It's Here! It's Here!...Kinda

[Brad Adrian]

<a href="http://www.softmaker.de/anywhere/anycepocket,en.htm">http://www.softmaker.de/anywhere/anycepocket,en.htm</a><br /><br />A lot of us have been <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2823">anxiously awaiting</a> the arrival of TextMaker, the Pocket Word replacement from Softmaker. Well, it's finally available for download...as a beta product.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/textmaker.gif" /><br /><br />There have already been a few reviews written about this beta version. You can read a couple of them on the <a href="http://www.pocketpclife.co.uk/featureddetails.asp?article=167">Pocket PC Life</a> and <a href="http://www.compu2go.com/textmaker.html">Compu2Go</a> sites.<br /><br />I've had a chance to use this for a few days, and I have to admit that it has LOADS of features that I like. This product doesn't include all of the functionality of desktop Word, but it does an incredible job of finally making the Pocket PC and desktop Word function as an integrated unit. The details of the features are too many to mention here, but you can see a pretty complete listing <a href="http://www.softmaker.de/anywhere/anycepocket,en.htm">here</a>. The final version can't be downloaded yet, but you can pre-order it using this same link...for $49.95. If you also want the desktop companion version, you'll have to pay $69.95. These prices might seem a little steep to some people, but if you really need to create and edit Word-compatible documents, you may just decide it's a very fair price.

[tj21]

It's a great start but it still needs some work. The interface is pretty obviously a straight port from the HPC version. Too many double clicks and while it will read and write the handheld version of Pocket Word (.pwd) it won't read or write the PPC version of Pocket Word (.psw). Also it can read but not write desktop word (.doc) files. Performance is still a little slow as well, about 3 minutes to open a 3 page word docs (~50k) with no images. Formatting of several word docs is close but not quite as well. It breaks several of my tables in the middle for no apparent reason.

Still all in all that's why they call it a beta and it really has no peers on the Pocket PC. It certainly qualifies a full-featured. Hopefully the price becomes a bit more reasonable at some point though.

TJ

[Brad Adrian]

...Performance is still a little slow as well, about 3 minutes to open a 3 page word docs (~50k) with no images...
Hmmm. In my limited use, I had some roundtripping issues, but I didn't think it was all that slow. The menus ARE pretty deep, but that's because there is so much functionality there, IMHO.

[Paragon]

You are right Brad, the functionality is very deep. If they keep building apps like this for PPCs we won't need that big ugly box on our desks any more. :)

My "roundtrip" definitely included a pee stop along the way. 8O If they don't find a way to for it to open faster this app may die a slow death....Here's hoping.

Dave

[mookie123]

How does the Hanheld version work? is it also slow as the PPC beta?

[daninnj]

I only find it a little slow...but the feature I find very slow is when you tap and hold on the text area to get a menu.

DanInNJ

[Brad Adrian]

I also had some trouble working with native Word97 files. I must have been doing something wrong, because it didn't want to recognize a .doc file. Anybody explain to me how this is supposed to work?

[Ed Hansberry]

while it will read and write the handheld version of Pocket Word (.pwd) it won't read or write the PPC version of Pocket Word (.psw). Also it can read but not write desktop word (.doc) files. Performance is still a little slow as well, about 3 minutes to open a 3 page word docs (~50k) with no images.
BINGO! I loaded this intending to do a serious revew (and still plan to) but I can't get past that this is a separate word processor and simply cannot function as a Word replacement. :( Even if you do File|Save As and save as a Pocket Word file, if you make a change and hit OK, it wants to save again as a Textmaker format. :?

[Paragon]

Ed

I think I read a review somewhere today that said this would change soon, possibly before it's actual release, if not very soon after.


Dave

[Ed Hansberry]

Ed

I think I read a review somewhere today that said this would change soon, possibly before it's actual release, if not very soon after.


Dave
Thanks. If it is in flux that much, I should wait to review it.

