What's your favourite input method? Do you use any software?

[humayunl]

I am just wondering what a lot of people use as their default Input Method on their PPCs.

I've used almost all of them except transcriber. Which is strange cause sometimes it makes the best sense. But the slight delay in recognition always kept me from making it my input method of choice.

So will everyone share what methods they have used? are using or prefer using? Does it differ based on what you are doing? I pick one and stick to it. Mostly its Letter Recognizer but lately I've been using the keyboard a lot.

I heard this FITALY keyboard is supposed to make entry really fast but i am not ready to abandon the whole QWERTY scene just yet for a proprietary format.

[Darius Wey]

I still like using Letter Recognizer. It's my most preferred, and the one I can input the fastest in.

Some people like using Decuma OnSpot (http://www.decuma.com) because it maps out the text before you input it. You can have a look at that if you're curious. :)

[humayunl]

I've noticed one issue with letter recognizer. I uses it "full-time" on my previous pda and after a while, that area of the screen became a little insensitive to input so i had to press harder than usual for it to recognize my input.. Did this ever happen toyou or anyone?

Soafter that I'm a little scared to do the same thing to my XAD II so i am using the keyboard so my screen taps are more evenly spread out. But i prefer the letter recognizer.

[Darius Wey]

That hasn't happened to me.

Perhaps you should try aligning your screen again.

[draiken]

Decuma OnSpot rules!!!

[drop]

CalliGrapher (http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?productType=2&optionId=1_2_2&jid=F1E8C42663C16FBCB9591D5C5B3D4118&platformId=2&siteId=1&productId=18748&sectionId=0&catalog=30&txtSearch=calligrapher) :way to go:

For those who is interested in CalliGrapher, be sure to check out this thread (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=31636&highlight=calligrapher) for some awesome ways to maximize the usage of this great input tool.

[Stephen Beesley]

CalliGrapher (http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?productType=2&optionId=1_2_2&jid=F1E8C42663C16FBCB9591D5C5B3D4118&platformId=2&siteId=1&productId=18748§ionId=0&catalog=30&txtSearch=calligrapher) :way to go:

For those who is interested in CalliGrapher, be sure to check out this thread (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=31636&highlight=calligrapher) for some awesome ways to maximize the usage of this great input tool.

Yep - Calligrapher is the one :rock on dude!:

Still not quite as good as the recogniser in the ol' Newton (okay so I am biased...) but with the latest builds and the aster processor and bigger screen since I have moved onto a Toshiba e755 it produces consistantly good fast results for me.

[gregmills]

Put me down for Block Recognizer. That's right, I'm a Palm convert.

I'm accustomed to using graffiti type glyphs on a touch screen. I find it hard to write the letters normally. When there is a stylus in my hand some switch in my brain flips so Transcriber is almost useless for me. My spaces just relocate the cursor and my Ts always come out 7s.

I have similar problems with Letter Recognizer plus I can't remember to move into the different blocks for large caps and small caps.

I have Resco Keyboard which I can use almost as quickly as Block Recognizer but I have to look at the screen to hit all those little buttons. With Block Recognizer I can take notes more naturally (glancing back and forth between the speaker/presentation and the screen).

Graffiti didn't take me long to learn (thanks Giraffe!) and after 5+ years I don't think I'll find anything more efficient for me.

[Kati Compton]

You know what I'd like? A SIP panel where I could define the buttons. Now, I know you're saying that there's a lot out there where you can assign any key to any button... But that's not quite what I mean. I'd like to be able to also make *macro* buttons that output multiple letters. And define multiple panels to the SIP the way that you can go to the alpha vs. the numeric panel on the built-in one. That way, I could have my common words, or a context-appropriate keyboard.

For example, sometimes when I'm away from a computer I think of pseudocode snippets. I'd like to have a macro for "if", "while", "for", etc.

Now if only I could get a good text editor with syntax-highlighting and auto-formatting, I'd be golden. ;)

[Ryan Joseph]

I use the standard keyboard. :wink: Not because I'm faster on it, but because other people use my device fairly often and I don't like having to say,

"oops, hold on, that's the transcriber...no, you can't use it, it's trained for my handwriting...yeah, just hold on while I switch to the keyboard...no, please don't try to use the transcriber...yes I can see that it didn't regognize your words..." etc.

So I just leave it on the keyboard. :D

[Darius Wey]

So I just leave it on the keyboard. :D

Actually, I'm still a fan of the keyboard input method but I need to have it on "Large Keys" and with "gestures" before I use it as one of my main input methods. It's a lot easier (well, in my opinion anyway) with the large keys enabled - less chance for me to slip and miss keys. :P

[zilla31]

don't hate on word logic - it's great especially w/ the tap and hold feature. i've tried transcriber but man it has horrible recognition for me (i'm a lefty maybe that's why?).

[Jacob]

Calligrapher is nice, but it isn't good enough to recognize my writing at times and that's a real source of frustration. Maybe my writing isn't good enough, but I'd rather blame it on the software.

There are times when I'm sure it's just having a fit and won't recognize certain things though.

Otherwise I use Fitaly, which I find much more convenient than the default keyboard.

[outdoor]

Put me down for Block Recognizer. That's right, I'm a Palm convert.

ditto.


Sometimes i use Resco Full Screen Keyboard for MSN (when i am too lazy to bring out my IR keyboard in class). Although it covers the whole screen, i saved buying another accessory to carry with.

