– VIDEO in Post –
If you’re like me, you use tour Surface in touch screen a majority of the time. Having done so a lot, there are times when I find the default keyboard layout a bit awkward; I have to use the &123 button to switch back and forth between numbers/punctuation and letters.
It turns out there is a touch screen qwerty option available on your Surface but it’s just not turned on by default.
So, in this post, I’m going to show you how to do it.
By default, your “typing” keyboard layout will look like the one in the illustration below.
However, in full Qwerty mode, it could look like this.
It has some advantages because it has a familiar look and includes numbers and symbols but it has the disadvantage of the keys being a bit smaller which might cause more typos.
Touch Screen Qwerty for Surface: Enabling
So, if you would prefer the Qwerty layout, just follow these easy steps.
- Bring up the Charms Bar
- Tap Settings
- Tap Change PC Settings
- Next go to PC and devices
- Select Typing
- At the bottom enable the Add the standard keyboard layout as a touch keyboard option
After you turn it on, you’ll get a fourth option in the keyboard layout selection panel. When the feature was diabled, the option was greyed out. Just tap on it to select the qwerty layout.
Touch Screen Qwerty for Surface: Video Version
Just in case you find it easier to watch how to do it, here’s a video version of this tip.
Tim