[Paragon]

Ed, you have been PMed :)

Dave

[Hugh Nano]

BINGO! I loaded this intending to do a serious revew (and still plan to) but I can't get past that this is a separate word processor and simply cannot function as a Word replacement. :( Even if you do File|Save As and save as a Pocket Word file, if you make a change and hit OK, it wants to save again as a Textmaker format. :?

Found the following footnote on SoftMaker's TextMaker for Handheld PCs page (http://www.softmaker.de/anywhere/anycehand,en.htm):

* The first commercial release will read Microsoft Word for Windows files but not write them. It is bundled with TextMaker for Windows which has export capabilities to Microsoft Word. Furthermore, all customers will receive a free upgrade when the Word export filter for the handheld version is ready.

I imagine this applies to the Pocket PC version too, at this point.

[SoftMaker]

Too many double clicks
Suggestion noted.

... and while it will read and write the handheld version of Pocket Word (.pwd) it won't read or write the PPC version of Pocket Word (.psw).
Get me documentation for .psw files and we can write a filter. It's another secret format that Microsoft seems too lazy to document.

Also it can read but not write desktop word (.doc) files.
Word export is being worked on. Everything except objects works now, but of course has to be tested thoroughly. Probably next beta.

Performance is still a little slow as well, about 3 minutes to open a 3 page word docs (~50k) with no images. Formatting of several word docs is close but not quite as well. It breaks several of my tables in the middle for no apparent reason.
The filter is pretty fast for everything EXCEPT tables. We have to do a lot of document reformatting with tables in the Word document. This is being worked on. Also, we are making changes to our tables to make them closely mimic Word's. The table probably breaks in the middle because it is too large. The current limit is 2700 cells, but we are changing this at this very moment.

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH

[SoftMaker]

If they don't find a way to for it to open faster this app may die a slow death....Here's hoping.
TextMaker launches in 8 seconds on my Toshiba E310, so I am guessing you are talking about Word file import time. We are speeding it up; the main speed issue is tables. Documents without many tables load quickly, but for documents with tables, TextMaker has to a lot of reformatting and rearranging. This is being worked on right now.

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH

[SoftMaker]

I only find it a little slow...but the feature I find very slow is when you tap and hold on the text area to get a menu.

DanInNJ
Dan: This is weird. We are using the standard system-defined delay for tap-and-hold. What exactly is slow? I compared it with Pocket Word on a Toshiba e310 and iPaq, and the delays are exactly the same.

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH

[SoftMaker]

I also had some trouble working with native Word97 files. I must have been doing something wrong, because it didn't want to recognize a .doc file. Anybody explain to me how this is supposed to work?
Brad: If you have a Word file (6.0, 7.0/95, 97, 2000, XP) that TextMaker does not recognize as a valid Word file, please send it to [email protected]

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH

[SoftMaker]

while it will read and write the handheld version of Pocket Word (.pwd) it won't read or write the PPC version of Pocket Word (.psw). Also it can read but not write desktop word (.doc) files. Performance is still a little slow as well, about 3 minutes to open a 3 page word docs (~50k) with no images.
BINGO! I loaded this intending to do a serious revew (and still plan to) but I can't get past that this is a separate word processor and simply cannot function as a Word replacement. :( Even if you do File|Save As and save as a Pocket Word file, if you make a change and hit OK, it wants to save again as a Textmaker format. :?
Ed: As soon as the Word export is in there (probably next beta), you'll have the option to work with .doc files transparently.

TextMaker is, however, a word processor in its own right, so don't just look at the Word conversion but at what else TextMaker has to offer.

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH

[tj21]

Martin,

I just wanted to say how great it is that you're taking such an active role in responding to feedback. It's great to see the commitment to Textmaker.

Is it possible to maintain the horizontal scroll bar when fit to screen is selected? Unfortunately some of my tables don't fit and it is very difficult to navigate without the scroll bars. Also while we're at it I'd prefer the direction pad pad moved the screen one screen length at a time instead of the cursor. It would make it much easier to move through large documents.

