Word Processor for Max Carta + BT Keyboard?

[Lode]

Hello,

after seeing this:

"Typing on an e-ink tablet Boox Max with BT keyboard (HD)"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHDZh18zwvE

I just got the Max Carta and this keyboard:

"REVIEW: Perixx PERIDUO-880 Bluetooth Keyboard (Touchpad)"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcDAaFvzM6E

That cover can be folded flat under the keyboard, and even with those 2 triangles folded out it fits well on one's lap I found out.

On my laptop I'm used to Jarte, which is like WordPad but with extra's like spell checker, word count etc. and it also easily converts documents made with it into PDF.

"Jarte Word Processor"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LfFsVOzYUE

Anyone here knows about something similar for my Max Carta with Android 4.0.4?

I don't need to save documents in a cloud, I want to save them on the e-reader and laptop. If saving in the cloud is a voluntary extra option, fine of course. But not a lot of whistles and bells. (Reason I like Jarte.)

The person who made that first video about typing on the Max Carta posted he was using iA Writer. But there are also other word processors. Has anyone here any experience with word processors to suggest which one I could best use on my new equipment, keeping in mind what I wrote above?

[mdp]

Kingsoft Office 5.12 (and also try latest WPS). But you may want to use a wake-lock manager.

Check the thread
Firmware glitch - typing text slow on some firmware+device combinations
and the thread
good writing app for the Max Carta?
and importantly
Need an advice on editor in BOOX MAX Carta.

[Lode]

Thank you much. That was quick!
I'll check those links out.

Yesterday I took the time to try the Max out with that BT keyboard. It worked fine it seems. The cursor movement was slow, but I could instantly move the pages forwards or backwards of a document I had downloaded on it from my laptop using the USB cable just to try it out.

That was without a word processor, the finishing touch that is still missing...

[KindleMeAndrey]

Have you tried JotterPad?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...terpad.x&hl=en

How has your experience been writing on the device? Do you think editing would be easy as well—meaning searching through large documents and inserting sentences/paragraphs, replacing words, etc?

I imagine a feature that could be useful on an eInk screen is page-by-page scroll, so the whole page doesn't have to refresh every time you go to the next line. I'm not aware of any writing program that can do that besides Emacs, which can be configured to scroll this way.

Have you used the stylus much? Google Handwriting Input is interesting in a sense that it can "type" your handwriting as a keyboard alternative. I actually write by hand pretty fast (and qualitatively better), so this is a particularly interesting option.

(I'm considering buying an eInk stylus device in the next couple of months, just FYI.)

[mdp]

Originally Posted by KindleMeAndrey

I imagine a feature that could be useful on an eInk screen is page-by-page scroll, so the whole page doesn't have to refresh every time you go to the next line. I'm not aware of any writing program that can do that besides Emacs, which can be configured to scroll this way.

?! All (presumably) text editors scroll by page, with "Page Down" key. On Android, [Fn]+[ArrowDown], if I remember well.

[mdp]

Originally Posted by KindleMeAndrey

How has your experience been writing on the device? Do you think editing would be easy as well—meaning searching through large documents and inserting sentences/paragraphs, replacing words, etc?

I have edited LARGE amounts of text. And on Onyx devices much smaller than the Max Carta. The issue with these later devices, not with the T68 I used the most, had been with lags in typing, see the first link above in my post: that issue should be fixed by forcing a wake-lock.
I hope I will be back to editing much more in a couple of months, and with the OBMC2P.

Input wise, you have to use a BT keyboard, you cannot be as productive with a keyboard on screen - and you waste real estate. Unless one used OCR with the stilo and without large extra windows on screen - I have not tried any such software. If GHI, which I do not know, uses an invisible or minimally invasive interface (not the standard virtual keyboard), then it could be tried as a backup method (with respect to a physical keyboard) on the OBMC2P, given that it should be decently powerful.
This text is BTW being written through Graffiti - but, as said, you do not want to use a virtual keyboard for serious Office Automation / Word Processing.

Now - if you wanted real desktop experience, you would need LibreOffice or whatever alternative. But that's what the "monitor" techniques are for.

[KindleMeAndrey]

?! All (presumably) text editors scroll by page, with "Page Down" key. On Android, [Fn]+[ArrowDown], if I remember well.

I meant as you type, so the screen doesn't scroll line-by-line, but more like writing with a pen on a notebook page. When page limit reached while typing, it flips to the next page and starts from the top once more. It seems like there would be a lot less need to refresh, so better battery life, less flickering, easier on the eye—that kind of thing.


As far as OCR on-the-fly handwriting recognition software, there's Google Handwriting Input and MyScript Stylus—both of which are essentially a replacement for on-screen keyboard and work amazingly well even with a finger on my iPad, so I imagine they would work even better and more efficient with an actual stylus. These can be used with any program.

Also, there is MyScript Nebo, which converts your handwriting to type on a larger canvas. Not as useful for large document editing because you can't import text (I asked their CS), but pretty cool for taking notes as you can edit and insert sentences in the middle of your handwritten paragraphs, move your handwriting down a line, etc. I haven't seen any other program out there merge the world of text editing and handwriting in quite that way.

[Lode]

Thank you for all the advice.

Being a greenhorn never having used Android nor yet having used a word processor on an e-ink device, maybe the best I can do is try out a few different ones like iA Writer as I've seen that demonstrated to work with the Max Carta in that video I posted a link to higher up.

Maybe also try JotterPad. The suites might not be necessary as they have many things I'll never use. And I would like the word processor to be as lean as possible. A few different fonts and font sizes, spell checker and word count might be enough for me. I never used other options in Jarte on my laptop. Except sometimes to print a text in color. But if needed I could always do that afterwards on my laptop.

