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View Full Version : Auto Complete Text Input on the Motorola Q


Jerry Raia
08-21-2006, 08:00 PM
<img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/Jerry-Q.jpg" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/> <br /><br />One of the nice features on the Q is the Auto Complete text function. Motorola calls this iTAP in the manual. I like having it, and it is easy to use, but it does have some behaviors that can embarrass you as you will see. <!> Say you are sending an SMS message and it starts with the word “Predictive”. In this case as soon as you get to the “d”, it fills out what it thinks is the rest of the word:<br /><br /><img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/predictive.jpg" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/> <br /><br />Notice the underline and the little down arrow: the underline shows you what was added, and at this point you could keep typing and make any word you want, or a space well just make the word “pred” and move on. If you press the right of the navigation key (joy pad or whatever you like to call it) you will get the word “predictive”. If you do nothing and press send, the word "predictive" will be sent. If you want other choices, the down arrow tells you there are more so press the bottom of the navigation key:<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/predictiveM.jpg" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/> <br /><br />You get a dropdown list you can scroll through. Ok, let’s say you want a different word you can just keep typing it in:<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/neword.jpg" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/> <br /><br />Now the next time you start this word again it will appear as one of your choices so you have added a new word:<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/newordad.jpg" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/> <br /><br />Now comes the part that can be funny, and I have been caught embarrassing myself because my fingers were too quick. Say you want to type “Thank you sir”. Look at what you get:<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/sire.jpg" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/> <br /><br />There is a split second between when you type the “r” and that “e” shows up making the word “sire”. It is just enough time to hit the SEND before you realize that the “e” was added. “Thank you sire” is now what you have sent. You can turn off the feature completely or erase the entries you have made in <i>Settings>Text Input Settings</i>.<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/settings.jpg" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/> <br /><br />Overall I like this much better than the agony of T9 on my 2125. Ironically, something like this is far more necessary on a dial pad only device than it is here. I am happy Motorola included it.<br /><br /><i>Jerry Raia is a Contributing Editor for Smartphone Thoughts. When not flying airplanes he is playing with Smartphones, Pocket PC’s and cameras. He lives in Los Angeles, California.</i>

scottb
08-21-2006, 09:34 PM
Thanks for the explanation. I turned it off as soon as I got my Q because it was irritating--I guess it was that I didn't take the time to see how it works. I might give it another try. :)

edgar
08-21-2006, 10:19 PM
That was a mistake?

Considering I told you before saying "your majesty" was much more than you needed to do. I thought you were SMSing me correctly when you called me "sire".
:wink:

-Edgar

MitchellO
08-22-2006, 12:51 AM
My SE M600i has predictive text similar to this. I too have turned it off.

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/2778/cimg6863smallhr7.jpg

Jerry Raia
08-22-2006, 01:12 AM
That was a mistake?

C'mon I always type "Your Worship" :lol:

Seriously, the iTAP used to make me nuts too until I sat down and figured out what it was doing. Now I like it.

chandler
08-22-2006, 01:48 AM
Hey, this is great. Am I missing the rest of the review? :D

MitchellO
08-22-2006, 01:50 AM
I have to say that pink colour scheme is terrible!! Surely you can change it to the default blue or something???

Jerry Raia
08-22-2006, 01:58 AM
I have to display that pink colour scheme is terrible!! Surely you can change it to the default blue or something???

Well the home screen picture that goes with it is pretty cool. :mrgreen:

MitchellO
08-22-2006, 02:00 AM
Pic?

Jerry Raia
08-22-2006, 02:06 AM
Pic?

http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/Jerry-Queue.jpg

:)

Mike Temporale
08-22-2006, 02:08 AM
Oh, that's cool. We need predictive text on the phones without a QWERTY keypad. I mean, it's cool on the Q, but why can't phones that just have a dialpad be better at predicting what you're typing?

Anyway, it's pretty cool how if remembers words you type.

Mike Temporale
08-22-2006, 02:09 AM
Hey, this is great. Am I missing the rest of the review? :D

There's more coming. ;) Just thought we needed to highlight a couple features here and there.

MitchellO
08-22-2006, 02:09 AM
Yeah the one that came with my M600i is pretty good too.

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/9264/CIMG6850Small.jpg

Jerry Raia
08-22-2006, 02:10 AM
Once you get used to how it works, it is a great time saver. Why this is lacking on a regular dial pad phone is bizarre to me.