Also how do I turn off the hyphening of words at the margin? I tried to find my German-English dictionary to check with the help function. :lol:

I'm curious about your launch time on the E310. Have you tried any of the Xscale devices? I just timed my launch at 94 seconds on my E740. That is just to launch Textmaker, no document opened and nothing else is running.

TJ

[Kevin Tea]

On my 3630 upgraded to 64mb it loads in just under ten seconds with no other apps running in the background!

[Kevin Tea]

Thanks. If it is in flux that much, I should wait to review it.

Ed, like most people I have just put some preview screenshots up because this is going to take time to do it justice.

I've been in touch with the people at Blue Nomad who created WordSmith for the Palm OS and they have no intention of porting it to the PocketPC, so this is good as it gets. Martin is very receptive to input and I think we'll see some pretty fast beta upgrades as people put forward ideas.

At a rough guess I'd say this current beta is about 70-80 per cent of what the first main release will comprise.

[SoftMaker]

Is it possible to maintain the horizontal scroll bar when fit to screen is selected? Unfortunately some of my tables don't fit and it is very difficult to navigate without the scroll bars.

The horizontal scrollbar won't help you much here because the table won't be painted beyond the screen border in window wrap mode. We are still discussing this subject internally.

Also while we're at it I'd prefer the direction pad pad moved the screen one screen length at a time instead of the cursor. It would make it much easier to move through large documents.
I have put it in the suggestion box.

Also how do I turn off the hyphening of words at the margin? I tried to find my German-English dictionary to check with the help function. :lol:
Format/Paragraph/Hyphenation. If you want to get rid of it generally: Format/Paragraph Styles/Normal/Edit.../Hyphenation, then save the file as your new document template.

I'm curious about your launch time on the E310. Have you tried any of the Xscale devices? I just timed my launch at 94 seconds on my E740. That is just to launch Textmaker, no document opened and nothing else is running.
That is bad, totally unacceptable. 8 to 10 seconds should be normal from internal memory; maybe 20 secs from slow storage cards. Anybody else with Xscale experience out there?

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH

[blusparkles]

I have an ipaq 3970, and launching Textmaker (without any document) took just under 45 seconds. Other things like bringing up menus take a couple of seconds (kinda noticeable).

Also, I've tried using the program with my Compaq foldable keyboard, and for some reason it doesn't recognise Ctrl-B's, Ctrl-I's, etc. Is there something I need to configure to get this working? Also, for some reason the Backspace key doesn't work properly (nothing happens). Double quotation marks (") also come up looking like this: (,,).

Otherwise - absolutely fantastic for a first beta. Kinda clunky, but packing in all of that functionality into a tiny screen must be extremely difficult - I'd say that the developers have done a really great job so far. I've got a few more comments regarding page views (viewing footnotes, etc) - for some reason when word wrap is not on, the page is displayed showing the margins on the left, and there's no way to scroll the page right to see the rest of the page.

I'll be putting this app through the works during the week and will hopefully come up with more feedback. But THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU - I've been waiting for a program like this for a loooooooong time!

[SoftMaker]

I have an ipaq 3970, and launching Textmaker (without any document) took just under 45 seconds. Other things like bringing up menus take a couple of seconds (kinda noticeable).
Even this is about five times too long. Any other Xscale experiences out there?

Also, I've tried using the program with my Compaq foldable keyboard, and for some reason it doesn't recognise Ctrl-B's, Ctrl-I's, etc. Is there something I need to configure to get this working? Also, for some reason the Backspace key doesn't work properly (nothing happens). Double quotation marks (") also come up looking like this: (,,).
We'll have to get a bunch of foldable keyboards to check what codes they generate. As per the quotation marks, that's smart quotes kicking in. If you do not like it, go to Extras/Preferences and turn off typographic quotes or select a quote style you like better.

