Tired of the built in data entry methods for your XDA II / i-mate? Mike from MTekk gives us the low-down on some alternatives ...

Ok, let me start with an admission... I can't type. I've been writing software for almost twenty years now and I'm only up to six fingers (or two thumbs and four fingers to be precise). At college we were offered free touch typing lessons by the secretarial department, but these were on standard old fashioned typewriters which lacked all the function keys of the VDU's we used the rest of the time. Consequently, as soon as we for back on the terminals, we all reverted to looking at the keys.

Naturally, therefore, I was full of anticipation when faced with the prospect of using the Transcriber software to perform the data entry in Pocket PC (PPC). Needless to say, as many of you will agree, Transcriber leaves much to be desired - either translating the entered text incorrectly or simply locking up and refusing to respond at all.
Not being a great lover of the two single character recogniser alternatives available and not wishing to play pick and poke on the on-screen keyboard, I decided to look at the various other options available on the net. There are quite a few out there - at the moment I have a total of six extra input methods installed...

Fitaly by Textware Solutions
Full Screen Keyboard by Spb Software
Quikwriting by New York University Media Research Lab
Resco Keyboard by Resco
Tengo by Xrgomics
WordLogic by Wordlogic Corporation

Each of the following sections is written using the respective package.