FYI: custom skins for Samsung XT9

[Guest Quist09]

I've put together my own Swedish landscape keyboard available below for use at your own risk if anybody is interested.

I also noticed that the first section of the xml file refers keypresses to index numbers and I'm wondering if that provides input to the XT9 system to recognize possible typos, but I ignored that and added characters as characters only (meaning XT9 will correct "oroblem" to "problem" but will not correct "åroblem").

I'll test this when I've had a chance, but otherwise I'm pretty chuffed at having been able to throw this together and get it working.

Seriously considering ditching Resco! ;)

Edited to add screenshot.

SwedishSamsungKeyboardLandscapeBetaV1.zip

Edited October 6, 2008 by Quist09

[Guest Ingvarr]

I also noticed that the first section of the xml file refers keypresses to index numbers and I'm wondering if that provides input to the XT9 system to recognize possible typos, but I ignored that and added characters as characters only (meaning XT9 will correct "oroblem" to "problem" but will not correct "åroblem").

Yes, index numbers is what gets referenced from .kdb file to produce char sequences - you can actually see possible sequences if you open .kdb with binary editor.

Edited October 6, 2008 by Ingvarr

[Guest Drolevar]

Ok, maybe someone can provide the same information for the phone keypad? I really want to integrate Russian letters into English firmware, as it's done in Russian firmware.

And also, maybe you know how to integrate English/Russian keyboard from a Russian firmware into English firmware?

[Guest Ingvarr]

Ok, maybe someone can provide the same information for the phone keypad? I really want to integrate Russian letters into English firmware, as it's done in Russian firmware.

And also, maybe you know how to integrate English/Russian keyboard from a Russian firmware into English firmware?

To enable Russian/English keyboard on English (DX) firmware, just install this CAB - http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?yqtnoz2jdyw

Use long press on XT9/abc to switch between Russian and English.

Phonepad (that appears when you press call button) is not soft input method, so its done in entirely different way than XT9 keyboards discussed in this thread.

Edited October 6, 2008 by Ingvarr

[Guest pidsw]

One possible way to make the keys wider would be to stagger them diagonally. So QWERTYUIOP would occupy two lines, but I *think* that if they were staggered it may be intuitive to use..

i.e.

Q E T U O

W R Y I P

I could be completely wrong there. I go back and forth between touchpal and the samsung keyboard. It is difficult to decide which is best, they both have excellent prediction/extrapolation

[Guest Ingvarr]

One possible way to make the keys wider would be to stagger them diagonally. So QWERTYUIOP would occupy two lines, but I *think* that if they were staggered it may be intuitive to use..

i.e.

Q E T U O

W R Y I P

Hmm, I think this could actually work, nice idea ;)

[Guest Massive Attack]

I've put together my own Swedish landscape keyboard available below for use at your own risk if anybody is interested.

I also noticed that the first section of the xml file refers keypresses to index numbers and I'm wondering if that provides input to the XT9 system to recognize possible typos, but I ignored that and added characters as characters only (meaning XT9 will correct "oroblem" to "problem" but will not correct "åroblem").

I'll test this when I've had a chance, but otherwise I'm pretty chuffed at having been able to throw this together and get it working.

Seriously considering ditching Resco! ;)

Edited to add screenshot.

just wondering, in my english keyboard, in landscape mode, i have the comma (,) in the numbers screen, not in qwerty screen, in your mod i saw that its in qwerty screen, how did you do that? what files did you edit?

[Guest Quist09]

just wondering, in my english keyboard, in landscape mode, i have the comma (,) in the numbers screen, not in qwerty screen, in your mod i saw that its in qwerty screen, how did you do that? what files did you edit?

For the first version of my landscape keyboard, I harvested the portrait keyboard files and resized and renamed them and references in the .xml.

In otherwords, copy the portrait keyboard files, resize the images to 400x111 keeping the internal key scaling (use a % scaling). Then rename the files from "Portrait" to "Landscape". In the xml file, change the header size attribute to 400x111 and then do a cut-and-replace to replace "Portrait" with "Landscape". Delete the landscape .map file, copy your new files into Windows, softreset and VIOLA!

Try the attached files.

In the previously posted version, I needed to have three extra keys on the keyboard, so that took some more doing.

keyboardmod.zip

Edited October 6, 2008 by Quist09

[Guest Massive Attack]

For the first version of my landscape keyboard, I harvested the portrait keyboard files and resized and renamed them and references in the .xml.