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH

[Brad Adrian]

I have an ipaq 3970, and launching Textmaker (without any document) took just under 45 seconds...
It takes 10 seconds on my iPAQ 3870 when loading from an SD card.

[Marcel_Proust]

I have an ipaq 3970, and launching Textmaker (without any document) took just under 45 seconds. Other things like bringing up menus take a couple of seconds (kinda noticeable).
Even this is about five times too long. Any other Xscale experiences out there?

Also, I've tried using the program with my Compaq foldable keyboard, and for some reason it doesn't recognise Ctrl-B's, Ctrl-I's, etc. Is there something I need to configure to get this working? Also, for some reason the Backspace key doesn't work properly (nothing happens). Double quotation marks (") also come up looking like this: (,,).
We'll have to get a bunch of foldable keyboards to check what codes they generate. As per the quotation marks, that's smart quotes kicking in. If you do not like it, go to Extras/Preferences and turn off typographic quotes or select a quote style you like better.

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH

I'm glad the developer is listening in! Great work! One of the best programs ever released.
I've found this program works well and not too slowly, but best in the continuous view mode. The slowness thought is most noticeable for me when using it with the PocketTop keyboard - the program simply doesn't keep up when I'm up to even just 40-50 wpm, and characters are lost. I don't know if this happens with other foldable keyboards. Hopefully this can be fixed soon.
Also, is the outline mode implemented? I can't seem to get it to work properly at all.

[Duncan]

I have an ipaq 3970, and launching Textmaker (without any document) took just under 45 seconds. Other things like bringing up menus take a couple of seconds (kinda noticeable).

Something else must be causing that slow down. On my Loox I'm getting approx. 12-15 secs and on my iPAQ 3970 I'm getting about 2 to 3 secs faster. This is with Dashboard. PI and vBar running.

BTW - Ed, I have to disagree with you about this not being a Word replacement.

In the past few days I've run my press beta as my only WP (perfect circumstances - my PC has died on me and my new one hasn't come yet!). I've written letters, lesson plans, designed worksheets and put together a report (among other things) and have yet to find anything I need to do that I can't do! Hell - I've even written the First Loox review of TextMaker on TextMaker!

Speedwise - yes it is slower to use than desktop Word BUT a) I'm learning a new WP as I go along; b) the learning curve on this thing is really shallow - so I'm getting faster already; c) I can use this WP so casually that I've worked on docs while cramped into a standard train seat, on the bus - even standing! Even Word on a laptop can't beat that level of usability!

Overall then - this IS going to replace Word for me allowing for one or two changes and updates (as already mentioned by others!).

Martin,

Even in beta this is already (IMNSHO) one of the giants (it goes with Dashboard and PI as one of my essentials). It needs some improvements but it is closer to being 'there' than any new Pocket PC program I can remember!

[Ed Hansberry]

I'm curious about your launch time on the E310. Have you tried any of the Xscale devices? I just timed my launch at 94 seconds on my E740. That is just to launch Textmaker, no document opened and nothing else is running.
That is bad, totally unacceptable. 8 to 10 seconds should be normal from internal memory; maybe 20 secs from slow storage cards. Anybody else with Xscale experience out there?
Great to see you in here listening to suggestions!

Now, I have played with it on an iPAQ 3970 - also X-Scale - and it launches in under 10 seconds even with clear-type enabled, so if it taking over a minute on the 740, there is something else going on.

[SoftMaker]

I'm glad the developer is listening in! Great work! One of the best programs ever released.
I've found this program works well and not too slowly, but best in the continuous view mode. The slowness thought is most noticeable for me when using it with the PocketTop keyboard - the program simply doesn't keep up when I'm up to even just 40-50 wpm, and characters are lost. I don't know if this happens with other foldable keyboards. Hopefully this can be fixed soon.
We are getting a Stowaway right now (we have a noname chiclet keyboard that works fine) to check with TextMaker.

