PhatWare Releases Calligrapher 7.4

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.phatware.com/calligrapher/index.html' target='_blank'>http://www.phatware.com/calligrapher/index.html</a><br /><br /></div>Calligrapher 7.4 is out with several new features, most notably new language support. Here's the full list:<br /> <li> Auto Corrector<br /><li> Recognition Margins<br /><li> Updated Graphics, new hi-resolution bitmaps<br /><li> Improved PenCommander (40-line limit per PenCommand has been removed)<br /><li> New language packs: Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish I'm assuming the hi-resolution bitmaps improve VGA support. I'm not sure how exactly the first two features work, though, so if you get your hands on a copy (upgrades from older 7.x versions are free, although new language packs cost $14.95 each) let us know how it fares. 8)

[ctmagnus]

The dictionary editor (frame #9 in the animated gif) looks very interesting!

Edit: that animated gif is on PocketPCTools.com (http://www.pocketpctools.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid2=1511&mode=&order=0&thold=0&topicid=2645).

[Jacob]

The dictionary editor (frame #9 in the animated gif) looks very interesting!

Edit: that animated gif is on PocketPCTools.com (http://www.pocketpctools.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid2=1511&mode=&order=0&thold=0&topicid=2645).

That's the Auto Corrector. It has preset items like if you write "aboot" it will change that automatically to "about"

I noticed you can use this as a universal text expansion mechanism without having to create a pen commander script. You could type in sfg and it could automatically expand to "San Francisco Giants".

Sounds more powerful than just a spelling corrector :)

[CTSLICK]

That's the Auto Corrector. It has preset items like if you write "aboot" it will change that automatically to "about"

Careful, in many parts of the upper Midwestern US and much of Canada "aboot" is considered proper pronunciation. :lol:

[Jacob]

That's the Auto Corrector. It has preset items like if you write "aboot" it will change that automatically to "about"

Careful, in many parts of the upper Midwestern US and much of Canada "aboot" is considered proper pronunciation. :lol:

Haha.. I moved here from Toronto and believe me, around here in Chicago they correct you every single time you pronounce it that way ;)

[CTSLICK]

That's the Auto Corrector. It has preset items like if you write "aboot" it will change that automatically to "about"

Careful, in many parts of the upper Midwestern US and much of Canada "aboot" is considered proper pronunciation. :lol:

Haha.. I moved here from Toronto and believe me, around here in Chicago they correct you every single time you pronounce it that way ;)

And here in Minnesota they would welcome you with open arms ;)

[ctmagnus]

And here in Minnesota they would open you with open arms ;)

8O that sounds painful...

;)

[CTSLICK]

And here in Minnesota they would open you with open arms ;)

8O that sounds painful...

;)

Hah! Note to self...proofread :oops:

[ctmagnus]

fyi:

The touch handler in your system is from previous version of CalliGrapher. Did you soft-reset your mobile device after installation

...after a soft-reset, install. soft-reset again, and many soft-resets later whenever I activate CalliGrapher. Also, I cannot get the toolbar to appear.

[Jacob]

fyi:

The touch handler in your system is from previous version of CalliGrapher. Did you soft-reset your mobile device after installation

...after a soft-reset, install. soft-reset again, and many soft-resets later whenever I activate CalliGrapher. Also, I cannot get the toolbar to appear.

Is calligrapher enabled? If it is try the toolbar enable macro? ( write tb then circle it).

I didn't have this problem, but maybe it's just not enabled for some reason.

[ctmagnus]

:oops: I read UserGuide.pdf and it says to uninstall the previous version first. I did so and now it functions as it should.

[Sven Johannsen]

Anybody looked at the Keyboard Editor on a VGA device? (mine's an X50) All I get is boxes with fuzz/lines in them, not characters. The custom keyboard in calligrapher is just fine, just the editor is messed up.

[Jerry Raia]

I had to uninstall 7.3 first to get it working.