In otherwords, copy the portrait keyboard files, resize the images to 400x111 keeping the internal key scaling (use a % scaling). Then rename the files from "Portrait" to "Landscape". In the xml file, change the header size attribute to 400x111 and then do a cut-and-replace to replace "Portrait" with "Landscape". Delete the landscape .map file, copy your new files into Windows, softreset and VIOLA!

In the posted version, I needed to have three extra keys on the keyboard, so that took some more doing.

im interested because i want to resize the portrait keyboard down to 75%, give more space for viewing what you typed, i resized them all but the "frame" that popped up is still height 198 and all the keys are gone, thanks for informing me about the size at XML file.

Can I ask what do you think I need to do? i feel i left out more than the XML file.

[Guest Massive Attack]

i manage to shrink the keyboard and the letters are showing, but its off the screen, somewhere i need to change?

[Guest Quist09]

im interested because i want to resize the portrait keyboard down to 75%, give more space for viewing what you typed, i resized them all but the "frame" that popped up is still height 198 and all the keys are gone, thanks for informing me about the size at XML file.

Can I ask what do you think I need to do? i feel i left out more than the XML file.

I edited the post above to add my other version. No screenshot, but I suspect it may be what your looking for (although I changed the height to 120 instead of 111 because the bottom keys were too small otherwise).

Scratch that. Just saw you want to resize the actual portrait keyboard.

Edited October 6, 2008 by Quist09

[Guest Massive Attack]

I've put together my own Swedish landscape keyboard available below for use at your own risk if anybody is interested.

I also noticed that the first section of the xml file refers keypresses to index numbers and I'm wondering if that provides input to the XT9 system to recognize possible typos, but I ignored that and added characters as characters only (meaning XT9 will correct "oroblem" to "problem" but will not correct "åroblem").

I'll test this when I've had a chance, but otherwise I'm pretty chuffed at having been able to throw this together and get it working.

Seriously considering ditching Resco! ;)

Edited to add screenshot.

hey dude, may i ask why do i have to delete the Samsung_i900.Keyboard.Common.Landscape.Map.map? will it auto-regenerate and map the new keyboard accordingly?

[Guest Quist09]

hey dude, may i ask why do i have to delete the Samsung_i900.Keyboard.Common.Landscape.Map.map? will it auto-regenerate and map the new keyboard accordingly?

Yup. If you're wary about deleting it, simply relocate it elsewhere or rename the file suffix to .old. Upon a softreset, if the system doesn't find the file it will use the bitmaps to create it and then the xml to assign characters to the buttons.

If you don't, the system will use the same .map file that was already there, but will try to overlay the new info from your altered xml file.

PS I forgot to mention before that the font used on the portrait keyboard is 100 and the font on the landscape keyboard is 80, so you're going to want to change that in the xml file as well, otherwise it'll work, just won't be as pretty.

Edited October 6, 2008 by Quist09

[Guest Quist09]

Here's a slightly newer version of the Swedish landscape keyboard. I used the unused keys in the symbols keyboards to make the other Scandinavian characters more easily accessible as well as é. These are some characters that are used relatively often in Swedish as well.

Enjoy!

SwedishSamsungKeyboardLandscapeBetaV3.zip

[Guest sedted]

Here's a slightly newer version of the Swedish landscape keyboard. I used the unused keys in the symbols keyboards to make the other Scandinavian characters more easily accessible as well as é. These are some characters that are used relatively often in Swedish as well.

Enjoy!

Tack! Works fine. Now I'm going to a fix åäö for the portrait also(at least under the first symbol page).

[Guest vitkrub]

How I can make the virtual keyboard into 5 rows because my language layout on the keyboard must use 5 rows .

Thanks.

[Guest Gibeon]

I've made a nice skin but I cant replace the .bmp files because they are read only. How can I change it? Tried to use TC but didn't work either...

Edit: Fixed.

But, how can I change the font color from black to white? I want to restyle my whole omnia in the Manilla 2D Vista style, black fading to white with white text.

Edited November 11, 2008 by Gibeon

[Guest Frankly101]

Here's a slightly newer version of the Swedish landscape keyboard. I used the unused keys in the symbols keyboards to make the other Scandinavian characters more easily accessible as well as é. These are some characters that are used relatively often in Swedish as well.

Enjoy!

Hi there, could you kindly do, for the rest of us, a US/UK qwerty keyboard with the send key where you have it??

That would be really useful...

[Guest LORD JUNIOR]

how to make a black keyboard with white keys can somebody show me how please. thanks

[Guest Samwise579]

Would anyone be able to whack the necessary files for the horizontal keyboard with the space bar in the middle into a .rar and give some step by step instructions for installing them to get it fully functioning.

