Filed under: Utilities, Features, Windows Mobile, Productivity, Mobile Minute
Easy text entry methods for your PDA - Mobile Minute
Text entry on mobile devices has never been what you would call a pleasant experience. These days, many PDA and smartphones often include built in keyboards for typing with your thumbs. But if you're an old fashioned stylus warrior, there are a few ways to improve the hunt and peck experience.While Microsoft includes an on-screen keyboard and several types of handwriting recognition to choose from, here are a few third party programs that might make typing on your Windows Mobile device faster and easier.
Tengo
Tengo is a pretty nifty application that brings predictive text to Windows Mobile. Technically, it was there all along, with Microsoft integrating a word suggestion feature. But Tengo makes typing with an on-screen keyboard a bit more like typing on a cellphone keypad. And believe it or not, that's a good thing.
TenGo divides presents you with a QWERTY-style keyboard, but the 26 letters of the alphabet are divided up into 6 zones. You don't have to hit a letter precisely, you just have to hit the zone it is in. As you add more letters, TenGo will try to guess the word you're trying to enter. It works surprisingly well.
Lest you're worried that every time you mean to type "for," TenGo will type "fur" instead, you're presented with a list of all the possible words just above the keyboard. Just tap on the word you want if TenGo didn't automatically pick it. The more often you correct TenGo, the more accurate it gets.
If you want to enter a word that's not in TenGo's dictionary, drag the stylus across the letters one at a time. This is a bit slower than using the built in on-screen keyboard, but you'll only have to do it once. TenGo will add the word to its dictionary.
If you click on the "123" button at the bottom of the screen, numbers appear at the top. Click it twice and you get a new screen with numbers and mathematical symbols. This could come in handy if you're working on a spreadsheet or using a calculator. The one thing TenGo doesn't do a great job with is entering some commonly used symbols like @, ? and &. It takes two key presses with TenGo to pull up those symbols, while they're on the main screen for the default keyboard.
TenGo is available for $24.95, or there's a free version with a smaller dictionary and no support.
SpeedScript
SpeedScript is another program designed to reduce the distance your stylus has to travel. The idea is that you place your stylus on a consonant, and then a blue box with the vowels and a blank space pops up surrounding that letter. If you want to type "D-O," you place the stylus on "D," and then drag it to "O."
The first time you run SpeedScript, there's a lengthy tutorial that explains exactly how to use the program. And every now and again you get a quick run without making a mistake during that tutorial. But you also get the idea that, unlike TenGo, it could take quite a bit of practice to get fast at SpeedScript.
Still, it is possible, as this YouTube video shows:
SpeedScript will set you back 9.90 Euros, or about $13.41. There's a free trial available.
Fitaly Keyboard
The Fitaly Keyboard takes a different approach to speeding up text entry, by putting the keys you need most often right in the center of the screen. Although the QWERTY keyboard layout has come to be the standard for everything from typewriters and computer keyboards to Blackberry thumb pads, it's really not optimized for most English words -- and it's certainly not optimized for hunt and peck stylus typing.
The developers of Fitaly claim that the letters i,t,a,l,n,e,d,o,r,s and the space bar make up 73% of the keys you need for most text entry. So they put those within easy reach.
In other words, about three quarters of your typing time will be spent within the middle two rows of this keyboard, and you'll never have to travel too far to hit the rest of the keys.
Fitaly also features hundreds of extra characters that can be accessed by tapping special keys on the side to bring up all the accents and umlauts you could ever need.
KeystrokeCE, Quikwriting, and Blimkeys
I'm going to group KeystrokeCE, Quikwriting and Blimkeys together as good ideas that just don't work very well,.
KeystrokeCe and Quikwriting are both programs designed to allow you to enter as many letters as possible without lifting your stylus from the screen -- sort of like primitive versions of SpeedScript. But these programs don't scale to a VGA screen, and so the letters are too small to make out, let alone type.
Blimkeys groups letters and numbers together into a couple of soft keys, much like TenGo. But there's no predictive text, and unless I'm missing something there's no easy way to pull up a space bar. So these programs are interesting as proof of concepts, but they aren't particularly useful.
Fortunately all three are available as free downloads.
Spb Full Screen Keyboard
Enough with this clumsy stylus typing, you say. I'd rather hold my PDA with two hands and hammer out text with my thumbs.
Spb has heard your cries, and the company's released Spb Full Screen Keyboard, a text input method for the Blackberry/Sidekick addict.
Since the keyboard takes up the whole screen, it's easy to find the right keys with your thumbs. But what you lose is the ability to see anything else on the screen. You just get a little window at the top that shows the text you're writing. It feels sort of like typing on an early electronic typewriter.
Anyway, the full screen keyboard can definitely make it easier and quicker to enter text since you can use two thumbs instead of one finger. But you don't get the tactile feeling of a hard keyboard like that on a Blackberry or Treo, so you'll probably find yourself pushing the wrong key on occasion. And since you can't see the document you're editing, you may have to go back and make some corrections.