[ctmagnus]

iirc when I upgraded to PhatPad 2, I had to uninstall the 1.x version of it first. I find it odd that PhatWare apps need to have the previous version uninstalled first before installing a new version, when almost every other PPC app I've ever upgraded was a simple matter of installing the new version over the old version. I find it annoying that when I upgrade a Phatware application, I have to go through all the settings and set them back the way they were previously.

[Jerry Raia]

Yes it does seem kind of primative doesn't it?

[bmurphy]

The auto-correct sounds great, ... but I have a beef>
[Careful, in many parts of the upper Midwestern US and much of Canada "aboot" is considered proper pronunciation. ] &lt; I've lived in much of Canada, from the west coast to Ottawa, and have friends that have come from the east coast, and I haven't run into "aboot" as proper... that is a myth I think, kept alive by Rick Mercer and his gang.

[bigkingfun]

I'm assuming the hi-resolution bitmaps improve VGA support.

They certainly do. The icons look much nicer on a VGA screen now.

[LarDude]

The auto-correct sounds great, ... but I have a beef>
[Careful, in many parts of the upper Midwestern US and much of Canada "aboot" is considered proper pronunciation. ] &lt; I've lived in much of Canada, from the west coast to Ottawa, and have friends that have come from the east coast, and I haven't run into "aboot" as proper... that is a myth I think, kept alive by Rick Mercer and his gang.

I completely agree with what you are saying. I could never figure out why my American friends kept going on kidding me with "aboot" or "aboat", because that's not the way it's pronounced in most of Canada. Finally, after some detailed quizzing including enunciating each syllable very slowly in both "Canadian" and "American" english, we concluded that the pronunciation goes like this:
In most of Canada, we pronounce it like "a bout" (like the way it is spelt).
In most of the US, it sounds like "a baaaaa-ou-t" (as if you were being hit while you were saying it, you open your mouth wider and make the "baaaa" sound last longer).

[Doug Raeburn]

Anybody looked at the Keyboard Editor on a VGA device? (mine's an X50) All I get is boxes with fuzz/lines in them, not characters. The custom keyboard in calligrapher is just fine, just the editor is messed up.

The Keyboard Editor looks just fine on my Loox 720 ("standard" VGA, not using SE_VGA or the like).

[Doug Raeburn]

In most of Canada, we pronounce it like "a bout" (like the way it is spelt).
In most of the US, it sounds like "a baaaaa-ou-t" (as if you were being hit while you were saying it, you open your mouth wider and make the "baaaa" sound last longer).

In my part of the US, we pronounce it like the former, not the latter. To my recollection, I've never heard anyone pronounce it like the latter.

[Oleander]

In my part of the world it's pronounced more like "abåvt" which coincidentally is now supported by the new version. :wink:

Might have to give it a spin.

[PatrickD]

:oops: I read UserGuide.pdf and it says to uninstall the previous version first. I did so and now it functions as it should.

After reading this thread, I downloaded and installed the new version. Even though the instructions say to uninstall previous versions, I didn't bother. The only thing I did was to select a different input method (keyboard) instead of calligrapher. Then I went ahead and installed the new version on top of the old. After installing, it asked me to soft reset, which I did, and everything seems to be working fine.

If you are wondering what the Recognition margins feature is, here is what the manual says.

"The Margins Tab allows you to set left, right, top, and bottom margins. If you start moving pen outside the specified margins CalliGrapher will ignore pen movements. However, after you begin writing within the margins, you can continue writing anywhere on the Pocket PC screen."

I believe this is so that if a window has a scroll bar on the side, you won't accidentally draw a line when you try to scroll. I tried it with the default settings and it seems to work well. No “ink” when you try to scroll or click the toolbars. In the past I would occasionally draw some "ink" when trying to scroll, but it wasn't a big problem. Still, it is nice to see them continually improving and refining the product.

[Tye]

Anyone else having trouble getting to the settings menu on Wisbar Advance 2 after installing Calligrapher 7.4?
I am on a 4705.

[ahovis]

Not sure exactly what you are seeing but I could not select Calligrapher from the list of available input methods. Every time I did, I got the MS builtiin keyboard. The only way I was able to make it work was to go to the setings under input methods and select launch at startup and do a soft reset. Then all worked fine. Strange.

