Switch off virtual keyboard?

Can anyone help me with a way of stopping the virtual keyboard from appearing whenever I open text programs in portrait mode? Very often I only want to read a file, not edit, however the virtual keyboard constantly and irritatingly appears every time I open such a file. Does anyone know any way of stopping this, please?

Or alternatively, is there a way of switching off the virtual keyboard altogether? I almost never use it, preferring always to use the hardware keyboard.

As an alternative:
Here's a keyboard you can download - a Null Keyboard. It will prevent any softkeyboard from popping up:

http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=84197