I am cross-posting the below tips for first-time Fleksy Keyboard users to both the viphone and iDevices lists. The below tips were created in Microsoft Word and contain both numbered and bulleted items which might not present well for those who have their email clients set to display in plain text. I will also include a Dropbox link to an html file with these tips after my signature and it is formatted quite nicely when accessed with the Dropbox app on my iPhone. If you have any other suggestions or corrections, please post them so that they can be incorporated into this documentation.
I am writing this based on the latest Fleksy Keyboard version 7.5.0 running on my iPhone 6 with iOS 8.3 and today's date is January 21, 2016. You should also know that I began using the original Fleksy app later renamed Fleksy VO so any bias I might have in my tips below could stem from that. Here are my suggestions for the first-time user: 1. Fleksy is designed to speed up input without looking at the keyboard so can work well for the visually impaired using VoiceOver. Simply tap where you believe the letters you want are located on the keyboard and do a single finger swipe right within the keyboard area when done and VoiceOver will speak the word Fleksy thinks you meant. If correct, just start typing the next word since Fleksy will automatically place a space after the word which was input. If incorrect, do a single finger swipe down on the keyboard to cycle through other Fleksy suggested words and stop when it is spoken by VoiceOver to input it. When at the end of a sentence, do another single finger swipe right and a period will be entered. If you want punctuation other than a period, single finger swipe down and other punctuation options will be spoken and stop on the one you want and it will be entered. If Fleksy is just not getting your word, you can type it manually using the method employed with standard touch typing by moving your fingers over the keys and lifting when the letter you want is spoken. After you complete entry of the word, single finger swipe right and Fleksy will speak the word and you can do a single finger swipe up to add it to your custom dictionary. 2. You must turn on full access for the Fleksy keyboard to properly work. When you launch the app the first time, you'll be presented with a button to execute that will take you to the place in settings to do this. You can find this also by going to Settings, General, Keyboard, Keyboards and selecting Fleksy. If Fleksy is not listed as an available keyboard, you'll first have to add it by double tapping the add new keyboard button, finding Fleksy under the Third Party Keyboards heading and double tapping on it. The list of available keyboards to add will now include Fleksy which you should double tap. You will be taken to a screen which states Allow full access with an on/off button which you should make sure is on. 3. Open the Fleksy Keyboard app to access its settings. These settings will not be available until the Fleksy keyboard is loaded. A button should be presented allowing you to load the Fleksy keyboard. If this button is not present and you see that the iOS standard keyboard is still loaded when you're in a text field, double tap and hold the key immediately to the left of the spacebar and then slide your finger up where VO should announce the available keyboards from which to choose. Lift your finger when Fleksy is announced and its keyboard will be loaded. After it is, the rightmost button on the topline menu when you're in the Fleksy app will be More which you should execute to get to the settings for which the defaults are okay for the most part. I recommend you set the following settings as indicated: * Open advanced settings which is the first item. The defaults for most of these should be fine but open the magic button which is about the fourth one down. This button is represented by a globe image on the Fleksy spacebar keyboard and appears immediately to the left of the spacebar. When you open this item, make sure the switch keyboard option is checked which is the default. I would also recommend that you execute the edit button in the upper right of this screen which will open a re-order button to the right of each of the options. Double tap and hold this button for the Globe switch keyboard option and slide up until it is first in the list. Being able to switch back to the standard iOS keyboard is the most important of the available options here which is why this should be the first in the list in my opinion. * Voice feedback should be on. If it is, Fleksy will announce the word after you type the last letter and do a single finger swipe right. * Case sensitive layout should be on. If this is off, all letters are displayed as uppercase and when manually entering a word one letter at a time with feedback, VoiceOver will announce each as a capital letter which is confusing. I've noticed that even when the lowercase keyboard is displayed, VoiceOver will sometimes announce a capital letter with manual input even if the input is lowercase so Fleksy is inconsistent here. 4. Open Keyboard Size which is the next item after Settings in the More section and set it to large. This will give you a larger area for key selection and swiping gestures which makes the process easier in my opinion. 5. Those who used the original Fleksy app as I did might consider using the minimal Fleksy keyboard. This presents on the screen with only letters, no spacebar, and any extensions loaded as a smaller topline above the letters. I find input easier with only letters on the screen. This can be set in the Keyboard Size option mentioned in the previous suggestion. See the next item for gestures to make switching between the minimal keyboard and the spacebar keyboard easier. 6. The below gestures make using the minimal Fleksy keyboard easier and remember that all Fleksy gestures must be done within the keyboard area to register. * A 2-finger swipe down on the Fleksy spacebar keyboard will switch to the Fleksy minimal keyboard. This will also insert a new line so you might have to immediately follow it with a single finger swipe left to delete that new line. * A 2-finger swipe up on the Fleksy minimal keyboard will switch to the Fleksy spacebar keyboard. * A 2-finger swipe down on the Fleksy minimal keyboard will insert a new line just like tapping the return button on the spacebar keyboard does. * A quick single finger swipe right on the Fleksy minimal keyboard shift key found at the bottom leftmost position should switch to the numbers keyboard. a single finger swipe down on the shift key while the numbers keyboard is active should switch to the symbols keyboard and repeated swipes down should toggle between numbers and symbols. A quick single finger swipe right on the shift key will eventually return you to the letters keyboard. Fleksy can be unpredictable with what it loads with this swiping but it is good about announcing correctly what is loaded so keep swiping until you get what you want. * A quick single finger swipe left on the Fleksy minimal keyboard backspace key found at the bottom rightmost position should switch to the Emoji keyboard. This action can be unpredictable so practice until you develop a working style. I've found that placing and holding a single finger on the backspace key and doing a quick, snappy swipe to the left seems to work most consistently. Sometimes, this causes a backspace and deletion of a letter to occur which must first be corrected. You can return to the letters keyboard from the Emoji keyboard by placing focus on the bottom leftmost key which states return to letter keyboard and double tapping. 