Google translate and the virtual keyboard

Where does "the keyboard in the box" appear? Although I use Google translate often, most recently just a couple of days ago, i've never noticed a virtual keyboard on the page. It sounds like a good idea.

In my version there is a keyboard icon in the bottom left hand corner of the left hand box. Click on that and (sometimes) a virtual keyboard appears below the box.

Wow! I've always seen, and ignored, the "Allow phonetic typing" in that location, so I'm not sure if that tiny keyboard icon has always been there, but it certainly is there now. I last translated something from Russian to English, so when I clicked on the icon it showed a Cyrillic keyboard. I changed the language choice to Slovak, then clicked the keyboard again, and got the right alphabet for that language. It did the same for Greek, Georgian, and Swedish, but nothing appeared (the icon itself having disappeared) when I changed the choice to Chinese.

Thanks for making me aware of it. I have a Cyrillic keyboard among my bookmarks, and I've had to go there, type out what I will be translating, then copy it and paste it into Google translate. Going back and forth (to add or change text, for example) is a pain in the neck, so if the virtual keyboard at Google translate works consistently you have saved me a lot of time and effort. Unfortunately, it doesn't help you to know that.

Though it might earn me a shot of vodka if our paths ever cross. :-)

I just noticed a drawback to the virtual keyboard for Russian on Google translate: the letters aren't arranged in the same configuration as on the Cyrillic alphabet on the keyboard I have bookmarked. I am reminded me of a complaint that my Russian teacher had: She said that when she came to the United States it was difficult to find a typewriter with a Cyrillic keyboard, and the few she found had the letters arranged to match, as nearly as possible, the equivalent letters on a QWERTY keyboard.

Looks like that's до свидания to my vodka then...

No, in fact you can have the whole bottle. I haven't had vodka in a long, long time. My Russian grandmother preferred Scotch, and maybe I learned by example. Scotch straight up, on the rocks, or with water; bourbon in a pinch. А водка? никогда.

It works all right typing Vietnamese, typing in telegraphic Vietnamese, as per Vietkey typing program.

NorthAmerican, my Russian born wife hates Scotch, saying that it tastes like samogon. Maybe your grandmother just wanted village vodka.