How fast can you write on your PDA and what do you use?

[Atooraya]

I write kinda slow bc the recognition of my letters isn't that great :(

I went from Transriber to block recognizer bc transriber would make some weird words out of my letters and took kinda of long to put it on the line

[portnoy]

I use block recognizer, since I moved to my toshiba from a Palm (Handspring Visor) I was already pretty much used to BR since it is basically little different than graffiti. Sometimes I like to play with transcriber, it's amazing that it can read my writing at all. Well, I wouldn't want to write a book using BR, but I get buy entering data and short lists using it.

[Atooraya]

w/transcriber, it's aggrivating when you type out about 4 or 5 words, wait a second and it's all wrong and you have to delete it all :-/

[sracer]

I used to be a keyboard type of guy, but the version of transcriber in WM2003 is slightly short of amazing! So I use transcriber most of the time. For significant data entry, I use my folding keyboard.

[Jolard]

I use letter recognizer pretty much exclusively. Block recognizer is to picky, you have to almost emulate Palm grafiti, however I am sure that is what most experienced palm converts like. Transcriber is cool, and I nearly always use it when I am showing off my PPC to someone, because it is pretty remarkable. It can even read my cursive. However it is just not user friendly. I hate the way you write a sentence, pause, wait for it to read and populate, and then probably have to go back and edit a few letters.

I far prefer letter recognizer since it is real time and it recognizes my handwriting at a veyr high rate.

The only thing I use the onscreen keyboard for is for passwords, so I can make sure that it is recognizing correctly.

[Aerestis]

Can you type as fast on a ppc keyboard as you could on your regular keyboard? Assuming you got comfy with it, of course. I hope I'm not being off topic, I'm just curious to see if you can get good speeds out of them.

Is there any way you guys can find out your wpm? That would be kind of handy. I'd like to use one as a word processor, so I'm very curious about typing rates as well.

[Doug Raeburn]

According to some results from last year's Dom Perignon test sponsored by Fitaly, here are the average wpm times for various entry methods:

Fitaly - 59 wpm
Thumboards - 58 wpm
QWERTY keyboards - 31 wpm
Handwriting methods (Graffiti, Letter Recognizer, Calligrapher) - 29 wpm

Here's the link to the whole report:

http://www.fitaly.com/domperignon/domperignon3.htm

So it would seem that it would be just about impossible to approach the speeds of full-sized keyboards on a QWERTY keyboard on the Pocket PC, especially if you're a touch typist. The best you could do on the Pocket PC is a one finger "hunt and peck" approach.

Once you get used to Fitaly, it can be quite fast. You can also use the FitalyLetris training game to improve your speed.

[Badandy]

I use MessageEase.


Search for it. I just got it about two weeks ago, but so far it is working great!


Way faster than qwerty soft keyboard. Give it a try...

[Aerestis]

Hm, whats up with that... What are the keyboards so slow?

I would expect higher rates... And what are they like, anyways.. Do they even have buttons, or just things you touch? I'm thinking of a folding keyboard... how odd, I'm surprised that they are so slow.

[Janak Parekh]

Hm, whats up with that... What are the keyboards so slow?
Because you're doing the equivalent of one-finger typing.

I'm thinking of a folding keyboard... how odd, I'm surprised that they are so slow.
Ah! Then you're talking about something else entirely. A Stowaway would give you similar typing speeds to a desktop. This thread was talking about onscreen data entry.

--janak

[Aerestis]

awesome! I was scared for a moment there. I'm glad then. Although, if on-screen data entry can be so fast, do I really need a stowaway? I guess it depends on what you want and need. But... I don't know, are ons creen data entry methods too tedious for large entries? Perhaps... English 12 essay note entries? Probably around 1000 words over the period of an hour and a half. But maybe that would just be rediculous?

[Janak Parekh]

awesome! I was scared for a moment there. I'm glad then. Although, if on-screen data entry can be so fast, do I really need a stowaway? I guess it depends on what you want and need. But... I don't know, are ons creen data entry methods too tedious for large entries?
Depends on what you're doing. ;)

English 12 essay note entries? Probably around 1000 words over the period of an hour and a half. But maybe that would just be rediculous?
I'd guess that would be tiring via onscreen, but it depends. If you're Jenneth (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6512), for instance... she can get 78WPM on Fitaly. 8O

--janak

[sjr]

heh i got the fastest qwerty time in that years competition 39.34wpm :) though its not really a true speed, you had to type a few sentances as fast as possible. However after doing them a few times you start to know where the buttons are, and just follow the path. what im trying to say is its really only those few sentances that can be typed that fast and only after 100 or so goes at writing them.

[tanalasta]

How are people measuring their wpm on their ppc? I know typing programs on desktop can do it (i'm usually 80+wpm).

Just installed calligrapher and seeing how it works for me... I used to type using letter recognizer roughly as fast as i did with pen & paper. Too lazy to learn fitaly but seeing everyone loves it so much maybe i'll give it a go 8)

[JustinGTP]

I have the HP folding keyboard for the 2215 and it is one lovely device.

It is so much smaller than my friends wireless one from Targus.

But, I can type really really fast, as fast as I do now. That satisfies me enough!

-Justin.

[Janak Parekh]

what im trying to say is its really only those few sentances that can be typed that fast and only after 100 or so goes at writing them.
Very true. However, it does reasonably compute an upper bound on onscreen typing. I can type much faster on a keyboard than the results of that Dom Perignon contest. ;)

--janak

[Aerestis]

Well, I think I'm going to go with the keyboard, myself. All of the software is cheaper, but I am sure I'll work well with a keyboard. Well, I can only hope :wink: They are a little small and all. It'll be fun to give it a go

[sublime]

Using Fitaly for little over a month, I have reached over 52 wpm.