It's but the writing and editing I would like to do on the Max Carta with the keyboard, which is most of the work.

It's getting late in Amsterdam, time for a nap. See ye tomorrow, providence permitting. ; )

[mdp]

I have just checked the page of iA writer.
No justfied text, no paragraph margins? In 2017? This would have appeared as severe in 1997.
(Also, a sinister communication style.)

Editing markdown and then previewing is a more complex operation then directly inserting richness in the text, a feature that we have been using for decades (editing the source remains important for specialists, but not with markdown). And desktop devices were not more powerful back than nowadays mobile devices.

All Word Processors have immersive mode*. Kingsoft has a menu bar that hides or shows the toolbar by subsection. In "web layout" mode, the "virtual sheets" disappear. In editing mode, all you see apart from the text are that simple bar and the text. And in reading mode, you go fullscreen: the text area goes from corner to corner.

Kingsoft 5.12 is found at
http://m.apkhere.com/app/cn.wps.moffice_eng
, almost last link, after the developers broke the link at their site,
the latest version of the reforned product (WPS) again on that page or on Google Play.

*I realize while writing that somebody can now try to sell software as "immersive" after a most mainstream producer (reseller, some say, but I don't know) broke traditional interfaces ten years ago cluttering the screen with huge, messy controls. Their impact is widespread if you count diffusion, but limited as most did not follow their dubious idea.

[Lode]

Thank you both again for the help.

It looks like the suits all offer no other option but Word to write in. While I'm looking for a lot less whistles & bells... otherwise I first have to spend a lot of time learning how to use Word.

I trust I will know which writing app to use on my Max Carta when I have to, meaning when it's time to seriously write text for a book.

[Lode]

I just experimented a bit with this one:

Writer Plus (Write On the Go)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d....easy4u.writer

I could make text appear on the Max Carta using my BT keyboard with that app, the text was saved the on the e-reader.

Same with iA Writer.

But I did not see the option to save anything on an SD card.

[Lode]

This might be the most stupid question ever asked on this forum, but here it is anyway:

When using the browser of my M92 and the Max Carta the digital keyboard shows up to type text in the Google search bar. I even used it years ago when I got the M92 to post on this forum, just to see if it could be done. It was very slow, but it worked.

But how to use that to write a text on the Max Carta? Is there no word processing software at all on this device? All I see is video's of drawing and handwriting. Not one of actually typing text on it. (Besides the few clips of someone typing text on it using an external keyboard and some writing apps. I tried a few of those, and using my BT keyboard could type text on the screen, and it was saved on the device, but saw no option to use them for writing a book. No option to save the text on an SD card either.)

I'm asking, because as it is possible to type text on the Max using that digital keyboard, and also using an external keyboard, if there is software on it to type a document, that might also work using an external keyboard. But is there any software on the Max Carta to type a document with?

[mdp]

Originally Posted by Lode

saw no option to use them for writing a book. No option to save the text on an SD card either.

You want a lightweight solution, you are «looking for a lot less whistles & bells», but then you hardly get to pick those features you wanted. The products I indicated save everywhere and you can write books and more with them.

[Lode]

Last night I emailed Onyx, and this morning there was a reply that I can uses apps to type documents on the Max. I answered that I still thought it would be a good idea to bring out a good working e-ink laptop, even though they abandoned the Boox Laptop. And that supposedly Sony is working on one. ; )

But then the memory came up of what you had posted here about that suite or different ones, or different versions of the same. And as the apps I tried turned out to be pretty useless on the Max, I returned here...

I guess I'll follow your advice. (So what if I have to spend some time learning to use Word. And I realize now it is better to have too much -in the sense of also having thing you don't use, next to what serves you well- than too little.)
But it has been a bit confusing to me as to exactly what to download from what you mentioned. I see a 5.1.2 version, but no 5.12. So I guess only a dot was not typed. Right?

One more thing: to get rid of the texts I could do nothing with, as well as the apps, I had my Max remove everything in one go. I did not find the option to remove things individually. Luckily I had nothing on it I wanted to keep that I don't have on my laptop, and all I had to do was set up Wi-Fi again. But how does one remove things individually on the Max? On my M96 I know.

[mdp]

Originally Posted by Lode

it would be a good idea to bring out a good working e-ink laptop,

But if you use a BT keyboard with your tablet, the only advantage of having instead a laptop is that you can tilt the screen to your preference...

Originally Posted by Lode

So what if I have to spend some time learning to use

Basic use is very straightforward, you start right away. Knowing all the tricks, that will be developed in time, but it is not necessary at the beginning.

Originally Posted by Lode

But it has been a bit confusing to me as to exactly what to download from what you mentioned. I see a 5.1.2 version, but no 5.12.

And you are right, there was a mistake. On that site, the maximum Kingsoft (before it became "WPS" - which changed the interface and other things) you can find is 5.9.1, not 5.12 (5.1.2 is an old version with a name that may trick). Formerly, you could download Kingsoft Office 5.12 from their website, then they broke the link.
http://www.apkhere.com/down/cn.wps.m...eng_5.9.1_free

Note that also WPS would work very well, and you do not have the "habit" reason I have to use the old Kingsoft (I know that WPS is filled with advertisements though). But the zoom function is in the toolbar of Kingsoft, and not in the interface options of WPS. You could pinch to zoom in WPS, but you have no multitouch on the MaxCarta.

Note again: as you will have found from the threads indicated, the software will work decently, but to make it work really well you will probably have to add an app to force wake lock... To make it clear: while you are typing, the tablet may decide to go to sleep. So, what you type may be rendered on the screen in bursts, it may not be rendered until you click hardware buttons, etc. With an app that instructs the device to always stay awake, when you type you always get immediate feedback. There must be many around, I also wanted to publish one I wrote here, I'll see if I can do it this evening.