android - How to open only half keyboard in Landscape mode?

Question

I want to develop an Android typing based game. I would really want this game to work on landscape mode, because, in my opinion, it is more specific Android games.

There it is this first problem

if I toggle landscape mode, when the user opens the keyboard he can not see the rest of the screen because in Landscape Mode it opens Full Screen. (my keyboard does this)

Question: Is there any way in which I can open only half keyboard in Landscape Mode so that the user can see what where he is typing or does anyone find another way to solve this problem?

Thank you very much!

Answer 1

Adding this:

android:imeOptions="flagNoExtractUi"

to your EditText node (in the xml) will make it so that the keyboard pops up on half the screen and lets you edit the text right IN the text field (in your UI) rather than in its own (full screen) text edit area.

I've just tested this in a Galaxy Nexus (running ICS) and a RAZR Maxx (running Gingerbread), the app is compiled for midSdk 10 (2.3.3). It appears to work.