Windows Mobile: Tools to improve your data input speed
One of the major problems with Windows Mobile devices, or any mobile device for that matter, is the time it takes to input data. The built in features in Windows Mobile Devices currently are:
- Block Recogniser
- Keyboard
- Letter Recogniser
- Transcriber.
- Built in keyboard on some models
While each of these has their place, none of them offer speedy data entry. Even with predictive text, a simple SMS can take a while to type up and prepare for distribution.
This article will explore a couple of applications I have come across to assist you in your data entry. Whilst nothing will beat a Bluetooth keyboard, these are the next best thing. Of course, as with everything at Inspect My Gadget, they are free.
PDAMedia Keyboard Version 1.0 Light
The first utility we will look at is PDAMedia Keyboard. A newer version is available from PDAMedia at a cost but the light version is free. The free version is available from FreewarepocketPC. I have tested it on my Ipaq rw6828 running WM5 and it worked without a hitch.
It is fairly simple to understand how this works. It is a full screen keyboard that looks good. The buttons are large enough to use your fingers on. As you type, it shows your text up the top. You have all the extra buttons such as fn and tab. So it is fairly good for inputing text on the run, much better than what Windows Mobile Devices have offered in the past.
Remote Keyboard
Whilst you need to be by your Desktop or Laptop computer to make use of this (defying the point of having it anyway), this nifty program lets you use your keyboard and mouse, and shows the results on your pocket PC. There are both PC and pocket PC components. You can connect via Activesync or Wireless networking. The mouse is very slow over Wifi but the text input is fine.
There is lots of trial information upon download but the license agreement confirms that this is free software. Available from FreewarepocketPC > Link to Handango.
I hope that these tools improve your data input speed and are of some use to you. I am surely going to make use of PDA Medias keyboard as my main input source now.
Find more articles which will help you get the most out of your gadgets at www.inspectmygadget.com.
