TextMaker: On sale, but is it really that good?

[famousdavis]

I see from the homepage that TextMaker is on sale for $35 (US), a substantial cut off the $50 regular price. I'm accustomed to spending not more than about $20-$25 for new PocketPC software, so TextMaker was never within my budget for new software, but the $35 cost is almost within reach.

I don't do a lot of writing using Pocket Word, but I do like to use it take notes, especially for outlining sermon notes on Sunday morning (yeah, I feel pretty geeky sitting in church with my PDA in-hand...I'm sure some people suspect I'm playing Bejeweled or some other game, but IT'S NOT TRUE! :D ).

I do think it'd be nice to open more complex Word docs on my PDA. Having the flexibility to do whatever I need to in a Word doc -- tables, for instance -- would be nice.

For those of you who use TextMaker -- is it really that good? Worth the price, you think?

One other question -- can you embed a Pocket Excel spreadsheet in a TextMaker-made document?

[dean_shan]

I don't do a lot of writing using Pocket Word, but I do like to use it take notes, especially for outlining sermon notes on Sunday morning (yeah, I feel pretty geeky sitting in church with my PDA in-hand...I'm sure some people suspect I'm playing Bejeweled or some other game, but IT'S NOT TRUE! :D ).

I recored the sermons with NoteM. I just start it recording, turn off the screen, put it in the slip case and set it on the floor.

[Jason Dunn]

One other question -- can you embed a Pocket Excel spreadsheet in a TextMaker-made document?

No - the Pocket PC has no OLE support.

[Pat Logsdon]

For those of you who use TextMaker -- is it really that good? Worth the price, you think?
Yes, and Yes. :mrgreen:

One other question -- can you embed a Pocket Excel spreadsheet in a TextMaker-made document?
I don't see the option to do that. You can insert calculations, fields, text files, other doc files, etc., but not Excel files.

With TextMaker and folding keyboard, you've got a real laptop replacement, in my opinion.

[dh]

I have Textmaker but I don't use it very often. I've found that using the Notes feature in PI does most of what I need. Also since I mainly read rather than write on my PPC a lot of the time, I tend to convert my Word documents to Repligo.

I also have a problem that causes me to have to soft reset when starting Textmaker or my Axim crashes.

The customer support is rather slow as well. I requested help and waited nearly three months for a reply.

Textmaker is the best word processor for the PPC. I'm hoping that WM2003 will help with my problem and maybe I'll use it more often.

If you need a powerful word processor, Textmaker would be a good choice, especially at the sale price.

[Pat Logsdon]

I also have a problem that causes me to have to soft reset when starting Textmaker or my Axim crashes.
I have that problem as well - how much memory do you have free when you successfully start it? I've found that I need to have 15+ mb free to start the program. And it does NOT like Reader. They do not play well together.

[upplepop]

I tried Textmaker a few months ago, and was really impressed with the features. However, I didn't end up purchasing it because when I used it with my Dell Axim (300MHz) and the Dell keyboard, the text entry lagged far behind my typing. I'm not an extremly fast typist (~40wpm), but Textmaker couldn't keep up with me.
Another think that kept me from buying was that it couldn't indent bullets or numbered lists. I use my Pocket PC to take notes, and I wish I could do outlines.
It's been a while since I tried this program out, so perhaps they have improved it. If they have, I would definately consider this program again. Even though it's expensive for a PPC program, this discount makes it a little more reasonable.
For those who use it, how's the importing/exporting into the MS Word format?

[dh]

I also have a problem that causes me to have to soft reset when starting Textmaker or my Axim crashes.
I have that problem as well - how much memory do you have free when you successfully start it? I've found that I need to have 15+ mb free to start the program. And it does NOT like Reader. They do not play well together.

Just tried it and things froze nicely with 31MB of memory avaialble.

I'm sure the problem is a conflict with another app as you suggest. Maybe it is reader, although Reader wasn't running when I tried just now.

Earlier someone suggested Caligrapher was causing a problem. I don't have this installed now, so I guess it's not to blame.

Another slight unrelated problem, I can't use either Caligrapher or Transcriber when I have the Pocketop driver installed. To be fair, I read on the Caligrapher site that it doesn't like apps that change the screen rotation.

[hamishmacdonald]

I use TextMaker daily. It's sped up considerably since the first version I bought (and upgrades are free). When I was having some WM 2003 issues recently, I tried going back to Pocket Word, only to realise that I couldn't send the files to my client because I had no way of using proper "smart quotes" or em-dashes. (If I don't use those, the Print department has to replace them one by one.) TextMaker has these features, and about 7,000 more. Even better, within days of my discovering the problem the developers released a solution. (Take note, Fellowes/ThinkOutside - rrr!)

I'm writing two books at present with my iPAQ 2210 and TextMaker - a non-fiction book with my client, and my third novel. TextMaker's the only thing that's up for the job.

Hamish MacDonald

[vovillamor]

Okay, I've followed this thread so far. I can see the real value of TextMaker on a PocketPC. But what about TextMaker on a desktop PC?
I know the software developer has both a PocketPC version and a matching desktop version. If textmaker on a PocketPC is supposed to be so compatable with MS Word on a desktop PC, what extra features does the desktop version of Textmaker offer?

By the way, I'm waiting for a similar program that does the same thing for Excel files...

[dh]

When I bought Textmaker, the desktop version was bundled with it.

I have never used it. The whole point of my getting Textmaker was to be able to handle my Word documents on my PPC so there was no point in a desktop version.

The person who would be helped out would be someone who does not have Microsoft Office. The desktop Textmaker would represent a low cost way to have a decent word processor.

[dean_shan]

When I bought Textmaker, the desktop version was bundled with it.

The person who would be helped out would be someone who does not have Microsoft Office. The desktop Textmaker would represent a low cost way to have a decent word processor.
I got my desktop copy for free. There was some give-away or contest I don't remember wich. I want to get the PPC version but I am too cheap. I am waiting for it to drop in price some more.

[darrylb]

I know the software developer has both a PocketPC version and a matching desktop version. If textmaker on a PocketPC is supposed to be so compatable with MS Word on a desktop PC, what extra features does the desktop version of Textmaker offer?

The file format is considerably smaller if you save into the text maker format. I just converted a 24k (yes its small) document from MS word format to .TMD format and the resulting document was 9k.

The memory footprint the app uses on the desktop is considerably smaller too, and the app is faster than Word as there is less to access in memory and more efficient use of the memory and code that is there.

Beyond that the main advantage is lossless (no conversion) portability between devices.

If you are evaluating whether to purchase or not - buy it for the merits it offers as the only decent word processor for the PocketPC, not for advantages it has on the desktop. If you are a corporate - consider switching from word to Text Maker - you'll save loads on upgrade costs and get an equally good word processor.

[IPIPAQ]

My two pence worth

Textmaker has truely amazing coverage over word processor functionality it really has almost everything.

However:

- Its really unstable on my IPAQ PPC 2002. It either refuses to start or crashes half way through editing at random intervals. Not very useful

- The enter key doesnt work with pocket controller

Even though I really need the functionality, loosing work by crashes really counts it out for me. Ive gone back to Pocket Word. :cry:

[nice_micael]

Tried it once but realised that pocket word does exactly what iwant but igotta admit that it were good program but not what i wanted .

[BTS]

I tend to work quite a bit using tables and mail merge. For those functions, alone, TextMaker is a great word processor. Combine it with SpreadCE for creating your CSV files (for merging) and you have a helluva desktop replacement. It's been very stable on my e755.