Registered: Aug 2000
Location: San Marcos, CA
Posts: 29

My friend has a Cassiopedia and he shows me how he can choose to open a text document, and write [!] anywhere on the screen, and it changes what he writes into text.

I was even writing bad cursive and it was doing fine converting my cursive into plain ascii text.

Can the Visor do anything like this, or do I need to stay inside the bottom 'Letters' area? (I know there are also little addon keybaords that you can replace the bottom Letter/ Number part of the screen.. but I would like something where I can write anywher eon the screen..)

anyone?

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 1571

ScreenWrite

There is a hack called ScreenWrite that will allow you to write anywhere on the Visor. You can do a search for it at PalmGear.com. I have used it before and it is very good.

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: Louisville KY, USA
Posts: 43

Jot

If you don't want to use a hack, there is a program called JOT that works wonderfully well. Not only does it allow you to write on the screen, it has "ink" which allows you to see what you write.

They also have an alternative to grafiti which some think is a bit more intuitive to use. You don't have to use the alternative to graffiti if you don't want to re-learn a handwriting recognition system. But it's nice that it's there if you do want it.

I got it shortly after I purchased my Visor, so I tend to forget that others don't have it. Writing on the screen, I think, tends to increase my accuracy because I can write bigger. And having the "ink" there as I'm writing shows me what I'm actually doing so that if I do make a mistake I have a good idea what it was and I'm less likely to repeat it.

They do have a trial version so you can try it before you buy it.

http://www.cic.com

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Dave

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: San Marcos, CA
Posts: 29

Yardie, Dave, thanks a lot.

That was the question I was really looking to get answered.

Great!

One more question, tho: can you write in cursive and will it recognize it, or do you need to print out characters?

mm.

What are some other useful things that you would like to use your visor for?

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: I'm not sure, but I see lots of lights everywhere.
Posts: 1287

Supernancy,

To answer your question directly: No. At least, not in the way in which you are describing. I think you looked at a feature called "Transcriber" on your friends Pocket PC. This is quite different than what a simple hack can do on your Palm or Visor. Transcriber allows you to write freestyle anywhere on the screen, and then interprets your own handwriting, not simply pre-designated characters such as Graffiti. A hack for the PalmOS will only allow you to write in Graffiti anywhere on the screen, but will not recognize natural written characters.

So yes, you can use a hack to write anywhere on the screen on your Visor Prism or Platinum, but not at all in the same manner you were seeing on the Casio.

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Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 1571

Jot

Jot can recognize natural writing (A,B,C etc), just not cursive writing. And Jot is not a hack per se, it simply bypass that Graffiti.

Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 18

quote:

---

Originally posted by supernancy
My friend has a Cassiopedia and he shows me how he can choose to open a text document, and write [!] anywhere on the screen, and it changes what he writes into text.

I was even writing bad cursive and it was doing fine converting my cursive into plain ascii text.

Can the Visor do anything like this, or do I need to stay inside the bottom 'Letters' area? (I know there are also little addon keybaords that you can replace the bottom Letter/ Number part of the screen.. but I would like something where I can write anywher eon the screen..)

anyone?

---

Registered: Jun 2000
Location:
Posts: 594

The "Calligrapher" app used to be a big deal around Win'CE HPC ver. 2.0 (I had one) because it could do this. (I found it okay, but "nothing to write home about," if you'll excuse a hack pun.)
And I would have bet my bottom turd that they had a ver. for the Palm OS, too. (More mkt. share, more money, no?)
They may have been bought out in the last year or so, but I can't remember who might've...

Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Aberdeen, SD
Posts: 2531

Re: Jot

quote:

---

Originally posted by yardie
Jot can recognize natural writing (A,B,C etc), just not cursive writing. And Jot is not a hack per se, it simply bypass that Graffiti.

---

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-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Registered: Jun 2000
Location:
Posts: 594

I think the "Calligrapher" app used to be a big deal because it could do THIS TOO, but I'm not 100% sure. (By the by, I think the orignal co. was "Paragraph" or "Paraglyph" or "Paraglide" or something, if you're gonna try to track down a Palm OS ver.)
I'm the kinda guy that's gonna go with whatever's "off-the-shelf" -- as long as it's pretty good. So "Calligrapher" by itself must've been, for me not to even look into "making it adapt to my HW."
Truth be told, this is how I stayed w/Graffiti. The 1st HWR system I tried was JOT for 'CE 2.0, which I really liked. And I promised myself I'D SPEND THE $40 to put it on any Palm OS device I owned. (Such was the "pre-fear-hype" I'd been given about diff. learning Graffiti.
But I learned Graffiti IN LESS THAN A MINUTE, so I said, screw the alternatives. It's not "perfect & beautiful" BUT I AM ALWAYS BLOWN AWAY WHEN READING ANY MANUAL ABOUT IT THAT EMPHASIZES THAT IF YOU DO THE CHARACTERS THE WAY THEY SHOW YOU, IT'S 100% ACCURACY.
And 100% accuracy is good enough for me.

BY THE WAY, IMHO, YOUR LIFE IS BEING WASTED if you haven't tried TEXTPLUS and TAKENOTE (or was that NOTETAKER, I can never remember -- it's the one that DOESN'T come w/Landware's kybd, I'm pretty sure).

TEXTPLUS lets you enable "Graffiti Echo" (so you can see your strokes on EVERY screen) and enables the TEXTPLUS text fill-in feature in ALL APPS.
I think the other one doesn't.

But BOTH are REALLY GOOD at predicting text with just 1 OR 2 STROKES!!! I'm now so "spoiled," if I have to write more than:

Ch t o, m fr, I wr pl qu!

... to get ...

Check this out, my friends, I'm writing plenty quick!

I feel "cheated"! (The above saved me 30 characters!!!)

As happy as I am w/Graffiti, I HATE using it w/out either of the 2 apps above.

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: San Marcos, CA
Posts: 29

Well. That really helped me out!

I was thinking it would be great to be able to write somewhat sloppy and thus faster- but it would probably be better to be able to just get one of these programs that increases the use of Graffiti. BkBK made a good point- 100% accuracy when working with graffiti (done right) is great, because correcting mistakes really cuts down on the time it takes to make a note.

Seems to me that cursive or mildly sloppy handwriting might be a little easier to punch out letters that using graffiti. (Still, I am one of the people who print out capital letters, so graffiti seems to be the language for me...)

BKBK, I noticed that you used a program that guesses what words you are trying to write. For the example, it supposedly turned a 't' into 'this' . How does it know you want 'this' instead of 'the'?

I just love hearing about these cool little programs that people use..

But thanks for your comments..

Registered: Jun 2000
Location:
Posts: 594

De nada.
And yikes, I did it again, remissly leaving out something I was assuuuuuuuuuming in my head (and we all know what happens when we assume, right?) ... but not spelling it out in the text! Sorry.

It actually lets you set from like 1-5 "guesses," which line up above the Graffiti area for you. (And ALSO lets you pick from YET ANOTHER SET of from 1-5 "phrases" that fit, if appropriate, on top of that. Like if the word was "lightning," it might offer "faster than lightning" and "greased lightning" and "lightning quick" etc.)

Just tap the word or phrase you want, and it inputs it for you. Again, the "Artificial Intelligence" factor is very, very high.

Also, it's BLAZINGLY fast, much faster than Jot was in 'CE ver. 2.0 (which also has this ability).

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: San Marcos, CA
Posts: 29

wow. Well, thanks everyone.

My question concerning cursive and alternate ways to write on the visor/palm has been answered:

Cursive software isn't there yet, but might be in the future.

Also, there are great small software packages/ hacks like Jot that allow you to write graffiti on the screen (anywhere).

cool.

thanks.

I just posted a comment in the 'General Prism' gallery concerning backlighting/ writin in dark areas with Visor, Palm and the Prism, so comment there if you like..

thanks.

supernancy

Registered: Jun 2000
Location:
Posts: 594

Wait! TWO more important things I forgot to note earlier. (Gee, hope everyone who's already read this thread comes back to see this...)
1. Apps like TEXTPLUS and TAKENOTE (or NOTETAKER, whichever) are really good for PEOPLE WHO HAVE TROUBLE SPELLING.
For "miscellaneous," for ex., you might only have to write "mis" (if it's "misc," though, some people might not get it, as it's kind of a counter-intuitive spelling "demon").
Or, say, "application" -- just "ap" or "app" (hey, you have to assume they'll be SOME false-starts, if you're a mis-speller, no?).
Sadly, though, I think the AI only works if you start w/the RIGHT LETTER (i.e., "severe" won't be had if you start w/a "c" by mistake).

2. If you're new to English (like all KIDS, right? -- this should be a DEFAULT app on the Palm M100, no?), these apps not only save time & effort, but can help you along! (You might still have to add a thesaurus to really help w/meaning though, right?)

3. (Just thought of this.) In fact, if any of the developers are listening -- it'd be great to have an app like this in ALL LANGUAGES!!!

THIS IS A PERFECT APP, IMHO, FOR THOSE WHO "INSIST" THAT THE PALM OS IS "NOT A COMPUTER" -- AI!!!

IN FACT, THESE "SIMPLE" PALM APPS CAN HELP YOU COMPOSE, SAY, A MORE COGENT E-MAIL ... THAN ALMOST ANY E-MAIL OR EVEN W.P. APP!!!

Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Aberdeen, SD
Posts: 2531

It's notetaker. TakeNote! comes with GoType! keyboard (what's with all the exclamaiton points, anyway?), while notetaker is from the same people who had spellcheck hack (they just made it a stand alone app because of stability problems with a universal hack).

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-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.