Also, is the outline mode implemented? I can't seem to get it to work properly at all.
It's there but it seems to be buggy. It seems to "forget" screen updates when promoting or demoting paragraphs. I have filed a bug report.

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH

[SoftMaker]

Now, I have played with it on an iPAQ 3970 - also X-Scale - and it launches in under 10 seconds even with clear-type enabled, so if it taking over a minute on the 740, there is something else going on.
OK, let's check:

- It's not the Xscale CPU by itself because others have reported Xscale with satisfactory startup times.

- It's not the SD card because we have one report that it's fast enough (albeit with a StrongARM CPU).

- It's not ClearType as mentioned above.

- It happens on two different manufacturers' machines (Toshiba and Compaq), but only Xscale machines (Toshiba E310 is OK, so is Compaq 36xx, 37xx, 38xx).

What else? I am stumped. Can someone with the problem do a factory reset and try again?

Best regards,

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH

[Chriswalley]

I'm afraid I tried it and removed it from my Compaq 3970. It was appallingly slow to load; sorry I don't have the figures to hand; but it was many tens of seconds. I also found others aspects slow too. The non working outliner and the apparent need to load a desktop program I didn't want weren't a help.

I may try again when the beta is more advanced but I'm afraid I was a bit disappointed, but then I had high hopes. I suspect most of us don't need a duplicate of Word with all its bells and whistles; we need a Word file handler with an outliner facility.

Sorry to be negative.

Chris :cry:

[Ed Hansberry]

It's not the Xscale CPU by itself because others have reported Xscale with satisfactory startup times.

- It's not the SD card because we have one report that it's fast enough (albeit with a StrongARM CPU).

Mine was also on the SD card (Toshiba brand) so it isn't the X-Scale/SD combo either.

[Duncan]

Perhaps those of us getting good load times, and those getting bad, could send SoftMaker a list of background programs we run - a process of elimination could determine whether there is a particular other program causing the slow down?

[Brad Adrian]

Perhaps those of us getting good load times, and those getting bad, could send SoftMaker a list of background programs we run - a process of elimination could determine whether there is a particular other program causing the slow down?
I run virtually no background programs or PIM replacements.

[Paragon]

If they don't find a way to for it to open faster this app may die a slow death....Here's hoping.
TextMaker launches in 8 seconds on my Toshiba E310, so I am guessing you are talking about Word file import time. We are speeding it up; the main speed issue is tables. Documents without many tables load quickly, but for documents with tables, TextMaker has to a lot of reformatting and rearranging. This is being worked on right now.

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH

No I'm talking about simply opening the app. (I am running it from an SD card on a T-Mobile XDA.) Is running it from the storage card causing the slowness? If so I think you stillneed to fix that. Not many people can afford the space this app requires in main memory.

Thanks for answering the questions
Dave

[Chriswalley]

Installed to main memory with lots of RAM.
I was running WISBAR but would also have had Wordlogic installed. May have had Agenda Fusion on.
Is Wordlogic a common factor?
:?:
Chris

[toshtoshtosh]

Loads in 8-10 seconds on my e740 off internal memory by the way. Whoever posted getting 50 seconds should try and find what's causing the delay.

I was also suprised by the speed of browsing large documents. The only thing that's a bit on the long side is opening large word documents, but I'm not sure how much that can be improved.

All in all, I'm very happy.

[tccox]

Great except....

Documentation is in German

Have not recieved key yet to unlock BETA version I dowenloaded

HAve not found a way yet to remove software from my IPAQ

[Ed Hansberry]

HAve not found a way yet to remove software from my IPAQ
On your desktop, Start|Programs|Softmaker|Utilities|Uninstall.

Dock your iPAQ and let the uninstaller run. It does have an odd install/uninstall routine that doesn't use ActiveSync.

[Paragon]

As I mentioned I'm running it in a T-Mobile XDA, from an SD card.

