Changes in keyboard layout from Treo Hello everyone, Has anyone besides me noticed that there are several changes in the Pre's keyboard layout from the Treo? When looking at photos I just happened to notice the @ symbol had been moved which prompted me to take a closer look. I've now found seven changes - did I miss any? The "I" key formerly had @ on it, now has %. The "P" key formerly was used to adjust brightness, now it has the = sign. The "M" key was a comma, now it's a semi-colon. The "period" (between the "M" and Return) was previously a dedicated key, working as period wither the option key was pressed or not. Now it has two uses, primarily as a "comma" and secondarily as an underscore. The "0" was previously a dedicated "0" but now is primarily the @ symbol and you have to press the option key to get the 0. (Probably not a problem because you have to press the option to get the other numbers, unless you're in a field that expects numbers, such as phone number fields in contacts.) The "Alt" key (to the right of the space key) is now a dedicated period. The "Menu" key is now labeled "Sym" - Symbol? Apparently there is no dedicated key to activate menus any longer. You must touch the screen in the upper left hand corner. That's all the keyboard changes I've seen. As I understand it the @ was moved to a dedicated key since it's used so frequently. It's nice to have the % sign as it was one of the ones I looked for often, using the Alt key. It will take some "getting used to" the new location of the @ key. As for the removal of the brightness key, I think there's some sort of light sensor built in - hopefully it works well! BTW, the left shift key is now a dedicated key - it no longer has the dual usage of Option+Search, which I assume is replaced by Universal search. While it's going to be a slight learning curve, I'm happy for the addition of some often used symbols and I like the idea of the comma being a dedicated key. I tend to use the brightness fairly frequently so I'm hoping the light sensor will work well. What are you thoughts? Nathan
Nice observation and write-up there. Great post. I'm liking the web-centric change with the @ being a dedicated key. I'm going to be moving from a landscape-QWERTY so there will definitely be an adjustment period involved there. I also share the concern about the light sensor, I hope the auto-brightness works as intended (even if it doesn't, I'm hoping the screen will at least be useable in direct sunlight as my current HTC phone is useless in that scenario). Anyone spied a manual brightness adjustment in the phone settings? I'll have to peruse the manual to see if the auto-sensor can be overridden.
I totally agree. I really like the changes, especially the dedicated @ symbol. And easier access to %, = and _ are good things. Changing the location of the @ and the location of the . will probably be the biggest challenges to me. I've been using the Treo since the 300 so I'm pretty well indoctrinated into its layout. But I'm definitely willing to progress! Nathan
