=\"Custom Keyboard\" src=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_48-180x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_48-180x300.png 180w, http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_48.png 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Using the keyboard<\/h2>\n<p>Now that it&#8217;s customized, installed and enabled, you can start using it. It&#8217;s incredibly easy to change back and forth between the regular keyboard and your custom keyboard.<\/p>\n<p>Simply open up somewhere that has a text input field, such as your browsers address bar or the search box. Then, tap and hold it, and select &#8220;Input Method&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_50.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-515\" title=\"Custom Keyboard\" src=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_50-180x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_50-180x300.png 180w, http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_50.png 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s easy to change back and forth between the standard Android keyboard and HTC_IME mod.<\/p>\n<p>The change should be instant, and the finished result will look something like this:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_51.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-516\" title=\"Custom Keyboard\" src=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_51-180x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_51-180x300.png 180w, http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/screenshot_51.png 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Easy, right?<\/p>\n<p>As always, if you run into troubles, or if you found this useful, then please just leave me a message to say Hi.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yes! You can easily customize how your keyboard on your Android phone looks and feels. It&#8217;s incredibly easy and only takes a few minutes to do-so. I personally like the way this keyboard behaves with its text input, and word replacement suggestions! At the end of it all, you&#8217;ll have yourself some awesome looking keyboards [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[14,257,258],"class_list":["post-500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-tos-guides-tech-info","tag-android","tag-custom-keyboard","tag-mod"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pWi3e-84","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":518,"href":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500\/revisions\/518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}