Kirkaiya
08-22-2006, 12:49 PM
Umm... I'm not sure what version of the HTC StrTrk you all have played with, but the text-input is part of why I think composing messages on my phone is pretty easy!

Ooops - I goofed in original post, I have edited below

In fact - the predictive-entry on my phone (Dopod S300 variant of HTC StrTrk) goes one step more: It auto-inserts the next word for you based on what word you put in the last time you typed whatever you're typing.

It also shows the combinations of words that short sequences of number-punching provide, such as: if I type "263", the phone will show the possible words that it knows in a drop-down ("and", "cod", "2nd", etc). It shows this automatically - they show up without my having to use the down-direction-button, although I use that to pick one if I want, or the right-arrow to pick the 1st in the list.

The word-guessing part works like this: If the last time I typed the word "Predictive", I followed it with the word "text", then this time, after typing "Predictive", then pushing the right-direction-button, the phone will pop the word "text" (dotted-underlined) to the right.

If I want it, i just right-arrow again, and the phone will guess the next word again, and so on. If I don't want it, I just continue typing, and it disappears.

Maybe I should do some screen-shots of this - I thought this was part of the standard WM5 text-entry experience (or maybe it is, and I'm blabbering on uselessly...)

The word-guessing can be embarrasing too, of course - I sent an SMS to my wife calling saying "hello sexy!", and then the next day was showing off my phone to someone, and typed "hello" and the word "sexy" popped up :oops:

MitchellO
08-22-2006, 12:54 PM
I'm pretty sure I had that on my imate SP5.

Mike Temporale
08-22-2006, 01:48 PM
It also shows the combinations of words that short sequences of number-punching provide, such as: if I type "263", the phone will show the possible words that it knows in a drop-down ("and", "cod", "2nd", etc). It shows this automatically - they show up without my having to use the down-direction-button, although I use that to pick one if I want, or the right-arrow to pick the 1st in the list.

Right, the major difference is that it won't guess the current word you're spelling until you have entered all the letters. If I only enter "Smartp" the phone doesn't jump up and say "Smartphone". It just gives you all the possible words that can be spelled with "76278"

You really should check out what the Q does. It's pretty slick.

Kirkaiya
08-22-2006, 05:36 PM
It also shows the combinations of words that short sequences of number-punching provide, such as: if I type "263", the phone will show the possible words that it knows in a drop-down ("and", "cod", "2nd", etc). It shows this automatically - they show up without my having to use the down-direction-button, although I use that to pick one if I want, or the right-arrow to pick the 1st in the list.

Right, the major difference is that it won't guess the current word you're spelling until you have entered all the letters. If I only enter "Smartp" the phone doesn't jump up and say "Smartphone". It just gives you all the possible words that can be spelled with "76278"

You really should check out what the Q does. It's pretty slick.

Oh - I do know the feature you're referring to (not to mention the screenshots on page 1 were illustrative), because my Axia A108, which ran Windows CE 4.2 (aka, "CE .net") had the same predictive text function (it would actually guess entire words). But I think that's because I generally used the stylus (the A108 has a 2.2" QVGA touchscreen) and the soft-board to enter text.

Maybe Microsoft should tweak the text input for WM6 so that it shows the possible matches for the numbers entered so far, and if there are none (or only 1, say), then show possible completion words in the drop-down (as on the Moto Q). Hmm.... or somebody could release a ROM upgrade for the HTC StrTrk, say... ahem...

Kris Kumar
08-28-2006, 05:59 AM
I have a love hate relationship with the iTAP. Back when I was using the MPx220, it drove me nuts. I liked the way it predicted the text and the words, a much better approach compared to T9. But it needs some fine tuning.

Overall I agree with Jerry, in the time between you type the last letter and click the send button, you can't tell what that word would end up being. So cool down and review the email.

BTW on the 2125, it auto predicts the next word. I send text messages like "leaving work now" or "still stuck", and the 2125 recognizes that and fills in the next word if I type leaving or still. ;-)

Jerry Raia
08-28-2006, 06:01 AM
BTW on the 2125, it auto predicts the next word. I send text messages like "leaving work now" or "still stuck", and the 2125 recognizes that and fills in the next word if I type leaving or still. ;-)

Glad you brought that up. That is a slick feature. What we need is a combination of both. What the Q and the 2125 has.

superrrguy
11-02-2006, 06:24 AM
So, there's no 3rd party app for other smartphones that can do this? What drives me nuts is that after you type using T9, you can't get a drop down to correct a word.