Problems with Repetitive Keystrokes on Venue 11

The Venue 11 onscreen keyboard seems overly sensitive and a lot of people, myself included, have had problems with repetitive keystrokes which defy correction.  No amount of tweaking the ease-of-access settings seems to correct the problem.  Hopefully this is a onscreen driver issue which Dell will eventually fix.  But in the meantime, I have found two work-arounds - neither of which are miraculous cures - but they make the Venue 11 a lot easier to use until Dell gets a fix.

The first and most expensive fix is to use a bluetooth keyboard.  I got a K810 Logitech keyboard which works beautifully, has lighted keys, and allows for very fast typing - speeds you could never achieve with a soft keyboard.  Small and light weight. Cost is about $80 from Amazon.

The second alternative is use handwriting instead of the soft keyboard. 

Dell is still showing its Active Stylus for the Venue 11 as being unavailable online, but I have found a "make do" alternative that is working for me until the Dell Active Stylus is available.

I have tried a variety of styluses with rubber tips that work for selecting hyperlinks and the like, but it is impossible to write with them on the screen because they grip the screen and don't slide.  Well, I found at Office Max a stylus for $12.99 that has a fiber-composite tip instead of the rubber.  It glides across the screen perfectly and makes it easy to write.  I was also amazed at how well the handwriting recognition works in Windows 8.1.

This cheap stylus from Office Max is limited to selecting and handwriting, but it does both well.

Here's a trick I found when using the handwriting function.  Dell made the mistake (in my humble opinion) of making the Windows home key at the center bottom front  of the Venue 11 capacitive - this means that when you try to write, the instant your hand touches that capacitive Windows key the screen is going to flip back to the home screen.  To get around that problem, when you want to use handwriting, rotate the tablet 180 degrees so the Windows key is on the top.  Problem solved.

Dell still needs to get its act together and fix the problem with its too-sensitive onscreen keyboard, but until it does, these two work-arounds are working for me.  I hope others find this useful.