Time to open 92 seconds program RAM in use at time of opening 5.27MB, after opening 8.92 leaving 8.87 still available for program use. So it is not a RAM problem

My SD card is a 256MB Sandisk. I have not run it on main memory...it would probably crash it....insufficent memory :cry:

It seem like an exceptional application for a Pocket PC, but to be this slow for what seems to be quite a few people so far, makes it almost unusable. There has to be a fix.

I should hopefully have my Jornada back tommorow. It runs SD cards in the MMC/battery so I will try it in that to see what happens.

Dave

[daninnj]

Dan: This is weird. We are using the standard system-defined delay for tap-and-hold. What exactly is slow? I compared it with Pocket Word on a Toshiba e310 and iPaq, and the delays are exactly the same.

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH

On my Jornada 568, let's say that I want to fix a misspelled word. I tap on the red-underlined word and hold. The red dots that show where you tap appear, then it takes a second for the pop-up menu with the suggestions for the misspelled word to appear.

In Pocket Word, it isn't that slow...Maybe because TextMaker displays more options in the menu than Pocket Word.

DanInNJ

[tj21]

Well in my case it's definitely the sd card that's causing the slowdown. I did a complete hard reset so these times are with nothing else running and the 802.11 off on my e740.

Time to open Textmaker, no document loaded:

SD card 99 secs.
CF card 25 secs.
RAM 17 secs.

Unfortunately I normally keep my Socket BT card in my CF slot and I'd prefer not to give up that much ram to store it internally but it works for now.

TJ

[blusparkles]

I thought it might be the SD card as well - apparently the Sandisk card have some performance issues (very slow!), so I transferred TextMaker to the Ipaq file store (by just doing a cut and paste of the folder and files) - still quite slow to open the program from the file store though.

I'm actually planning on doing a hard reset over the weekend - I have a lot of junk on my ipaq at the moment due to the trillions of programs I have installed. I'll let you know if there are any performance changes.

Cheers

[Marcel_Proust]

I find the program opens up pretty quickly. About 6 seconds on my overclocked HP Jornada 568. I have it loaded on a 512 mb "THL" CF card.
The menus work well and quickly. The refresh is sometimes slow. And As I've complained before, the program can't quite pick up with the new Pockettop keyboard. Performance with the HP Jornada Pocket Keyboard is also not great, but more acceptable. I hope they'll be able to increase the intake speed the program can take.
For a pre-release Beta, it's pretty impressive.

[pro_worm]

Martin -
What is the possibility of a student discount? What many other steel-grade software companies (e.g. Microsoft, Adobe) do is set up a fax line where students fax in a copy of their student ID, or a letter from the school adressed to them on school stationary. This then gives the students a significant discount. Few students have the money to spend an additional fifty dollars (in addition to MS Office) on a word processor that only works on the PPC. I know, for example, that I would snap this product up for 20-30 dollars, but fifty simply will not work.
Thanks for your time-
-Konrad

[markcrump]

From the low end of the spectrum.

I have a Jornada 540, with a 128M CF Card. It's installed on the CF card. Time to open is just over a minute. It's probably the longest loading time I've noticed on an app I've had.

[jdhill]

Casio E-200 with 64 MB of RAM.
Progam installed in RAM.
Program opens in 10-12 seconds.

[Hugh Nano]

1. I'd like to second Konrad's suggestion of a student discount. Having been in the work-force and now trying to subsist on a student budget, I can say that, on the one hand, as someone working and getting a steady income, I would have no problem shelling out $50 for a powerful application like this, but, on the other hand, as a poor student with no income, I have a really hard time justifying spending so much money, especially when I can get all of MS Office Premium for around $200 from my university. My main point here is not the good deal on MS Office, but rather that, even though this program would be invaluable to me as a student, I just don't have the extra cash to spend. $20 or $30 I can maybe justify, but $50 is a huge chunk of my now-miniscule discretionary-spending budget. Plus, a student discount, however difficult to administer, would be a wonderful and much-appreciated good-will gesture! :D

2. Where does one submit beta reports? I've submitted one to [email protected], but so far have received no reply, so I have no idea whether that was the right address to submit to or not. I would be happy to post them here, if that was appropriate.

