Patent ID: 8327282

Claim:
A method comprising: outputting, at a touch-sensitive display coupled to a computing device, a base portion of a virtual keyboard; receiving, at the touch-sensitive display, (1) an initial contact at a first region of the touch-sensitive display, the first region being associated with the base portion of the virtual keyboard, and (2) a dragging contact that originates at the first region of the touch-sensitive display and moves into a second region of the touch-sensitive display, the second region being outside the first region and associated with an extended portion of the virtual keyboard; activating, at the second region of the touch-sensitive display and in response to (2), the extended portion of the virtual keyboard, wherein the activating includes determining, by the computing device, which characters are included in the extended portion of the virtual keyboard; if the dragging contact is released from the touch-sensitive display at a location within the second region of the touch-sensitive display, activating a selection of a character in the extended portion of the virtual keyboard based at least in part on the location within the second region of the touch-sensitive display; and if the dragging contact moves from the second region of the touch-sensitive display to a location outside of the second region, removing the extended portion of the virtual keyboard from the second region of the touch-sensitive display.