How to get more into your iPAQ or other handheld PC
Originally published in GP magazine .
Written for GP magazine around 2002. This is the version I submitted - the published article may have been edited.
I own a Compaq iPAQ 3830 and carry it with me most of the time. I have it synchronised with my home and work computers and use it as an address book and diary. I also occasionally use it to take notes, and this is where the problem comes. The iPAQ comes with numerous ways to input data. You can either just scribble on the screen like a piece of paper or you can try to enter text via one of the inbuilt on-screen keyboards or by one of the three methods of handwriting recognition. My iPAQ also has voice recognition, but while it seems to understand everything my wife says it refuses to understand me! The problem is none of these methods are great if you want to take a lot of notes quickly, and useless if you want to write something like this. Although some PDAs come with in-built keyboards, most don’t.
I therefore looked into alternative solutions and was surprised by how many there are. All of the solutions I have found are available for other Pocket PC models and for Palms. Some of the more exotic products I mention I found on American websites.
Folding/flexible/full-size keyboards
A variety of keyboards are available. The commonest fold, using a clever design, to much the same size as the iPAQ and then expand to basically a full-size keyboard with a good feel, and also have special keys to quickly access your programs. One keyboard even folds into a case for the PDA. Once you have installed the driver the iPAQ then plugs into a connector on the keyboard. Compaq make one which costs £85, but the version I have is made by Targus (website www.targus.co.uk) and is cheaper at £75 and just as good. It is very robust and hard wearing and quite fun to get out in front of people at a meeting. It is great for typing long documents like this but isn’t that useful for short notes, as you need a flat hard surface to use it on. There are other similar things available; some are made of soft rubber and roll up, and you can also get non-folding keyboards that don’t need a flat surface. One company makes a keyboard that connects by infrared to the iPAQ so doesn’t need to be connected.
Thumb keyboards
These are smaller keyboards that usually fit onto the bottom of the iPAQ and are designed to be used by one thumb on either hand. Mobile phone users will be used to this method, although the PDA keyboards are usually laid out in a QWERTY layout. Again Compaq makes one for around £40, but I have a Snap’N’Type available from Spectravideo (website www.spectravideo.com) which retails for £30 and is excellent. It is easy to install and works well. It also has special keys that provide shortcuts to your programs to minimise the amount of clicking you have to do. It also comes with a whole collection of smiley patterns accessible via a special key for adding to your email.
Writing systems
Seiko uses an interestingly different concept in a product that is available for most models. Basically they have a box called the Ink Link which plugs into the PDA and clips at the top of your pad of paper and then detects the special pen. It costs around £95 (website www.seikosmart.com). Anything that you write on the paper is copied and scaled onto the PDA. It is meant to get around the difficulties of poor tactile contact when writing on a screen and also, because of the scaling, cope with people like me with big handwriting. I have seen a brief demonstration but never used it myself. It would seem to lend itself to note-taking that doesn’t need to be in editable electronic form or isn’t just text, e.g. where you need to note down a lot of graphical or mind-map type data. The box isn’t that small so probably isn’t that good for quick notes. There is a more expensive version that comes in a leather folder with space for your PDA on one side and the pad of paper on the other and a hidden keyboard underneath the pad (£135).
Projection keyboards
Several magazines have shown pictures of boxes that attach to your PDA, and thus act as a stand, that project a keyboard onto a flat surface in front of it. You then type on the projected keyboard and it detects what you are doing. While looking very high tech, the early reviewers have commented that it can be quite painful typing on a hard table after a while and this seems more of a gadget than a real method.
Conclusion
When choosing which of the many methods will suit you best, you have to decide where you will be when entering the data, how much you need to enter and what type of data you need to record. For large-scale data entry it is usually better to enter the data on your main computer and transfer it to your handheld.