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

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 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 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

I have tried and tried in Windows 8 IE (both Metro and Desktop), but cannot for the life of me copy anything from a webpage without holding down until the Copy/Paste dialogue pops up. It works, but it adds a few seconds to a procedure that used to be seamless, and those seconds add up after repeated operations.

Right.  Why won't they at least document what is supposed to work so we don't waste time trying to "discover" what probably isn't there?   The way usability works now, nothing is documented, so anything that happens can be stated as being WAD and meanwhile users just waste time and make themselves frustrated trying to make things happen which should happen if the thing was designed with usability in mind but can't because it wasn't.

As for the TIP, I do like the new white on black look, but it bugs me that I can't resize it anymore. Sometimes I only want a single line so I can still see my spreadsheet, and other times I would like more lines so I can complete a full thought before hitting "Insert".

Well, we can move it but if you move it down so only one line is showing or move it to the right you lose all the buttons.   That's where some gestures in the TIP would be handy.   Otherwise having to use the Insert button to flush it just to make more room does interrupt your flow.  

Related to this, what sometimes greatly inconveniences me is IE's conversion of the Insert button into an unconditional Go button.   Also what's with that (totally useless) URL template it keeps inserting and I keep deleting?  Also, the number of times I have had something in the TIP disappear just because I lost focus somewhere else is depressing.  WTH are they thinking?  

Windows 8 introduced a couple more keyboard layout options, but I find myself using the previous one more often than not.

The only time I use those new (leftmost) "keyboards" is in a new account that I haven't yet configured a "standard" keyboard for.   Otherwise I am constantly toggling between TIP and standard and Minimize.  Never close but I'm not really sure if there is any significant difference there.

There is one quirk that I have noticed occasionally that I hope to eventually understand and master which allows both the TIP and the OSK to be running at the same time.   Otherwise a major irritation is not being able to start one when the other is already in use or minimized.   Why?  It's the same kind of arbitrary change that IE7 introduced about not being able to use F11 on more than one window at a time.   Unnecessary, unwanted but more than anything continually irritating every time I forget to compensate for its obstruction.   Designed UX?  Ha!

Robert

No, your advice didn't help at all. I don't understand why when I enter a text field I have move my hand to the bottom of the screen to get to the Keyboard. It don't makes any sense at all.