[Tye]

Not sure exactly what you are seeing but I could not select Calligrapher from the list of available input methods. Every time I did, I got the MS builtiin keyboard. The only way I was able to make it work was to go to the setings under input methods and select launch at startup and do a soft reset. Then all worked fine. Strange.

On WA2, to get to any of the system settings on the dropdown from the start button, I can't select settings. My 4705 just freezes on me. Calligrapher is the only thing I can think of that I've installed.

FYI, if you're using a 4705 too, then your problem is probably that the available resources are so low on the 4705. Therefore, if you don't get Calligrapher loaded into memory at start up, other programs will take those resources. If not, Calligrapher never loads and the PPC switches back to its default input method. Hope that made sense. (Try freeing up more memory. There's a great post on this in the Brighthand forums).

[bigray327]

Anyone else having trouble getting to the settings menu on Wisbar Advance 2 after installing Calligrapher 7.4?
I am on a 4705.
I'm running WA2 and Calligrapher 7.4 on a 4700 with no problems whatsoever.

Stuff I have in onboard memory:
Dashboard
WA2
Calligrapher 7.4
MultiIE

Everything else (29 applications) is stored in the iPAQ File Store.

Sounds like it might be just your particular software configuration.

[Tye]

Anyone else having trouble getting to the settings menu on Wisbar Advance 2 after installing Calligrapher 7.4?
I am on a 4705.
I'm running WA2 and Calligrapher 7.4 on a 4700 with no problems whatsoever.

Stuff I have in onboard memory:
Dashboard
WA2
Calligrapher 7.4
MultiIE

Everything else (29 applications) is stored in the iPAQ File Store.

Sounds like it might be just your particular software configuration.

Thanks Ray, at least I know they're not conflicting for everyone. That gives me a good starting point.

[Brad Adrian]

That's the Auto Corrector....
I've spent the better part of today playing with this new version, and i think it's great!

I've learned to use the autocorrector a lot. With desktop Word, I use the same function to allow me to use shortcuts. "App" automatically becomes "application," and so on. With earlier versions of Calligrapher you had to create a special macro, and launching the macro required you to (for example) write the letter "a" and then quickly draw a circle around it. Autocorrector does away with the need for that awkward circle for all kinds of text shortcuts.

The PenCommander is just as powerful as ever, though. I've used it to easily create routines for doing things like changing the font color in PWord or launching a favorite template. This newest version works even better and has fixed a couple of inconvenient bugs.

This new version also is more flexible and has more options for tweaking Calligrapher to do just what you want it to do. And, I may be mistaken, but the recognition seems to be even sharper with this version. I haven't had to tweak its recognition of any letters at all. My handwriting isn't always neat, and I'm still often surprised when Calligrapher correctly recognizes the little trailing-off squiggles that I tend to use in place of "-ion" and "-ing."

The upgrade for me was free because I had already paid for version 7.0. I've not always been happy with all of PhatWare's pricing stategies with Calligrapher, but if you're waffling about whether the move up to this latest version is worthwhile, believe me, it is!

[bigray327]

Thanks Ray, at least I know they're not conflicting for everyone. That gives me a good starting point.
Hey Tye, I take it back. :oops: I thought you meant the WA2 settings menu, but I now know you meant the iPAQ settings drop down from the cascading start menu. I can't select that either; it causes a freeze. So if that's your problem, it's not just you. Sorry if this caused any inconvenience.

[Jacob]

This new version also is more flexible and has more options for tweaking Calligrapher to do just what you want it to do. And, I may be mistaken, but the recognition seems to be even sharper with this version. I haven't had to tweak its recognition of any letters at all. My handwriting isn't always neat, and I'm still often surprised when Calligrapher correctly recognizes the little trailing-off squiggles that I tend to use in place of "-ion" and "-ing."


With every version of Calligrapher I start thinking that the recognition is better. I'm not sure if it's psychological since I'm always a bit excited to check out new features in software I use a lot or if it's real.

With the PenCommander macros and the auto-corrector they're making this an amazing all-round upgrade to the whole device. Plus, the new icons are fancy :D