And finally, great program! If no student discount is offered, I may just have to tighten my belt, save my pennies, and beg friends and relatives for the extra cash to buy it. This is exactly what I have been wanting ever since I first bought my Pocket PC!

PS--Just in case this is the right place to submit beta reports, and in keeping with the focus on speed that seems to have developed in this thread, TextMaker loads in about 10 seconds on my iPAQ 3650 (ROM 1.87, 8MB free ram, program installed to CF card). Loading a 12-page RTF file, took well over a minute the first time I loaded it, but then only about 10 seconds the second time.

[Ed Hansberry]

From the low end of the spectrum.

I have a Jornada 540, with a 128M CF Card. It's installed on the CF card. Time to open is just over a minute. It's probably the longest loading time I've noticed on an app I've had.
Well, if the 540 is doing it in 60 seconds, there is no way the 740 should do it in more than 15 unless it is compiling it each time. :wink: Major pain to troubleshoot, but definitely sounds like something is conflicting.

[JJ]

I'm running it with Cassiopeia E-125. So far the performance of TextMaker in its native mode is not bad. I'll try to open a word document in the next few days when I have more time. By the way, how do I center a word on the page? Can I also install TextMaker to the storage card to save some system memory?

[Marcel_Proust]

Good news.
I'll have to scratch my previous complaint about compatibility with the new Pockettop Keyboard. (the best new keyboard btw can be obtained at www.pockettop.ca).
They have just released a new driver version 1.6 - compiled in C and not that awful VB, which seems to resolve the slowness problem.
I think the Textmaker Beta could still use a bit of an upgrade in responsiveness for most (and obviously a fix for those having the big slow downs.). But one problem less.

[Gerard]

Well, on my Casio EG-800 (PPC 2000, 150Mhz MIPS VR4122, not overclocked), with over 12MB free Program Memory and the beta installed to a SanDisk 128MB CF (formatted in 512byte clusters) I just timed my second program opening at 105 seconds. That's about 70 seconds of nothing in particular happening except the little hourglass and the EG-800's red LED flashing very rapidly, indication a whole lot of storage media accessing going on.
Then there followed about 20 seconds of a blank white screen, then finally a text input window but still the hourglass... then at last at 105 seconds I was able to type with the Stowaway. Gee, I wonder how I could arrange to use that? I mean, it looks very much like I will be interested in buying a copy, once it's done and all, but if it takes so long to open, or even a quarter of that time, maybe not. Even the monumentally slow (and borderline useless, to be fair) PDF reader from that 'other' company (not Adobe) took less than a minute to open, most times. I paid $50 for that, but only because I had software fever when I first got an E-115. I'm a lot more careful now.
As for software environment:
- Dashboard's latest version
- GigaBar version 1.90.21
and I had two webpages open, so two PIE windows and MultiIE, plus my email client, nPOP version 1.0.
I tried the first time this afternoon, after a soft reset, with only the stuff in the Startup group running. That took about 90 seconds, with about 16MB of Program Memory available. All this help?
Oh, and I find that the characters appear with about 50% more delay than I have setup in my Stowaway software. Generally, whether typing or browsing menus, I find the delay to be a big drag. I like fast appearance of characters and menu fly-outs, but this thing has me tapping the screen again to be sure I have tapped something correctly, only to find it popping up just as I tap the second time - shutting the menu I want open!
And on closing the app, even 5 seconds after the TM icon disappears from GigaBar, I got a series of very stubborn errors ('The system has not finished....' 'Do you want to format the card...' 'The system powered down due to power demand from card...' and one other I forget.). They were stacked up, so I had to slide one off the top of another to tap a hidden OK button to get rid of two at once, then tap OK on another. Re-insterting the CF card didn't stop any of these, they just kept coming at me. Then after all that, the device wanted me to reformat my CF modem! I finally got the modem recognized with a power cycle. So I guess I will wait a goodly long time after shutting down TM in future, before popping out the CF it is installed to.

