TIP: To select a Keyboard Language other than English, go to 
Settings > Personal > Language & Input
ENTER AND EDIT TEXT
Use the onscreen keyboard to enter text. Here’s what it looks like on your phone:
Some apps open the keyboard automatically. In others, you first need to touch where you want to type.
BASIC EDITING
Change where you want to type
Touch the cursor, then touch and drag the tab that appears below it to the new position
Select Text
Touch and hold or double-tap within the text.
The nearest word highlights, with a tab at each end of the selection. Drag the tabs to change selection
Delete Text
Touch the 
Delete Key to delete the characters before the cursor or selected text
Type Capital Letters
To switch to capital letters for one letter, touch the 
Shift key once.
You can also touch and hold the Shift key while you type or you can touch the Shift key and slide to another key.
When you release the key, the lowercase letters reappear
Turn Caps Lock On
Double-tap or touch and hold the Shift key so that it changes to. Touch the Shift key again to return to lowercase.
Change Word Capitalisation
If you want to quickly change the capitalization of a word you’ve already typed, you can select it and touch the Shift key.
You’ll have the option to select the capitalized word or the word in all capital letters.
Type a Symbol or Character
To switch to symbol keys for one word, touch the 
symbol key once.
You can also touch and hold the symbol key while you type or you can touch the symbol key and slide to another key. When you release the key, the letter keys reappear.
View more Symbols and Characters
Touch and hold symbols or characters to get accented characters or additional symbols
Cut, Copy and Paste
Select the text you want to cut or copy. Then touch the 
Cut button or 
Copy button. To paste, touch the space where you want to paste your text and then touch 
Paste. If you want to replace other text with the text you copied, highlight the text, then touch the Paste button.
EMOJIS
Use Google Keyboard to choose from a variety of small, colorful images used to express emotion (known as emoji) to add some fun to your messages.
Depending on your device, you may need to touch and hold the Return key and then slide your finger to the happy face to display emoji. You’ll see a panel like the image below. To move between categories, swipe left or right or touch the symbols in the top row. To type an emoji, touch it:
USE NEXT-WORD SUGGESTIONS
1. Touch the location where you want to input text.
2. Start typing out a word. When the word you want is displayed in a list above the keyboard, touch it.
3. Continue to touch words unless the one you want doesn’t appear. If so, type it.
Android continues to suggest words as you type.
To change your keyboard and input methods, go to Settings > Personal > Language & input.
To turn next-word suggestions on or off, go to Settings > Personal > Language & input > Keyboard & input methods > Google Keyboard > Text correction > Next-word suggestions.
GESTURE TYPING
Gesture Typing works best for English. Quality varies for other languages, and some don’t support it yet.
To input a word using Gesture Typing:
1. Touch the location where you want to type to open the keyboard.
2. Slide your finger slowly across the letters of the word you want to input.
3. Release your finger when the word you want is displayed in the floating preview or the middle of the suggestion strip. To select one of the other words in the suggestion strip, touch it.
If the word you want isn’t shown while using Gesture Typing, you can type it out manually. If you gesture a word and want to change it, touch the word to see other choices in the suggestion strip
USE GESTURE TYPING WITHOUT THE SPACE BAR
When you use Gesture Typing, there’s no need to use the space bar — just continue to slide your finger across the letters you want to input, then lift your finger to start the next word.
To change Gesture Typing settings, go to Settings > Language & input > Keyboard & input methods > Google Keyboard > Gesture Typing.
TIP: If there are letters you want to emphasise, like repeated letters, such as the ‘e’ in sleep, pause over the ‘e’ slightly longer before moving on to the next letter