Android tablet:
On-screen keyboard and Quick Settings
This course shows you how to use the onscreen keyboard on your Android tablet, as well as how to adjust the brightness of your screen to make it easier to read.
Watch our animation by pressing the Play button below, or click on the handy Chapters icon in the video playbar to go straight to the information you want to see, such as how to:
- reveal the on-screen keyboard
- use some common keyboard functions
- change the keyboard case
- type numbers, punctuation and symbols
- access Quick Settings
- adjust brightness on your tablet
- close Quick Settings.
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Transcript
Welcome to the "Android tablet: On-screen keyboard and Quick Settings" course. You'll learn how to use the onscreen keyboard on your tablet and how to adjust the brightness of the screen using the tablet's Quick Settings.
There are different kinds of Android tablets. If your Android tablet is a different model to the one shown in this demonstration, the steps might be slightly different, but you can still follow along.
Unlike a desktop or laptop computer, a tablet doesn't come with a physical keyboard attached. Instead, a tablet has what we call an on-screen keyboard that appears whenever you tap in a text entry field on the screen of your tablet. Let's have a look at how that works by searching for something on the web.
Android tablets include a web browser called Chrome, so let's open it up. From the Home screen, find the Google folder and tap on it. When it opens, you'll see a number of Google apps. Tap on the Chrome icon to open the web browser. You might see the web page you last visited or an empty search web page. The web page fills the whole screen and there's no keyboard visible. To make the keyboard appear, tap in any text field. For this demonstration, we'll tap in the address bar at the top of Chrome and perform a web search. The keyboard appears and the address bar is highlighted blue, which means that it is selected. Let's type the words "weather today" using the on-screen keyboard. To insert a space between words, tap the long Space bar at the bottom of the keyboard, and then type the next word. If you wanted to delete the text and type a new search, you can tap the cross to the right of the address bar or the backspace key near the top right of the keyboard. It looks like a square with a cross inside. To perform a simple web search, tap the Go key on the right of the keyboard. The keyboard disappears and you can see the search results on the whole screen.
To get the keyboard back, tap in any text field. We'll tap in the address bar again. When we tap, the text in the address bar is automatically deleted, ready for a new search.
Just like on a physical computer keyboard, the letters on the keys are lowercase, so when you tap a key, you'll type a lowercase letter.
To type a single uppercase letter, tap either of the Shift arrows to reveal the uppercase keyboard. Now, just tap a letter to type it in uppercase. Once the capital letter is added, the keyboard will automatically return to lowercase.
To type everything in capitals, tap the Shift arrow key twice. You'll see it turn blue and the keyboard will show all the letters in uppercase. You can now type in capitals. To turn off uppercase, tap the Shift arrow key again.
Your tablet will have numbers and some punctuation keys on the main on-screen keyboard, but there is also a special keyboard for numbers, punctuation, and symbols. To see it, tap the key to the right of the Control key. This key displays an exclamation mark, hash symbol, and number one. You'll notice that the keyboard now shows some commonly used symbols. You can access more symbols by tapping the key marked 1/2. To go back to the alphabet and normal typing, tap the ABC key. When you finish searching the internet, swipe up from the bottom of the screen to return to the Home screen.
To finish up, let's look at how Quick Settings helps you quickly access some commonly used features without having to search for them. You can open Quick Settings anytime, regardless of which app or website you have open.
Swipe down from the top of the screen. The swipe should always begin with your finger in the bezel, which is the area that surrounds the screen. You'll see some icons at the top of the screen, but to see all the features, you need to open the full Quick Settings panel. To do this, place your finger on the icons and swipe down again. More icons will appear, and you can swipe left on the panel to access even more features. It's worth exploring these later, but for now, we'll look at how to adjust the brightness of your tablet screen.
At the bottom of the full Quick Settings panel is a slider control with a sun icon. This controls the screen brightness. Slide your finger right to increase brightness. This can help make the screen easier to read in bright sunshine. Slide your finger to the left to dim the screen. This can help save battery power. When you find the brightness level that suits you, take your finger off to set it. To close Quick Settings and return to the screen you were last looking at, tap anywhere outside of the icon area. For this demonstration, however, we're going to tap the Home button and return to the Home screen.
You have now completed the course and should know how to use the on-screen keyboard and how to open the Quick Settings panel and adjust the screen brightness of your tablet.
If you're unsure about any steps, you can rewind the video or click the chapter headings to jump to the start of a chapter. If you are ready to move on, there are many other courses to explore on Be Connected.