[Paragon]

Here is what I have discovered installing TextMaker to two different devices and two types of cards.

Installed to a T-Mobile XDA on a 256mb Sandisk SD card.....92 seconds to open the application

Installed to a newly refurbed HP567 on the same 256mb Sandisk...94 seconds to open.

Installed to the HP 567 on a Kingston 256mb CF card...7 seconds


Hmmm anyone want to buy a couple of Sandisk cards cheap?

Dave

[Gerard]

Well, that's an interesting discovery! I just copied out my whole installed folder from the SanDisk 128MB CF to my Lexar 256MB 12x CF, in an identical path, and launched the program in almost exactly 25 seconds on my Casio EG-800. That's a pretty substantial difference. The Lexar is formatted in 32KB clusters, FAT32. I use it mostly for large files, and like the write-to speed with that setup. I don't particularly want to waste a lot of space on it with small files, but perhaps I'll consider switching over to it with a second partition formatted at the 512byte size for documents and such. I think of it as my media card at the moment, but if a program can actually launch so much faster from there, maybe a 30MB partition for software there and another 50MB or so for small files... that still leaves room for a movie and a few dozen MP3 files on a third partition. Or perhaps those could live in the partition with the programs folder...
It gets a bit dizzying truying always to optimize locations an storage effincies. Sure would be a lot nicer if TextMaker just opened quickly from any location.
.............................
I just wrote up an invoice on the PC version of TextMaker, and have a couple of comments. I get an error on opening every time that asks me to input the path to the shared files folder, called smapps, in the main SoftMaker folder. Even after making this non-existant folder, I still see this error. I cancel it, and carry on without further error messages. Seems the installation was not complete?
I finished writing out my invoice, with a few tables and a chart. I tried saving it in several formats, and found that only the TMD and TMV formats preserved formatting at all. In Pocket Word, every block was reversed in location. My last lines were on top, the title of the document was at page bottom... well, actually it got bumped to the top of page 2. It's a one page document. In RTF much information just disappeared. So, how does one get such a document into a format one may print from the Pocket PC? I use FieldSoftware's PrintPocketCE, and it has of course not got a TMD option. So I must print from a Pocket Word file, or RTF, or some other compatible file type. But if the data is scrambled in sequence there is no point in printing. I have tried pronting an invoice from the PPC in Pocket Excel format, but Field's progrm leaves a few random gridlines no matter how I fight that. Hardly professional looking. ;)
I'd also like to see an English help file on the PC. And it would be nice to be able to set up a default font, but I haven't yet found a way to get it off Tahoma permanently.

[markcrump]

Hmm.. I also have a 128MB SanDisk CF card....

[Paragon]

Hmm.. I also have a 128MB SanDisk CF card....


and.........?

[markcrump]

Sorry... I had posted my loading time on the previous page (about 1.25 min on a 54x). Probably should have referenced it again.

[SoftMaker]

Martin -
What is the possibility of a student discount?
-Konrad
Sorry for not getting back to this sooner. We are offering student discounts, but this does not extend to HPC/PPC yet. E-mail me at martin-k (at) softmaker.de and I'll get you special pricing.

-Martin

[Jaap van Ees]

Hi,
TextMaker looks extremely promising! My compliments. Never thought this would be possible on a PocketPC. May I ask when we can expect the next beta? (drool, drool.... :wink: )
Jaap

[SoftMaker]

Hi,
TextMaker looks extremely promising! My compliments. Never thought this would be possible on a PocketPC. May I ask when we can expect the next beta? (drool, drool.... :wink: )
Jaap
In a few days, I hope ...

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH