Transcriber is a great handwriting recognition program and is a fast way to enter text into the Pocket PC. However, I always go back to using the QWERTY keyboard input method because I get tired of going back to correct mistakes and put in symbols and punctuation that I can't get to work in Transcriber. The standard QWERTY keyboard was designed for typing with your fingers and is great for those with a Stowaway, but is too slow for stylus typing by sight and requires a lot of back and forth movement. I can get about 23 wpm with the QWERTY keyboard and my stylus, but if I add in punctuation or symbols then that speed decreases significantly. I was very excited to hear about the new Fitaly 3.0 keyboard for Pocket PC and to see how this would work for me. Palm users have had the FITALY keyboard for a few years now and I have heard many swear by this input method.

You can download Fitaly for the Pocket PC for 30 days for free to see how it works for you. Since this is a totally new input method it will take you a few days to get comfortable with it and there is an initial learning curve. On my first day I was only able to get 10 wpm, but after only 5 days of use I was able to bump that up to 25 wpm. The Fitaly creators had a contest and many people were able to achieve over 50 wpm, one as much as 82 wpm. I get faster every day as I get used to the location of the characters. The nice thing is that your stylus can stay centered on the keyboard and back to back movement is minimized. The two small space bars are very handy.

The first great original feature that I find very useful is the half cells (shown on right side of the first picture above) where you can input numbers and the most common punctuation without even switching keyboard views. You can use the half cells or you can choose an option to make the tap register either numbers or punctuation and get punctuation or numbers by sliding. I have been using the half cells as they are and find that my taps register what I need every time.

The other original feature is the sliding technique. You tap and hold your stylus on the keyboard and slide in 8 directions for different functions. I use this to make capital letters without having to tap the shift or CAPS key. You can also customize the sliding functions to make accents over your characters. Slides can also be used for deleting characters, backspacing or Alt mode.

Fitaly 3.0 also gives users the option to use shortcuts. The shortcut selection key is the 3rd character down on the right panel shown above. You choose what shortcut file for the program to reference by going to the Fitaly viewer, reached by tapping the + on the right panel. (By the way, the x on the right panel is used to close the Fitaly keyboard and is not a multiplication character.) The Fitaly viewer allows you to create or edit shortcut files. The one picture below is the default internet shortcut file. To see the shortcut, you choose to show one or two advisory lines and at the bottom of the screen the shortcut options will show up for you to select as you type the letters.

The Fitaly program is very customizable and there are many options to help speed up your input. You can choose to show numbers in a telephone or calculator layout, you can customize your slide, you can create your own shortcut files, etc. Their built-in help program is very well laid out and useful.

The people at Textware Solutions obviously did their research to find the most used keys and listened to Palm users to create a wonderful product. They have an online discussion forum and directly respond to questions and comments in a timely manner. Their site also gives a very detailed rundown of the software's features. It will require a little time to learn the keyboard, but I haven't gone back yet and think it is worth the effort up front. I highly recommend this product for text input on your Pocket PC and look forward to the day when I reach 60 wpm!

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This article is courtesy of Pocket PC Life. For further information, contact James Borden