Small virtual keyboard?

[JimVBrook]

On my Surface Go, about half the time that the virtual keyboard appears, it occupies so much, about 50%, of the screen area, and often obscures the text box into which I am attempting to enter text. Sometimes moving it helps but this is not an ideal solution.

I know that I can alter the appearance of the virtual keyboard. However, none of the options I can normally access help much; they still occupy too much screen space.

However, very occasionally I am able to obtain a much smaller floating keyboard, one which occupies about 1/8 of the screen, and which is small enough to be moved out of the area I'm working on. I'm not sure how it happens, and I've tried every combination of options I can think of. This floating keyboard is more like a phone keyboard, closer to square in shape than a long rectangle.

Could anybody kindly advise me of the correct way to obtain this keyboard whenever it is required?

Thank you.

 

[sharpuser]

While the keyboard is displayed, look for a place in the far upper-right to resize it. Let us know ...

 

[JimVBrook]

Thank you. Unfortunately this doesn't appear on this device .

 

[sharpuser]

Thanks for replying, @JimVBrook

Try searching for “osk”. Is this the large keyboard with no options to make smaller?

 

[JimVBrook]

Thank you.
Yes, osk does produce a different keyboard which can be resized to some extent, unlike the other which either pops up automatically or which I access using the Task-bar icon.
However the osk keyboard has a space-consuming panel (Home, Pg Up etc) which I cannot remove.
Is there a way of making this the default pop up keyboard, and of hiding the right hand panel? I think that for many users, that would be the most usable option.

 

[sharpuser]

I think you may want the "Touch Keyboard".

1 Right-click on your taskbar
2 Choose "Show the Touch Keyboard button"

Now click the Touch Keyboard button on your taskbar. There are various keyboards available with this "Touch Keyboard".

I hope this helps.

 

[JimVBrook]

Thanks for your suggestion, but this is what I have been using all along. There are four buttons in the top group as per the attachments. But none of them offer the same as osk or as the smaller mainly character-0nly option that I have occasionally stumbled on. And none of them seem to offer a re sizing option but occupy all or nearly all the horizontal space.

 

[sharpuser]

What Version of Windows 10 are you using? 1903?

Also, is it possible that the smaller keyboard you preferred was part of the Chrome browser, not Windows 10 ?

 

[JimVBrook]

Great suggestion. I updated to 1903 and now the mini keyboard has been restored. It had been there before but somehow got dropped by the OS. Thanks for leading me to a resolution of this issue.

 

[sharpuser]

Excellent, @JimVBrook . And thanks for your patience and good pictures in your posts.

You are great benefit to all Surface enthusiasts around here.