[jeisner]

I use transcriber or the normal keyboard, depends what I am writting, entering a serial with letters and numbers is a pain with transcriber, but for writing an sms or email I find it a very fast and accurate input method.

[DaViD_BRaNDoN]

Am using Resco Keyboard Pro mostly for its nice skins and SIP calculator

[humayunl]

Hey I tried Decuma OnSpot and I really like it. Its simple and works.

Now I'm curious to try Caligrapher.... But i have a feeling for my simple text input needs it might be overkill.. I dont know.

[iant54]

I tend to use the keyboard, but switch to Decuma Onspot if I have a lot of text input to do.

[Kowalski]

I used transcribber for more than half year. the only thing i hate about transcriber is that if you make a mistake at the beginning of the word, it is hard to correct.
then one day i saw my friend using letter recognizer and i tried it and from that time, i never used transcriber again!

one thing that i dont understand is letter recognizer is much more better than block recognizer. how come people use block rec. instead of letter rec. ?!

i know for a person migrating from palmOS, block rec. would be better at the first a few days, but letter rec. is much more functional and better than block rec.

[Vidge]

Block Recognizer here since I go back and forth between my T3 and my 4155. I tried the others but found it too confusing when switching PDAs. I had been using Graffit2 on my T3 (which is a real pain, BTW) and put G1 back on my T3 just to make my life more simple.

[Darius Wey]

don't hate on word logic - it's great especially w/ the tap and hold feature. i've tried transcriber but man it has horrible recognition for me (i'm a lefty maybe that's why?).

Does the side of your hand rub on the screen while you're writing and produce erroneous results?

[tanalasta]

Letter recogniser - I'm used to it and can input things really fast.

I used to use calligrapher but found that it misrecognised almost all of my abbreviations, numbers/quotes and medical terms. It was simply taking longer to edit my calligrapher input than it was to just write it using letter recogniser.

I also appreciate how easy it is to select text and tap away using letter recogniser without any of the tap and hold business.

Mind you, the other reason I don't use calligrapher (I certainly have the program and used to use it regularly) is that I don't have anywhere near enough memory left on my device for a 4Mb footprint :oops:

[gregmills]

one thing that i dont understand is letter recognizer is much more better than block recognizer. how come people use block rec. instead of letter rec. ?!

Stating opinion as fact?

As I said, I used Graffiti for input on a Palm device for years. I can write those glyphs as fast as I do regular letters. Maybe even faster because of the simplified strokes.

The large input areas allow me to use the device to take notes without looking at the screen all the time. If my hand meanders around the input area slightly there's no problem. So I'm fine to glance back and forth between the screen and the lecturer or presentation that I'm taking notes on.

With Letter Recognizer you've got those kindergarten lines on the input area and you have to be more precise about where you draw your letters or they're not recognized. Just like the keyboard with it's tiny buttons, I have keep my eyes on the PPC to use Letter Recognizer.

Furthermore, With Block Recognizer my hand stays in the same place unless I need a number. I find that switching back and forth between the large caps and small caps input areas on Letter Recognizer contributes to the difficulty of drawing the letters in their correct positions for proper recognization.

[Kowalski]

With Letter Recognizer you've got those kindergarten lines on the input area and you have to be more precise about where you draw your letters or they're not recognized. Just like the keyboard with it's tiny buttons, I have keep my eyes on the PPC to use Letter Recognizer.
good point, but this never bothers me at all. what about this:
writing upper and lower case letters is easier with letter recognizer, and characters are written in a more natural way than block recognizer.
the only character i had trouble is "t" but block recognizer uses more strange patterns

[Grobs]

don't hate on word logic - it's great especially w/ the tap and hold feature. i've tried transcriber but man it has horrible recognition for me (i'm a lefty maybe that's why?).

Word Logic does the trick for me (Dutch language). It builds up a personal dictionary, efficient keyboard lay-out, tap and hold. I bought it. :D

Hands down winner imho.

[Pat Logsdon]

Decuma On-Spot is my favorite, but I use the regular keyboard about half of the time because Decuma won't stick as the default input method beyond a soft reset. :?

[TopDog]

I use the traditional keyboard, just with a slight modification to get my national caracters:
http://www.epocket.no/images/tastatur.gif
Download for free from www.epocket.no for both Norwegian, Swedish and Danish layouts.

[Jean Ichbiah]

Since you are asking about Input Methods, you may want to participate to the current Dom Perignon IV Speed Contest.

Currently, Pocket PC entries dominate the first week and Jenneth Orantia is already hovering well over 75 wpms!

Of course this should not discourage new entrants as the 20 weekly prizes are awarded to new participants first. We'd like to see some handwriting entries, as we have none so far and there are some surprisingly good Qwerty entries (could it be that people only use handwriting for things that are very short... a few words?)

See the following links for more information:

http://www.textware.com/domperignon/domperignon4.htm
http://fitaly.com/board/domper4/posts/74.html

[Jereboam]

I use Decuma for most things, inputting new contacts, addresses etc, but have recently been using Resco's keyboard more and more for the convenience of switching to the large numeric layout and calculator.

I have Calligrapher, but it's only there because I found I could install it to file store with no issues (as someone said it's large) and it ties in with PhatPad. I don't use it on a regular basis as it is a bit of a RAM hog when running too.

J'bm

[jhansman]

Like Jereboam, I use both Calligrapher (love how you can use the whole screen, and it recognizes nearly everything I write) and OnSpot. Both work nicely, but really, I doubt I would use either enough to justify their respective costs.