Jenneth, I'm coming for your title :takethat:

[blusparkles]

Using Fitaly for little over a month, I have reached over 52 wpm.

Jenneth, I'm coming for your title :takethat:

Bring it on Sublime, bring it on!! :lol:

[Brad Adrian]

Does anybody know of an application that can be used to test input speed on a Pocket PC? It would be nice to have a standardized way to evaluate my abilities with various methods.

[Jeff Rutledge]

Does anybody know of an application that can be used to test input speed on a Pocket PC? It would be nice to have a standardized way to evaluate my abilities with various methods.

I think FITALY Letris will do this. IIRC, you can play it with any input method.

[Stephen Beesley]

I tend to use Calligrapher for most text entry on my Jornada and find it very accurate. Once I realised that you could write over un-recognised text on the screen without messing things up, my speed greatly improved. Before that I was writing three or for words then waiting for it to be recognised before writing some more (I wish I wish I wish that Calligrapher would recognise the text in a smooth flow rather than just once you finish typing - but I have ranted about that elsewhere :D ). Accuracy is pretty good for me (I tend to print most of the time) with only maybe one or two wrong words in a paragraph most of the time. Of course sometimes it can all go very wrong and give plain bizarre results, but fortunatley that does not happen to me too much.

When I have a lot of text to input (especially when using TextMaker) I go with my good ol' Stowaway keyboard. I can type on that as fast as on a desktop.

[Jacob]

I think FITALY Letris will do this. IIRC, you can play it with any input method.

You can in theory use any input method with FITALY Letris, but it won't work using Calligrapher or transcriber. I'm not sure why.

There was another freeware app out there that did work with all input methods, but I can't remember the name of it :(

[draiken]

I have been using Decuma On Spot Latin for a couple of months now, and I absolutely love it :D

Regarding speed, I believe on meetings I'm writting as fast as I would on paper... people look at me strangely because I'm the only one who walks into the room empty handed (everyone comes with a laptop or paper pads) and also they are amazed I can write everything down on my 2215 and then sync it with outlook / listpro

My boss has tried my strategy with an old Palm IIIc but he just gets tired too quickly and takes out pen & paper

[Len M.]

I can also offer a vote for Decuma On Spot Latin. Once I got used to how it interpreted my writing, I was pretty much able to input as fast as I could write.


Len Moskowitz
Core Sound
www.core-sound.com

[STW]

Well, I think I'm going to go with the keyboard, myself. All of the software is cheaper, but I am sure I'll work well with a keyboard. Well, I can only hope :wink: They are a little small and all. It'll be fun to give it a go

Yeah, go with the folding keyboard for your english class essays. You'll type as fast as you would on a laptop, but not have to drag a laptop around school. Comparing a PPC/keyboard to a laptop, the only drawbacks are editing on the small screen, not a big deal, and file transfers, printing, etc., and there are great options for those now too.

I agree with the poster who doesn't use the keyboard in business meetings. For me it's just much better to use on-screen data entry (or paper/pen) in meetings because you participate better and get heard better in meetings, I notice, if you're not using a laptop or pda/keyboard. Worse, if you're the only one with a keyboard someone's going to say, "please take minutes on the meeting and edit and email to all participants, thanks." :roll:

Onscreen keyboards are much slower for me than character recognizer programs. I use block recognizer, because I learned grafitti on my ancient Palm V, and never got used to letter rec. on my PPC even after a couple years constant use (I think the block rec./grafitti on my 1945 is just better arrangement for onscreen entry than letter rec., but I might feel different if I'd started on the other. I hated how much I had to resort to the punctuation keyboard in letter rec.--letter rec. was much slower for me).

As happy as I've been with block rec./grafitti for years, I can't approach the speed I write with a regular keyboard (and I'm not fast at 30 wpm). I also don't think I can write as fast onscreen as I can on a paper pad. I've tried and I sometimes think I can get close, but it takes much more concentration for me than writing on a pad of paper, and feels exhausting even though I've been very comfortable with block rec./grafitti for years.

I'd love to know how some of you write onscreen as fast and as comfortably as you do on a pad of paper. Taking notes in meetings that way would be great for me, but even better for me, a psychologist, taking notes onscreen in a therapy session with a client would save me a lot of time later writing case notes. (Clients would not be comfortable with use of a folding keyboard--therapy requires that note-taking not interfere with the kind of empathetic listening you do, but I think a stylus and ipaq would be pretty ok nowadays, much like pad and pencil. I don't think that a dual thumbing fitaly thing would pass the therapy test either--yet.)

[wing]

I tend to use Calligrapher for most text entry on my Jornada and find it very accurate. Once I realised that you could write over un-recognised text on the screen without messing things up, my speed greatly improved.

DING DING!

That's exactly what I do! I get the most weird/impressed looks from my colleagues when i seem to be writing TONS on the little screen, as though it were paper.

most of it comes through great! Go Transcriber go!

[nuggetman]

used letter recognizer mostly on my X5 until i discovered onspot and fell in love w/ it. i'm def gonna buy after my trial runs out.

i'll be getting an extended trial since my x5 broke and im waiting on my x3's arrival ;)

[yslee]

on a good day, at least 50wpm on a thumb board. Never ever getting a PDA without one! :D