I found this old post which definitely helps with my problem, but I'm noticing that it doesn't really seem to solve my problem. I have gathered that I need to set android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustPan" for my activity. But the issue is that it simply doesn't pan ENOUGH.
The text field is toward the bottom of the view, and when the keyboard shows up, the view shifts slightly but only the very top of the EditText. The text field has autocomplete turned on, and when it begins to show autocomplete options, the view pans down slightly more, but actually winds up even further obscured by the autocomplete options. It makes the text input field very difficult to use since you can't see anything you're typing.
It is a multiline input field, and when text rolls to the next line, the view pans farther, so you can actually see the previous line(s) of text. But you cannot see what you're typing, which I think is pretty important.
Does anyone have any thoughts on solving this issue?
So, I've found what appears to be the cause of the issue. In my AndroidManifest.xml I had set
Apparently, using a minSdkVersion below "4" was at the root of the problem. On changing it to "4", the layout appeared as it should have, and the EditText had its first line above the top of the soft keyboard appropriately.
Thanks for the help, Phobos.
Wrap your UI in a ScrollView container. This will allow the user to see the entire UI, albeit by scrolling, if need be. The UI may not be big enough to scroll without the keyboard on screen, but when the keyboard is displayed it effectively reduces the screen size.