Calligrapher is an extraordinary replacement for the Transcriber handwriting recognition tool that is built into the Windows Mobile/Pocket PC operating system.
One area in which Calligrapher far surpasses Transcriber is in its macro capability:
- It can generate text phrases, such as the by the way phrase shown below. For example, a friend of mine has almost 400 Calligrapher macros. He can take notes faster on his Pocket PC than anyone I have ever seen! He uses it during interviews and meetings and takes notes in great detail, and does so quickly.
- It can even be used to running applications, as shown in my Check Mail macro in the second screenshot, in which multiple actions are performed within one macro.
Here is a snapshot of how one sets up Calligrapher to write the phrase by the way:
And, as noted above, you can launch applications with Calligrapher, too, and you can even simulate stylus taps, as shown in the following example:
To check for mail, I simply write out cm and draw a circle around and my Dell x51v connects to the wireless server and checks for mail (actually, as written, it only connects to the internet and starts the mail application — I still have to tap send and receive to check the mail).
As another illustration of a macro that has multiple actions, here is one I use for Googling when I pick up my 4700 and want to look something up:
//Goo
<#Start>\Windows\IPAQwireless.exe
<#Delay>1000
<#BtnPress>97,169
<#Delay>1000
<#BtnRlse>97,169
<#Delay>4000
<#Start>”iexplore.exe”
<#Delay>1000
<#BtnClick>263,74
<#Delay>1000
<#Type> http://www.google.com/pda/
To invoke this one, I just write goo and circle it and the macro connects to my wireless network, runs Pocket Internet Explorer, and opens the Google search page.
Note that the Check Mail macro uses the built-in mail application, but could easily be rewritten to run FlexMail or any other mail client you have. Similarly, the Google macro could be easily be rewritten to run the Opera browser.
So, as you can see, Calligrapher can be a huge time-saver!
What’s your favorite time-saving tool on your PDA?
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Kristy 05.29.07 at 8:51 pm
Thanks for the tip! I recently purchased a Palm Zire a few months ago and am still on the lookout for softwares and tools to help me improve my productivity.. I had no idea that there were alternative handwriting recognition softwares available
I will definitely look into the options for Palm. ~Kristy
Bruce 05.29.07 at 9:03 pm
Hi Kristy!
There is software available for the Palm that somewhat simulates handwriting, and it is actually good. I do not recall its name, though as I haven’t used it a long time.
One thing that could save you a lot of time with the Palm is some software called TextPlus. It has excellent word (amd phrase) recognition software. I use it on my Palm TX. Works with the regular graffiti system. There is also some software called TealScript that is good, although it is less intuitive, but it does have some macro capability. Of course, the Palm also has a shortcut capability which you can access and customize through the preferences settings, and it is also a huge time saver.
Take care.
Bruce
Kristy 05.29.07 at 10:28 pm
Hi Bruce,
Thanks for the reply. I didn’t even realise that Palm has a shortcut capability.. I sure hope it is included in the Zire ‘cos it would save a lot of time.
Appreciate your help.. as well as your excellent articles on how to use a PDA to manage time - I’m terrible at prioritizing but your write up is going to help a lot!
Thanks for putting it up
~Kristy
michael 08.31.07 at 5:46 am
Amazing tips, thanks for putting this out there. Would there chance that your friend would be willing to share his customized dictionary for with us all? I would be really interested in this, because even with Calligrapher I’m still nowhere near my keyboard speed.
~michael
Bruce 08.31.07 at 8:09 am
Hi Michael,
I think his macros would do most of us little good, as a lot of them are tied to technical terms from his professional field. I know how he came up with them, though, and that is easy enough to do: just look over documents you have written and look for words and phrases you use often enough to make a macro of them. For example, in looking at letters you have written, you might see that you use the words vice president a lot and that you use the word professional a lot, so you would set up macros like vp and pro to expand into these words. The real savings come with phrases, like “in addition to” for which you might use an abbreviation of iat that would expand into the phrase. Basically that is all that he has done. He has been more thorough at it than most of us would be, but, again, I think his list is too specialized to be of much interest.
Thanks for the comment. Much appreciated.
BTW, now that I have a BlackBerry, I have to go through this process in setting up AutoText.