PC_Advisor_Issue_264_July_2017

How to: Get more from Google’s Gboard keyboard
2. Translate as you type
Thanks to its new, sentence-level ‘neural machine’
translations, Google’s translation abilities have
morphed from unintentionally hilariously to
scary good. In just a few taps, you can compose,
email, or even chat in another language, with a
respectable degree of fluency.
Again, tap the caret in the top-left corner of
Gboard, tap the Google Translate button, pick the
language you’d like your words translated into
from the drop-down menu on the right, then start
typing. Google Translate will work its magic as
you type, pasting your translated words directly
into whatever document, web page, email or
chat window you’re using.
Gboard will translate your words as you
type with help from Google Translate’s
new ‘neural’ translation abilities
3. Get a dedicated number row
It can get pretty annoying having to tap the symbols
button whenever you want to type a number. If you’d
rather save yourself a keystroke, there’s a timesaving
Gboard setting you need to try.
Tap the caret in the corner to reveal the Gboard
menu, tap the Settings button, tap Preferences,
then toggle on the Number row setting.
Head back to Gboard, and you’ll now see a
dedicated row of number keys sitting at the top of
the keypad, no symbols button required.
You can get quicker access to
the number keys by toggling on
Gboard’s ‘Number row’ setting
4. Get the numeric
keypad whenever you want
A dedicated row of number keys is nice, but in
some case – for example, when you’re typing
phone or credit card numbers into an online form
– a numeric keypad is even better.
Ideally, Gboard should automatically switch
on its numeric keypad when you’re filling in a
numbers-only form. But if you find yourself stuck
with the standard keyboard when you just want to
type numbers, there’s a way to manually enable
Gboard’s numeric keypad.
First, tap the symbols button in the bottom-left
corner of the Gboard keypad. Then, just to the left
of the space bar, you’ll see a 1 2 3 4 button, with
the four numbers arranged two on top of the other.
Tap it, and voilà – there’s your numeric keypad.
Tap the ‘1 2 3 4’ button to
call up Gboard’s numeric
keypad whenever you want
114 www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to July 2017