Word and Phrase Suggestions

Documentation / Contents - On-Screen Keyboard

• Overview of the On-Screen Keyboard
  • The Four Boards
  • One Keyboard Per Screen
• Bringing Up the Keyboard
  • The Show Key
  • The FindIt Gesture
  • The Taskbar Button and the Systray Icon
  • Putting It Away
• Typing With the Keyboard
  • Shift and Other Modifiers
  • Why Your Own Keyboard Still Works
  • Moving and Resizing the Board
• The Face Menu
• The Indicator Strip
• The Power Keys
• Word and Phrase Suggestions
• Layout, Size, and Placement
  • Keyboard Layout
  • Size
  • Where It Appears
• Setting Preferences
  • The Layout Page
  • The Appearance Page
  • The Behavior Page
  • The Session Page
  • The Typing Page
  • Defaults and Close
• Making the Keyboard Easier to Use
  • High-Contrast Colors
  • Hover to Press
  • A Bigger Board
• Keys and Shortcuts
• Where the Settings Live
• Copyright Information

Word and Phrase Suggestions

The keyboard can offer completions as you type. When suggestions are on, two bands appear below the keys.

• The word line offers matches for the letters you have typed so far, eight at a time out of a larger pool.
• The phrase line offers two multi-word guesses.

Click a suggestion and it is typed for you, in place of the letters you have already entered.

Turning Suggestions On

Turn on "Suggest words and short phrases while typing" on the Typing page of Setting Preferences.

Seeing More Words

The word line shows eight chips but holds more. Scroll it with the small buttons at either end of the line, or roll the mouse wheel while the pointer is over the band: up goes back, down goes forward.

Where the Words Come From

The suggestions come from a word list kept on this computer, plus the words and word pairs you have used recently, most recent first. Nothing is sent anywhere. There is no network involved and no service to sign up for. The panel says as much under the controls: "Suggestions use a private word list on this computer."

Suggestions cost a strip of screen under the keys. On a small display, or when the keyboard sits over a text field you need to see, turn them off.