There's a freeware program called Word Commands that maps functions such as "Bold" to CTRL+B, etc.. You can get it here:
http://www.lagorio.net
Something else that might interest you is ZeNoKeyboard, which is what it sounds like. You select it as your text entry method, and it doesn't pop the SIP up when you go into a text field. It's got a few bugs--for instance, if you've got it selected, then the Brightness screen doesn't display properly--but works well enough for my purposes. Get it here:
www.zepocketforge.com
Russ