Chapter 4. Typing and Using Speech

In this section:

• Section 4.1

• Section 4.2

• Section 4.3

• Section 4.4

• Section 4.5

• Section 4.6

• Section 4.7

• Section 4.8

Reviewers all pretty much agree on one thing: Windows Phone 7 has one of the best on-screen keyboards of any smartphone. And that’s good news, because typing is one of the most basic and important tasks you do on your phone.

The keyboard, which appears any time you tap a text box, is tricked out with many ingenious, timesaving features. It can automatically add punctuation marks and capitalize words. It also has a beefy built-in dictionary for correcting typos and predicting what you’re trying to type, which can save you taps. (Many of the time savers in this section apply even if your phone comes with a physical keyboard.) Microsoft engineers really paid attention to the small details. Some smartphone keyboards clickety-clack like a typewriter. Windows Phone makes no fewer than eight subtle typing sounds to fight monotony. (You can always turn the sound off.) In early 2011 Microsoft says it also plans to add copy and paste capability to the phone.

But the keyboard isn’t your only input option. In this section, you’ll also learn about the speech-recognition feature, one of the phone’s hidden gems. Speech is a hands-free alternative to the keyboard and touch-screen for bread-and-butter tasks like making calls, opening apps, and searching the Web.