Folding Keyboard: improvements for its key layout + documentation.

I’m using my Folding Keyboard on my Android phone and so far, everything works as advertised. :slight_smile:

That said, the keyboard’s layout is English… but I also write a lot in Spanish; testing, I’ve found Alt-key combinations for the most common diacritical marks (‘á’, ‘ë’, ‘ô’, ‘ù’ ‘ñ’) and two extra characters (Catalan/Portuguese ‘Ç’/‘ç’ and German lowercase ‘ß’ [1]), but not the signs ‘¿’ and ‘¡’, required in Spanish (not to mention ‘a’, ‘o’, ‘«’, ‘»’, ‘n’, ‘€’, etc.).

I wonder how those missing characters could be added to the keyboard’s layout. I also wonder if those extra key combinations could be documented in the FAQ, so all users may be aware of them.

Thanks!

[1] I’ve noted that the key combinations for these two letters are NOT affected by the CAPS LOCK status, which I think is a bug.

Hi Miguel,

Thank you for posting about setting Spanish characters for the keyboard.

The physical keyboard was designed for use by English speakers, and the keyboard layout reflects that. We are considering providing layouts in other languages in the future.

However, it is possible to set a Spanish layout virtually using the Android language settings. The method for doing this differs somewhat according to the Android version, but is basically like this:

  1. Go to Settings > Language and Input, you should see “Plugable Folding Keyboard” under “Physical keyboard.”

  2. Tap that, then you should see “Choose Keyboard Layout.” At the bottom should be 'Set up keyboard layouts."

  3. Tap that and look on the list that appears and select the language you want (Spanish and Spanish (Latin) are available. You can set more than one and switch back and forth if desired.

  4. Tap the Back key to go back to the previous window, and the keyboard you chose should now be selected.

  5. Tap the home screen button and try typing in a window.

I hope this helps!

David
Plugable Support

> I hope this helps!

Worked perfectly. I suspected Android “native” layouts could be used on the keyboard, but didn’t know how to use them.

> We are considering providing layouts in other languages in the future.

Excellent!

Now all I need is to figure out how to create a custom layout to add to the set that Android provides. Thanks!

Hi Miguel,

I’m glad that worked for you. A program called External Keyboard Helper Pro (https://play.google.com/store/apps/de…) allows you to create custom layouts. I have used it sometimes.

David

I hope we have answered all your questions. If you have any others, please contact us at support@plugable