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Originally Posted by cbarnett
You don't like the built-in block recogniser? It's so close to Palm's graffiti that I thought you'd use it by default.
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I find I get too many errors with it. Anyone have a manual on the best strokes to get reliable entry. (I had to learn all the tricks for graffiti also, like backward "v"s, etc.) I don't mind using a few "code-like" letters, but I don't want to have to correct a lot of errors.
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Originally Posted by cbarnett
Please keep the posts coming. I'm enjoying your comments and point of view on the change. I think mine was far less painful, from the looks of it. I'd been palm only for ages, but the first time I played with a PPC, it just clicked, and I thought, "this is what I want!". I've never looked back, and can't see myself ever getting another palm os machine.
Craig.
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I guess I've expressed a lot of complaints over the last week, but I also have to say that I've getting over the hump and have to consider the transition pretty successful since I have solved most of my problems in the first week, despite not even looking at it for a few days while away on vacation. Plus loads and loads of info are converted, some painstakingly by cut and past into a different format or application. Getting that data rearranged and moved was the most frustrating part. And rearranging it one way only to find out that the software couldn't do it like it expected and having to rearrange it all over again was frustrating.
I can't imagine that feeling of "this is what I want" yet -- that's how I felt about the Clie when I got that! I wonder if there's just something deep down in us, maybe genetic, that determines if we're PPC or PalmOS lovers!?
One key to me feeling better about things is that I'm now relatively okay with PocketInformant's address book and task list. (Althought I still wonder how easily I'll be able to work with those entries. And I don't know what that task group heading "none" is all about, but it may even turn out to be useful.)
And the most annoying thing about Outlook and PPC had to be the way it handled notes, plus the lack of a Shadow-like program. The very most important functionality in a PDA for me is Contacts, Tasks, Notes and an outliner. It has to be simple, easy to use without thinking, and I need to know exactly what's happening to all my data and be able to depend on it without worry.
Outlook Notes was too limited and I always felt like it was putting my data at risk. For example, if you move the notes files away from the PPC my document folder on RAM, it loses track of them. If you drag from one category to another on Outlook, you get multiple categories. And it's not hard to lose the categories altogether. I think that happened to me when I moved the files. Plus you can't nest folders in mydocuments on the PPC ram. I guess I can't complain too much about that since Palm doesn't have any folders, but on PPC it matters because the grouping for notes on the PPC is based on folders. Not being able to go a folder deeper means that the directories in my documents that have nothing to do with notes are shown on the notes screen in PocketInformant, and the categories which are the basis of organizing notes in Outlook seem to be nearly useless on the PPC. Not a great solution for one of my most important uses of a PDA.
But I'm happy now, because I'm using Tombo for my notes. It's sort of a hierarchical notes application that's very straightforward and simple and fast and easy to use. And the data is stored in text docs in folders in a way that's really easy to work with and matches exactly what you see on the screen. I've had no problems yet with it, and it looks great. It even has a great desktop version of the app, and it's free. That's a perfect Memopad replacement for me, and I'm absolutely thrilled to get rid of Outlook notes!!!! A wonderful program that may just save the PPC experience for me.
For Shadow replacement, I'm using Noterrific. It's not fancy, but that's okay. A really great program that also simple and straightforward. The data is stored in simple XML, so for example, when I wanted to combine a few outlines I could just edit the files by hand in a couple of minutes. No linking to tasks like Shadow, and the split screen option for the screen split between outline and text notes is limited to a few positions it cycles through when you tap on the dividing line. No button to toggle between outline and text note views. But that's no big deal. Just like Tombo, it looks great on the screen also. Very Palm-like! But simple minded. You do also have to pick your chosen icon for each new item (it doesn't pick one automatically based on what level of the hierarchy you're in), but that's also no big deal to me (I think!) Oh yeah, this one is also free, and it includes a great desktop app also.
So for all you ex-Palm users reading this... if you miss the simplicity, nice screen displays and ease of use from ShadowPlan and MemoPad in the Palm world, these apps are great places to start. I'm not to sure why they haven't been heralded as the saving grace of PPC. Maybe they're only so delightful to those that love the way a Palm works and want to keep some of that on PPC?
Everything else is really either fluff, or something I already feel is well-handled like e-sword or the ebook readers. The screen is growing on me and to be honest I think the 240x320 screens were a stroke of genius. They are adequate somehow even though they have less than hires 320x320 on the Palm. VGA would, of course, be really nice though.
Plus I'm starting to like the way things actually seem more organized and out in the open for PPC. Less hidden files. Only the registry and shortcuts, basically. The rest is in nice neat folders where they should be, and MS has even kept things pretty simple for the most part. I'm having great success installing/unstalling/reinstalling/etc. with no problem, and for the most part I think I'm able to find and clear out things that are no longer needed. On Palm you have a slowly-increasing junkpile of files that you really don't know what they are or how they got there.
PPC is growing on me daily as I learn more how to use it more effectively and simply to do the things I need to do. So far so good. I still miss my Palm, but things like being able to use Pocket Streets and Trips 2002 on my PPC as well as on the desktop, which I already use. In fact, it surprised me when I first sent a map over to my PPC and it was so much more useful and complete and functional than I ever hoped for! Things like that make you not even consider turning back. Unless the basic PIM and input stuff drives me crazy, of course!
Thanks guys for expressing interest in my comments. I know they're not always as clear or organized as they ought to be, but when I'm done I still hope to organize them into a summary form that's easier to read.
And to keep you up to date on my latest find, I just found PocketDict with an older Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. Looks great. Not a perfect interface, but it's free! Ain't life grand!!!!