Letter Recognizer Problems in Windows Mobile 2003

[Pony99CA]

I just tried using Letter Recognizer in Windows Mobile 2003 (on my iPAQ 5550), and found that I could not make two-stroke characters. Question marks come out as 7s or 2s, sometimes followed by a period; semicolons and colons just come out as periods; equal signs appear as one dash; "t"s drawn by lifting the stylus to draw the cross bar just come out as "l"s. I will hear a "click" when I make the second stroke, but nothing usually appears. :?

I used to be able to do them just fine on my iPAQ 3870 running Pocket PC 2002, so I don't think I'm doing anything wrong.

Has anybody else noticed this?

Steve

[Janak Parekh]

Haven't used Letter Recognizer for years, but isn't this an option you have to tweak in the SIP's options screen?

--janak

[JustinGTP]

Since this is for the Palm users, you use it exactly like a Palm and there is no instruction on how to draw the letters on your PPC. Usually, it is like handwriting letters.

If you know how to handwrite, do a T that way, and it will work. If you do not know how to handwrite, then, um, I don't know what you can do. Maybe Ill show you how to draw a T or something.

Remember, handwriting!

-Justin.

[Wiggin]

Steve
Make sure you are using Letter Recognizer versus Block Recognizer. Block Rec does not use multiple strokes for one character. Letter Rec does allow multiple strokes (e.g. for the "f" or "k" letters). I have both on my 4150, and both work as expected.
:way to go:

[Pony99CA]

Haven't used Letter Recognizer for years, but isn't this an option you have to tweak in the SIP's options screen?
I had checked the options before I posted, and didn't see anything. I had tried it both with and without Quick Stroke, and I just tried it with Right to left crossbar, but still can't get dual-stroke characters to work.

Does anybody else with Windows Mobile 2003 have this problem?

Steve

[Pony99CA]

Since this is for the Palm users, you use it exactly like a Palm and there is no instruction on how to draw the letters on your PPC. Usually, it is like handwriting letters.
Actually, you're wrong on two points. First, Block Recognizer was created for Palm users, not Letter Recognizer.

Second, both Letter Recognizer and Block Recognizer show you how to draw characters. Hit the "?" icon to get the help, and then press the Demo button to get a demo that allows you to press a key on the virtual keyboard and see how to draw the characters.

If you know how to handwrite, do a T that way, and it will work. If you do not know how to handwrite, then, um, I don't know what you can do. Maybe Ill show you how to draw a T or something.
"If you know how to handwrite"? Geez, how old do you think I am -- six? :?

Seriously, I usually do a "t" like a cross, so that wasn't the real problem I had. I can't enter question marks, colons, semicolons, equal signs or exclamation points without resorting to the symbol pad.

Steve

[Janak Parekh]

Steve,

Just tried it on my e805. Something's wrong with your setup. With all the SIP options off, the multistroke t and ! symbols work perfectly fine. :|

Now, the question is if it's 5550-specific, or if there's a configuration/app change that was made on your Pocket PC... in the meantime, back to Fitaly I go. ;)

--janak

[Pony99CA]

Make sure you are using Letter Recognizer versus Block Recognizer. Block Rec does not use multiple strokes for one character.
Thanks, but I was using Letter Recognizer. I have never used Block Recognizer except to see what it was like. I generally use the SIP keyboard, but, when I'm IMing, I use Letter Recognizer because its seems slightly faster. At least, it did until I found I couldn't do dual-stroke characters.

Letter Rec does allow multiple strokes (e.g. for the "f" or "k" letters). I have both on my 4150, and both work as expected.
Yes, I know it's supposed to support dual-stroke characters, but it isn't for me. When I try to enter the second stroke, I just get a "click" and nothing happens.

I'm trying to determine if the problem is a Windows Mobile 2003 issue, an iPAQ issue (probably not if it works on your 4150) or an issue with any of the other SIPs I've installed (PHM Power Toys and the Stowaway Keyboard).

I don't want to uninstall those SIPs, do a soft reset and see if that fixes the problem if other people are having the same problem, especially as I don't use Letter Recognizer much. If nobody else can reproduce this, I'll try uninstalling.

Steve

[Pony99CA]

Just tried it on my e805. Something's wrong with your setup. With all the SIP options off, the multistroke t and ! symbols work perfectly fine. :|

Now, the question is if it's 5550-specific, or if there's a configuration/app change that was made on your Pocket PC...
Thanks for the input. If it works on your e805 and Wiggin's iPAQ 4150, it's probably not a Windows Mobile 2003 issue. So it's either a 5550 issue or something with my installation (possibly my other SIPs, as mentioned above).

If anybody with a 5550 can check Letter Recognizer, that will help me narrow it down. This wouldn't be the first time (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=24736) a program installed on my 5550 was interfering in odd ways with another.

Steve

P.S. Congrats on becoming an MVP -- and on your 8,000th post. 8O

[Pony99CA]

Since I started this thread, I have installed the iPAQ 5550 ROM upgrade, which basically hard reset my Pocket PC. I reinstalled most of my software, and still have the problem. Unfortunately, I had forgotten about this problem, so I didn't check to see if Letter Recognizer worked correctly before I reinstalled my software. :-(

As I don't use Letter Recognizer much, I'm reluctant to hard reset my Pocket PC to see if the problem goes away. Does anybody else with a 5550 or 5555 have this problem?

Steve

[hollis_f]

As I don't use Letter Recognizer much, I'm reluctant to hard reset my Pocket PC to see if the problem goes away. Does anybody else with a 5550 or 5555 have this problem?

SteveYes! Yes! :multi:

I posted with just this problem on my 3970 (running PPC2K2) last year sometime. And now the same thing's started with my 2210. Bad news is that nobody else suffered from it last time.


It took me a while to realise the 2210 was suffering from the problem as I'd got used to using the single-stroke options on the 3970. It was only when I couldn't do a colon that I realised it had struck the new machine.

When HP release the new OS for the 2210 I was planning on re-installing things in small steps to try and determine exactly what was causing it (it must be something I've installed)

[Pony99CA]

I posted with just this problem on my 3970 (running PPC2K2) last year sometime. And now the same thing's started with my 2210. Bad news is that nobody else suffered from it last time.

It took me a while to realise the 2210 was suffering from the problem as I'd got used to using the single-stroke options on the 3970. It was only when I couldn't do a colon that I realised it had struck the new machine.

When HP release the new OS for the 2210 I was planning on re-installing things in small steps to try and determine exactly what was causing it (it must be something I've installed)
Well, I may have some good news for you. A user at PDA Corps (http://www.pdacorps.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3063&PN=1&TPN=1) had this problem on a 2215 and actually found a cause. It turns out that we both had a link to CWTimeOut in our StartUp folders, which seems to cause the problem. I killed the CWTimeOut process, and Letter Recognizer started working again.

As that worked, I have removed the link from my StartUp folder. I hope that doesn't cause anything else to break, though.

I don't know how I got that program in my StartUp folder, but the other user got it from a trial of mPhone (which I have never used).

I did a Google on CWTimeOut, but didn't find any useful hits (there were a few hits about Unix, which sound like it may have something to do with FTP). I also looked in the EXE file and registry for information on who wrote the program, but couldn't see anything obvious.

I'm wondering if it's some application used to control demo programs so they "time out" when you reach the usage limit. If so, it could come with many programs.

Steve

[Pony99CA]

This thread hasn't been updated in a while, but I thought I'd let you know that the problem was fixed. CWTimeOut was used in an older version of Ilium's DockWare (basically a screensaver program).

I have a newer version of DockWare that doesn't have any problems with two-stroke characters.

Steve