How to Speed Up Your Text Entry in One Easy Lesson

Ed Hardy · 08-12-2005, 10:48 AM

Brighthand's Ed Hardy talks about a simple way many people can significantly increase the speed at which they enter text on their handheld.

Read more at http://www.brighthand.com/article/Ho...our_Text_Entry

qwertyu · 08-12-2005, 01:47 PM

I have spent a lot of extra money buying PPC applications that also offered a PC version and I almost always did my typing on the PC version and then "synced" it over to the PPC. I thought about buying a PPC sized keyboard that folds up and didn't like that idea, although I know many people use that. I tried Fitaly once and didn't have the patience to learn that, but that still required stylus pecking.

I finally decided to try SOTI Pocket Controller and as soon as I tried it, I bought it. What a relief, I could type on my PC keyboard and see what was actually being entered on my PPC screen. Then my "anal-ity" took over and next I wanted a spell checker and it cost me more money to buy Phatspell (ana-lity wasn't in Phatspell). I still have to go back and check for proper grammar but seeing that the PC sized Word already has that option I suppose some PPC developer might make an application for that someday.

For the extra money I paid for PC and PPC applications I could have easily paid for Pocket Controller and Phatspell, but that's called learning. For short email replies I continue to use the stylus on the basic PPC keyboard.

imported_IROC'N · 08-12-2005, 02:08 PM

Vent mode on.

Being a long time Palm user, I found G2 very difficult. The delays and poor recognition were more than I could handle. 'T's were the toughest for me. Fortunately, I finally found the G1 libraries for my T5 which greatly improved my text input.

I realize that someone who hasn't used G1 would find that G2 to be a easier b/c there is practically no learning curve since it is so close to normal writing. But, I found it immensley inaccurate and slow. Palm should ship their PDAs with both G1 and G2 and let the user decide which to use. Heck, that is is what MS did with the PPCs!

Vent mode off.

Paul

Scott R · 08-12-2005, 02:30 PM

Ed, your suggestions are very good. But let's face it...they're suggestions for making the most out of a bad situation. They're "workarounds", if you will. Back in the good old days of my Pilot 5000, I would look once at the Graffiti area so as to position my stylus appropriately, then look at the text area (where the text would appear) and start writing. The characters would appear quickly. If I made an error, I would see it right away and, without needing to look at the Graffiti panel, would draw a couple of backstroke characters, and start writing fast again.

The G2 approach slows things down. The reliance on more than one stroke for several characters also increases the need to have to look at the Graffiti panel so that you know that you're writing the second stroke on top of the first stroke properly. Personally, I never understood the entire stroke feedback "enhancement" to begin with. Back when it first appeared, I figured it might be useful for someone who was starting out, but once you got good at Graffiti, you should never see those strokes since you shouldn't be looking down there.

Let me take this opportunity to comment on another design change that has further screwed up the ability to do "heads up" Graffiti: The command bar (or whatever that's called). Let's say you're drawing an "A". Well, if you make the mistake of starting your stroke to far down (within the command bar), the entire stroke gets ignored. With the original Graffiti panel design, the extra virtual buttons were located to the left and right of the Graffiti panel and I don't believe I ever had that sort of problem. At least the Palm OS seems forgiving in that it doesn't accidentally trigger the command bar function (though YMMV - it seems to ignore it on my Zodiac, anyway). On the PPC, this sort of "mistake" will accidentally open up the menu options and sometimes wreak havoc.

All in all, the beauty and efficiency of the original Graffiti has been lost forever, except for those still plugging along with pre-G2 Palm OS devices. Personally, I'm putting the whole mess behind me as I continue the development of my full-screen virtual thumbboard app.

zire102001 · 08-13-2005, 07:57 PM

i used a palm 3x and the only thing I had a problem with the G1 was the this :, but once I used G2 I found it alot easier to write that, and much quicker..I got to use G2 when I had a Zire 21, since that PDA broke, I now use G2 on my Zire 31 PDA.

NickC · 08-15-2005, 04:21 AM

I find by far the quickest way to enter text to the PPC (without using an external keyboard) is to use the onscreen keyboard set to large keys with gestures on for space etc, and word completion set to 2 letters and 3 suggestions. Also add a space after suggested word.

This gives me larger keys to aim at, no need to use shift for capitals, space, delete and enter can be done from any position on the keyboard, and I often don't need to enter the whole word anyway.

It took a day or so to get used to, but I find it much quicker even than graffitti used to be.

rstrax · 08-15-2005, 05:50 PM

Ed,
I smell an article here.
How about a roundup of the various virtual keyboards for PDA's. I'm thinking of at least Fitaly and MessagEase that I have tried. I know there are others (spb full screen keyboard, for example). There are a bunch out there, some easier to use than others.
I'd like to see them compared in one place.
--Richard

Scott R · 08-15-2005, 09:40 PM

Sounds like a great idea. If you do that, don't forget about my virtual thumbboard app.

NickC · 08-16-2005, 03:53 AM

This article on the BBC yesterday looks interesting too.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4145184.stm

freebs · 08-17-2005, 10:40 AM

http://alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/sharktext

I downloaded this program and knew instinctively this is where Palm input is going. It's FAST. Amazing from the get-go.

Tips: You can set it to QWERTY if you like and its still fast but their optimized ATOMIK layout is even quicker after a few minutes of getting used to it.

You can use it on your desktop, just make sure you click in an input field on an app (an email for example) and it will 'feed' that program the text you enter as you try it.

Windows only right now. :-(

Brett.