Tap, Tap, Tap! Typing tips for your phone

No-one touch-types on a mobile phone. No-one. Not even those preteens who seem to write text messages at the speed of light. So don’t feel bad if you can’t type on your phone as fast as you can on a computer.

Hunt and peck your way to a word

The onscreen keyboard is pretty easy to figure out: Tap a letter to produce the character. As you type, the key you touch is highlighted. The phone may make a faint click sound or vibrate.

To type in all caps, press the Shift key twice. The Shift key may appear highlighted, the shift symbol may change colour, or a coloured dot may appear on the key, all of which indicate that Shift Lock is on. Tap the Shift key again to turn off Shift Lock.

Above all, it helps to type slowly until you get used to the onscreen keyboard.

■ When you make a mistake, tap the Delete key to erase.

When you type a password, the character you type appears briefly, but for security reasons it’s replaced by a black dot.

People generally accept the concept that composing text on a phone isn’t perfect. Don’t sweat it if you make a few mistakes as you type text messages or email.

Accessing special characters

You’re not limited to typing only the symbols you see on the alphabetic keyboard. Most Android phones feature alternative character keyboards. To access these special keyboards, tap the symbol or numeric key, such as the !#1 key.

The number and variety of special character keyboards varies from phone to phone. At least one symbol keyboard is available, though you may find multiple symbol keyboards, special numeric keypads, and even emoji keyboards.

Multiple keyboards give you access to numbers, symbols, and emojis.

To switch keyboards, locate the special symbols. Tap a symbol to view an alternative character set. Though these symbols and the keyboards vary, nearly all Android phones use the ABC key to return to the standard, alpha keyboard.