[Guest Samwise579]

I tried doing it myself, but I can't find the files in the windows directory on the phone, and after a firmware update can no longer access the windows directory via the pc.

[Guest punkmonkey1984]

someones already done a black version of it , can be seen here 

http://www.modaco.com/content/i900-omnia-r...xholic-edition/

and the cab downloaded here, at the bottom

http://vitaln.com/ehalos/omnia/cabs.html

altho iv not been able to get it to work i always get the normal samsung skins B)

[Guest Quist09]

Hi there, could you kindly do, for the rest of us, a US/UK qwerty keyboard with the send key where you have it??

That would be really useful...

Hi Frankly101, here you go (see attached). By the way, I didn't move the Send key per se. I don't think that's possible. On my version of the keyboard, I use four rows and the bottom one only has the shift, XT9/abc, space, SYM/123 and return buttons on it. It cuts down on the risk of e.g. trying to hit z, x, c or v and accidentally hitting the Send button.

Basically this is the same keyboard layout as my Swedish keyboard, but I replaced the åöä on the text keyboard with / (for easier entry of urls), ? and !. Then I adjusted the extra keys available in the symbol menus to help people out that need some common special characters (making ü,ö,ä,å,æ and ø available in the first 3 symbol menus).

If you want to be able to switch back to the standard Samsung landscape keyboard later without a hardreset, it's important that you copy and save the files being replaced in the Windows directory somewhere else. You also have to delete the file Samsung_i900.Keyboard.Common.Landscape.Map.map from the Windows directory and softreset for it to work. Instructions are provided in the readme.txt file in the download.

The latter stage I mentioned is what I think many are missing when trying to mod these files (and I would imagine you have to do the same thing to get the black keyboard linked in the other post to work - that is delete the .map files in the Windows directory and softreset). Upon start, the Omnia checks for the existance of the .map files, if they're not there, it uses the .xml files and the ...map.bmp files to generate the .map files. If the .map files are still there, even though you've changed the .xml and .bmp files, it will ignore them and keep using the existing .map files.

Also, if you don't like the keys I've chosen for the three extra keys I added in my English version, you can easily change them by changing the .xml files. The new keys have the key colors of 0x111eee (key next to p), 0xabcdef (key next to l) and 0x000abc (key next to that). Replace the value=" " attribute in both lines for each of those key colors to what ever you like, copy your altered .xml file into the Windows directory, delete Samsung_i900.Keyboard.Common.Landscape.Map.map and softreset.

Lastly, for those trying to copy files directly into the Windows directory on the phone from your computer, it won't work. You need to use an on-device 3rd-party explorer like GSFinder, TotalCommander or Resco to copy the files from e.g. My Storage to the Windows directory. Same is true of deleting the .map file. Also, if you can't see a bunch of files in the Windows directory, you need to set up your system to not hide these files. Such options are available in the 3rd-party explorers (and in XP and Vista on the computer for that matter).

Good luck! Let us know how you get on. I tested this version of the keyboard on my Omnia and it works fine (but as always, use at your own risk).

EnglishModSamsungKeyboardLandscapeBetaV1.zip

[Guest Quist09]

Continuing with the publication of my own mods on my Omnia, I'm posting here my Swedish version of the portrait keyboard. I got tired of flipping to landscape to get to the Swedish characters åäö. Basically, you make a backup copy of the files of the same name as those in the zip file found in your Windows directory. Then copy the files from the zip to the Windows directory and delete the portrait .map file and softreset. Full instructions are in the readme in SwedishSamsungKeyboardPortraitV1.zip.

The keys are slightly smaller than those in the original portrait keyboard, but I don't find it to be hard to hit the right keys - and with XT9 on, it's almost impossible to misstype a word.

For those switching from the black skin floating around, which is also in e.g. Passoa's 4th M2D rom, you'll also want to copy over the files in CommonIcons.zip to your Windows directory so your shift, return and arrow keys look like they should with my keyboards.

For those that forgot to make a backup of their own keyboard files and don't want to hardreset to get the regular Samsung keyboard back (not the black one), I've also posted a zip with the files replaced by my keyboard skins. To revert back to the regular Samsung keyboard, simply copy the files in RestoreFiles.zip back to the Windows directory, delete the landscape and/or portrait .map files and softreset.

Enjoy! B)

SwedishSamsungKeyboardPortraitV1.zip

CommonIcons.zip

RestoreFiles.zip

Edited December 5, 2008 by Quist09

[Guest Ninja4Hire]

Thanks for the English version.

Edited December 5, 2008 by Ninja4Hire