On-Screen keyboard icon no longer pops up when touch text box

Hi Nic,

Thank you for posting the question in Microsoft Community!

As I understand, you are facing issues with the On-screen Keyboard**.** I understand that it must be frustrating, but rest assured, we are here to help fix the issue and guide you in the right direction.

I would suggest you to follow these steps and check if it helps:

a.     Right click on Taskbar.

b.    Move the mouse over Toolbars.

c.     Check the option Touch Keyboard.

d.    Check if it helps.

If you are still facing the issue, please reply and we will be glad to help you.

Thanks.

Hi, Rohit,

Your solution will place the keyboard icon on the taskbar, and admittedly, that's better than nothing.  I think what Nic is talking about is having the keyboard icon "pop up" next to any text input field, URL entry, or text document that you tap, so that it's very near your entry finger, and is easy to tap without having to go down to the taskbar and tap the keyboard icon there.  (Especially burdensome when you have Auto-Hide On for the taskbar!).

Windows 7 had this functionality, and Windows 8 does not.  It would be a GREAT help to those of us who work on the desktop from our tablets.

Of course, the ideal solution would be having the keyboard itself pop up whenever the user taps into a text field ( with the ability to turn this off is so desired).

Thanks,

Bill

Hi Bill,

Yes thats exactly what i mean. I believe you are a tablet user yourself too :)

For the auto keyboard, Metro UI (startscreen) does this and beautifully too. Since Windows 8 is supposedly more towards touchscreen devices.. I should assume that it is more optimized. If the same auto keyboard that appears in Metro UI (an example is : Swipe left from right edge of screen, tap search) we can see that the keyboard automatically pops up and has the option of allowing us to hide the keyboard ( bottom right in the keyboard> find keyboard icon> tap it> tap last keyboard which shows an empty rectangle and an arrow down)

I just think that the Windows 7 feature 'Tablet PC touch input panel - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Using-the-writing-pad-and-touch-keyboard-in-Tablet-PC-Input-Panel ' should be returned to Windows 7.

Bill do you use flicks ( http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/What-are-pen-flicks )? E.g. Flick NE flick NW directions to simplify tasks such as copying, cutting, deleting etc  I also find that missing in Windows 8 and believe it is also a feature that is part of Tablet PC Touch Input Panel.

If someone could find how to install this on Windows 8 UNLESS Microsoft themselves give out a patch that would re-enable auto keyboard in desktop mode that would be great.

Rohit, Windows 8 has already done this for me and I have the keyboard icon on the bottom right of my keyboard in task bar, however as tablet users would know, in Windows 7 as Bill said, when we tap on any area that allows text input, a few pixels away there would be a keyboard icon that pops up and when we tap that, the keyboard would pop up. I do agree tapping this OR the one right below on the right may seem similar, it is actually easier to tap the icon when it is right next to the text box where you tapped. Always going back down to the bottom right to launch the OSK is troublesome and not well thought off. This technology is possible as Windows 7 had this feature despite the keyboard icon not popping up on some occasions where i then had to touch the top left and manually start the 'always on top' keyboard. Metro UI does this too an example would be IE 10 launched from within the start screen. When you tap the URL edit field, the osk automatically appears.

Thanks,

Nic

in start (win8): when i open search, the osk does not popup, when I tap settings...show osk: the search dissapears. So I click on search and the keyboard dissapears. Hopeless loop ;)

i have hardware keyboard, but in desktop mode the osk appears correctly whenever i select text field, so generally osk should work as well in start screen, but does not.

In a way, it's nice to know that others are experiencing this issue too, but most of all, I find it aggravating. The touch features that worked really well in Windows 7, namely the Windows Input Panel and editing flicks, have been removed from Windows 8, which is supposed to be specifically designed for touch. I don't understand this decision and sincerely hope these features will be added back in an upcoming service pack.

I realize that Microsoft is emphasizing the new Metro interface, but the fact is that the desktop is still the predominant domain of productivity. By removing functions that enable tablet users to work fluidly within MS Office applications like Excel and Word, Microsoft is risking losing its major edge over platforms like Android and iOS. Sure, apps are nice and Metro is fun, but when I need to get serious work done, I turn to Windows because it can run the power software I need. Please Microsoft, don't turn Windows into just another toy...

Joe