Fitaly 5 For The Pocket PC

[Ed Hansberry]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.fitaly.com/product/fitalyppc.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.fitaly.com/product/fitalyppc.htm</a><br /><br /></div><p>Textware Solutions has recently released Fitaly 5 for the Pocket PC. This version works on Windows Mobile 2003, 5 and 6 devices. I haven't seen a lot of new features in it, but they have given it a number of new look and feel options.&nbsp;I have installed the "blue" version in the screenshot below.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.ehansberry.com/ppct/2008/20080803-fitaly5.gif" border="1" alt="Blue Fitaly" /><br /><br />This is a free upgrade for current license holders of Fitaly 4. Be sure to read the instructions if upgrading or uninstalling your previous version of Fitaly. There are some configuration changes and a soft reset involved before this one can be installed over a previous version.</p>

[Reid Kistler]

Fitaly has been one of the 'essential apps' on my pda since first 'mastering' it (on a Handspring Visor Platinum....), and is still the best input method have tried, short of a full-sized keyboard.

And even if you used one of the folding keyboards you would often face the problem of finding sufficient space (on a flat, solid surface!) to open it up & use it.

Routinely use my PDA - and hence Fitaly - 2 or 3 times per week to take extensive notes (sermons + 1 or more meetings) and am able to keep up better than with paper & pen - both in terms of Speed as well as Physical Comfort.
Not to mention the fact that the notes are INSTANTLY saved on the PDA, and then moved to desktop machine at the next sync.... (Using PhatNotes on each).

Have used the combination (PDA \ PhatNotes \ Fitaly) a number of times to take notes during multi-day seminars, and have always been thankful for the time taken in practice: instead of returning with a bunch of messy sheets of paper - that often never get looked at again - instead have a group of useful entries that can readily be referred to and / or quoted as desired.

Certainly, usually need to run SPELLCHECK to clean the notes up - but that is a small price to pay, and am often able to do that during the course of the meeting - as well as build in Bold, Italics, and even Bullet Points (although these are functions of PhatNotes).

Fitaly's 'slide expansions' are extremely useful (create text that can be accessed simply by 'sliding' a character in a given direction), and the new Glossary Expander SHOULD prove useful, although it does impose a bit of a new learning curve. But with the payoff being faster input, a bit of time spent in learning mode is well worth the 'cost.'

The ability to load SPECIFIC key slides and / or glossaries could be helpful to someone to takes notes under 2 or more distinct conditions (different languages / jargons...)

In fact, two of my heisitations in moving to a phone/pda combo (such as AT&T Tilt) are 1) comes with keyboard that might never get used (!); and 2) SMALLER screen would leave less margin for error when using ANY SIP - and perhaps especially Fitaly which uses (Optionally...) a number of "half cell" keys.

OK: probably a long enough note, as do NOT actually work for Textware...:rolleyes: - but it IS a great program and well worth taking a look at....

[alese]

Fitaly is my SIP of choice since the days of my old HP iPaq 3800 in 2003. Being able to customize the slides to get localization characters is one of it's biggest strengths - no other SIP or even thumb keyboard is as fast and convenient for me.

Not only I use it on my WM Phone, but I did use the Tablet version on my (now broken) Raon Everun UMPC - again the only usable SIP that I could find and I'm using it now on my new HTC Advantage - on it's large screen it can even be used with fingers...

Btw Ed. I have tried the Blue version, but on 2.8" screen of my Phone it looked a bit blurry so I went back to standard version.

[Brad Adrian]

Do they still hold that annual speed contest? I always got a kick out of watching those video clips of people FITALY-ing at 85 words a minute.

[Rob Alexander]

Yup, I've used Fitaly for years too. It's one of the first things I put on a new PDA or smartphone. I've been playing around a bit with Touchpal, but I always keep coming back to Fitaly. If you're not happy with your current keyboard, it's definitely worth trying out.