Calligraher 8.2 vs Transcriber 2?

[scarletknight96]

I am surprise at how well transcriber 2 does its job. For a second, I thought it was very similar if not identicle to calligrapher. Had it not been for calligrapher technical problems on windows moble 2005 (at least it does not function on my ipaq), I would never have given transcriber version 2 a chance. After all, microsoft has the research and development team to be a better product-at least, theory. I wanted to know if you guys are please with transcriber? IF so, is it prettey much the same as calliegrapher? Thank You.

[Jacob]

My understanding is that Calligrapher is an enhanced version of trascriber.

With calligrapher you gain the penmacros too though and those can be useful.

That being said, if transcriber is working well for you and gives you all the functionality you want/need then why spend the money on Calligrapher?

[Nurhisham Hussein]

My understanding is that Calligrapher is an enhanced version of trascriber.


IIANM, it's the other way around - Transcriber is a licensed, cut-down version of Calligrapher.

[tanalasta]

Generally, people notice the following differences in Calligrapher that make it worth paying for over Transcriber:

1. Better handwriting recognition - for some reason, calligrapher tends to have a better recognitition engine. I suspect that transcriber uses an older, less accurate version compared to calligrapher.
2. Macro/Pencommands
3. For me, v8 has Writepad - which not only seems to recognise my handwriting far better than "write-anywhere" but also one of the quickest. This is the main reason why I use calligrapher.

Disadvantages are - cost - calligrapher is not a cheap program. And I'm yet to decide whether to fork out $15US for the medical dictionary. It's not that I can't afford it... it's just whether I'd rather buy a bottle of shiraz with that money (or half a bottle... I prefer the quality in the $25US pricerange) 8)

At the end of the day, try the program as it is available as a trial. If you like it - consider buying it. If you don't ... then at least you know what the difference is.

[scarletknight96]

I have always used calligrapher over transcriber. Its appears to be more functional, i.e. better recognition engine and other little features which makes writing on a PDA, not that much differenct than using a real pen and pad.

[mattbugz]

Is there a way to download Transcriber 2.0? I only see 1.5 available for download.

[dickiedove]

I used to use it before my HW6515. I liked it well enough although I have to say that I did actually find transcriber to be more accurate at Handwriting recognition on occassions!

The reasons for picking it so far as I can see are:

Customisation-I found it really useful to be able to configure what was on the tool bar

GUI-It's prettier than transcriber

Pen Macros- ALthough I know one of the Transcribers had something similar in its options (write add and it would return your address etc.)

Integration with Phatpad- No handwriting recog. otherwise

On the downside its:

pricey

To my mind whether it actually recognises better than Transcriber is open to debate.

Finally its kind of bloated as well if you don't have a lot of RAM

[Stephen Beesley]

I have been a long time user of Calligrapher. It was always pretty much the first app I loaded after any hard reset. But, since I have had WM5 and the new version of Transcriber I have not even loaded it onto my x50v.

In about four months of use I have found the recognition to be as good as Calligrapher and without the 'bloat'. In fact I have just come out of a meeting where I used transcriber for a solid hour of note taking - and found it a very good performer.

[applejosh]

I own Calligrapher, but it's not installed at the moment. I generally only had it installed for the PhatPad recognition. But I noticed that changing the SIP was extraordinarily slow when Calligrapher was installed. I usually use the Block Recognizer (I'm a Palm convert, well almost completely converted), and when I clicked on the little arrow to switch from the keyboard (which I do use for entering passwords, etc.), it would take 5-6 seconds before the menu popped up. Since I rarely recognize PhatPad docs any more, I took it off and have been happy with the extra RAM and snappier SIP performance. Is there a way to install Calligrapher, but without the need for an SIP choice (and so it essentially didn't run in the background all the time)?