You can click a little keyboard icon to switch back and forth between the full screen keyboard and the default keyboard.
Spb Full Screen Keyboard is available for $10, but a free trial is available.
Conclusion
It's going to be a matter of taste which keyboard you like the best. Some users have no problems at all with the default text entry methods. Others would rather by a Bluetooth or infrared keyboard than try to enter large amounts of text with a stylus.
Each of the text input methods listed here are either free or include a free trial, so feel free to take them for a spin. But keep in mind, they all present a drastically different experience than typing on a keyboard with a stylus. Try to remember how long it took you to learn to type 75wpm on a computer keyboard before giving up on these new methods. I'd suggest trying out a text input method for at least a week before passing judgement.
If you want to enter a word that's not in TenGo's dictionary, drag the stylus across the letters one at a time. This is a bit slower than using the built in on-screen keyboard, but you'll only have to do it once. TenGo will add the word to its dictionary.
If you click on the "123" button at the bottom of the screen, numbers appear at the top. Click it twice and you get a new screen with numbers and mathematical symbols. This could come in handy if you're working on a spreadsheet or using a calculator. The one thing TenGo doesn't do a great job with is entering some commonly used symbols like @, ? and &. It takes two key presses with TenGo to pull up those symbols, while they're on the main screen for the default keyboard.
TenGo is available for $24.95, or there's a free version with a smaller dictionary and no support.
SpeedScript
SpeedScript is another program designed to reduce the distance your stylus has to travel. The idea is that you place your stylus on a consonant, and then a blue box with the vowels and a blank space pops up surrounding that letter. If you want to type "D-O," you place the stylus on "D," and then drag it to "O."The first time you run SpeedScript, there's a lengthy tutorial that explains exactly how to use the program. And every now and again you get a quick run without making a mistake during that tutorial. But you also get the idea that, unlike TenGo, it could take quite a bit of practice to get fast at SpeedScript.
Still, it is possible, as this YouTube video shows:
SpeedScript will set you back 9.90 Euros, or about $13.41. There's a free trial available.
Fitaly KeyboardThe Fitaly Keyboard takes a different approach to speeding up text entry, by putting the keys you need most often right in the center of the screen. Although the QWERTY keyboard layout has come to be the standard for everything from typewriters and computer keyboards to Blackberry thumb pads, it's really not optimized for most English words -- and it's certainly not optimized for hunt and peck stylus typing.
The developers of Fitaly claim that the letters i,t,a,l,n,e,d,o,r,s and the space bar make up 73% of the keys you need for most text entry. So they put those within easy reach.
In other words, about three quarters of your typing time will be spent within the middle two rows of this keyboard, and you'll never have to travel too far to hit the rest of the keys.
Fitaly also features hundreds of extra characters that can be accessed by tapping special keys on the side to bring up all the accents and umlauts you could ever need.
KeystrokeCE, Quikwriting, and Blimkeys
I'm going to group KeystrokeCE, Quikwriting and Blimkeys together as good ideas that just don't work very well,. KeystrokeCe and Quikwriting are both programs designed to allow you to enter as many letters as possible without lifting your stylus from the screen -- sort of like primitive versions of SpeedScript. But these programs don't scale to a VGA screen, and so the letters are too small to make out, let alone type.
Blimkeys groups letters and numbers together into a couple of soft keys, much like TenGo. But there's no predictive text, and unless I'm missing something there's no easy way to pull up a space bar. So these programs are interesting as proof of concepts, but they aren't particularly useful.
Fortunately all three are available as free downloads.
Spb Full Screen Keyboard Enough with this clumsy stylus typing, you say. I'd rather hold my PDA with two hands and hammer out text with my thumbs.
Spb has heard your cries, and the company's released Spb Full Screen Keyboard, a text input method for the Blackberry/Sidekick addict.
Since the keyboard takes up the whole screen, it's easy to find the right keys with your thumbs. But what you lose is the ability to see anything else on the screen. You just get a little window at the top that shows the text you're writing. It feels sort of like typing on an early electronic typewriter.
Anyway, the full screen keyboard can definitely make it easier and quicker to enter text since you can use two thumbs instead of one finger. But you don't get the tactile feeling of a hard keyboard like that on a Blackberry or Treo, so you'll probably find yourself pushing the wrong key on occasion. And since you can't see the document you're editing, you may have to go back and make some corrections.
You can click a little keyboard icon to switch back and forth between the full screen keyboard and the default keyboard.
Spb Full Screen Keyboard is available for $10, but a free trial is available.
Conclusion
It's going to be a matter of taste which keyboard you like the best. Some users have no problems at all with the default text entry methods. Others would rather by a Bluetooth or infrared keyboard than try to enter large amounts of text with a stylus.
Each of the text input methods listed here are either free or include a free trial, so feel free to take them for a spin. But keep in mind, they all present a drastically different experience than typing on a keyboard with a stylus. Try to remember how long it took you to learn to type 75wpm on a computer keyboard before giving up on these new methods. I'd suggest trying out a text input method for at least a week before passing judgement.