Text Entry Interface

A text entry interface or text entry device is an interface that is used to enter text information into an electronic device. A commonly used device is a mechanical computer keyboard. Most laptop computers have an integrated mechanical keyboard, and desktop computers are usually operated primarily using a keyboard and mouse. Devices such as smartphones and tablets mean that interfaces such as virtual keyboards and voice recognition are becoming more popular as text entry systems.

With the increasing popularity of mobile electronic information management, there variety in text entry interfaces has developed considerably. Such interfaces are primarily used to communicate and record information and data.

A computer keyboard is a series of electronic switches used to input data into a computer. Each button typically represents one character, but some symbols may only be accessible via a combination of buttons. The layout of the keyboard is like that of a traditional typewriter, although there are some additional keys provided for performing further functions. There are a number of different keyboard layouts available, QwERTY being the standard English-language keyboard layout. The standard English keyboard map is referred to as QWERTY, as the first six keys on the top row of letters are Q, W, E, R, T and Y. Other keyboards layouts include AZERTY and Dvorak. The AZERTY keyboard is a variation of the standard QWERTY keyboard adapted for French-language input. The AZERTY layout modifies the QWERTY layout to add functionality for inputting accented characters. The Dvorak keyboard is designed so that the middle row of keys includes the most common letters, with the goal of allowing greater efficiency and comfort while typing. The keyboard usually contains letters, numbers, punctuation, function and control keys, arrow keys, a keypad, and may include a wristpad.

With the popularity of text messaging , text entry with mobile phones has gained use. Each key contains multiple characters, and these are reached through multiple key presses. This is frequently used in conjunction with predictive text (also known as T9) entry. Although once popular, this system has been mostly displaced with the widespread use of touchscreens on smartphones and is now mostly found on budget feature phones.

Virtual keyboards are similar to mechanical keyboards, but do not make use of physical keys. These may be implemented on systems using a screen or projected onto a surface. The individual letters may be selected by touching them as on a touch screen or surface, or by clicking on them with a classical pointing device (a mouse or trackpad), like in the case of virtual computer keyboards. Multi-touch screens even support virtual chorded keyboards.

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Wikipedia