7. To switch from the standard iOS keyboard to the Fleksy keyboard, double tap and hold the button immediately to the left of the spacebar and slide up until Fleksy is announced then release. 8. To switch from the Fleksy keyboard to the standard iOS keyboard, press and hold the button to the left of the spacebar and slide your finger up and to the right to hear the available options and release when switch keyboard is announced. Fleksy calls this key the magic button and depending on your settings (see 3 above) a single press of this magic button will switch to the standard iOS keyboard if you're using the default settings. 9. If the Fleksy keyboard is being used and doesn't appear to be working or is acting flaky, try turning off VoiceOver using a triple press of the home button and then turning VO on again. This often fixes the problem. Sometimes you have to reboot your phone by holding down the power and home buttons simultaneously for a few seconds. 10. The more complete your custom dictionary, the better Fleksy will be at correctly recognizing the words you're typing. When typing a word manually that you don't think is already in your dictionary such as a proper name, single finger swipe right once to complete the entry and when Fleksy correctly announces the word, do a single finger swipe up to add it to your custom dictionary. Opening the dictionary button found under the More button on the Fleksy Keyboard app home screen in order to review the entries is a good idea. You can also add entries as you wish on this screen. 11. The Fleksy keyboard has a number of quirks or inconsistencies or bugs or whatever you wish to call them including: * If using both the minimal and spacebar Fleksy keyboards, VoiceOver only says keyboard when focus is placed on it with no identification of which one is being used. * If your settings for the keyboard have case sensitive layout turned on so that lowercase letters display when in effect, Fleksy/VoiceOver often speaks capital in front of the letter being typed manually. I often do manual typing because I'm using a word or proper name I don't think is in my Fleksy dictionary so I slowly move my finger over the keyboard until the letter I want is announced and then release. More often than not, I'm finding that VoiceOver is announcing these as capital letters even though Fleksy is appropriately recording them as lowercase. This is obviously very confusing to those of us who get no visual representation of what's being entered but I can say that Fleksy seems to get the input correct a majority of the time even if the spoken input is incorrect as to case. * I often use the single finger swipe left to delete something just entered with the Fleksy keyboard. VoiceOver correctly announces the word which was deleted but it also announces it again with the first letter press of any new input. So, let's say I attempted to type the word gist but Fleksy converts my input to host. If I single finger swipe left, VO/Fleksy will say "host deleted." When I again type the g to start the input of gist the second time, VO/Fleksy will announce "host" after I type the first letter. This is most confusing but once you're aware of it can be ignored and dealt with. Proofreading is always an excellent idea so maybe the Fleksy developers are subtly encouraging us VoiceOver users to do more of it. * If you're using the Fleksy spacebar keyboard and you do a 2-finger swipe down gesture to switch to the Fleksy minimal keyboard, not only will the switch occur but a new line will also be entered. I suppose this is understandable as a 2-finger swipe down when typing in the minimal keyboard has always been the way to enter a new line but you'd think the developers would code it to recognize that when in the Fleksy spacebar keyboard, a 2-finger swipe down should only switch keyboards. Again, this is workable once you're aware of it since an immediate swipe left should delete the inserted new line. * This next one is not an errant behavior so much as a difference in how the Fleksy Keyboard behaves as compared to the iOS standard keyboard. In fact, I think it's an improvement. If you're interested in entering any emojis and load the Fleksy Emoji keyboard, you can swipe over the presented emojis to hear them without fear of anything being entered when released. You have to do either a split tap on the emoji you want or place focus on it and do a double tap for it to be entered. * When in the minimal keyboard, quick single finger swipes right on the shift key don't always cycle through the numbers, symbols, and letters keyboards as expected. * I'm noticing that previously typed letters are being deleted as I type on the Fleksy keyboard even if I'm not tapping anywhere near the backspace key on the minimal keyboard or the delete key on the spacebar keyboard. I think that what's happening is that Fleksy is being oversensitive and reading my key taps as a swipe left in some instances and doing a delete as a swipe left is supposed to do. I don't know if any of you took piano but I find that if I do a quick snap tap of the keys as if I'm playing staccato piano, this unintended deletion happens less often. * When entering contractions such as don't, can't, I'm, etc., be aware that Fleksy is not going to pronounce these as we do but instead says something like don t, can t, and I m. This actually works pretty well once you get used to it for identifying that a contraction was entered successfully since it is more distinct than hearing the spoken contraction in some cases. Alan Lemly Here is the Dropbox link to the file in html format of the above tips: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nsuvrvq3ww4gcgz/First-Time%20Fleksy%20Keyboard%20U ser%20tips.htm?dl=0 -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. 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