QuickType

By Rick Sperko 2/11/2001

Introduction

QuickType is a Palm extension to help improve text input on Palm OS devices.  QuickType is not a built-in keyboard or graffiti replacement.  QuickType is a supplement.  It makes it easier to input the more common information quickly.  For punctuation, numbers, and special characters, you will still need to use either graffiti or the built-in keyboard.

Make sure you read the user suggestions at the end of the Manual.  There are some great contributions by people including different methods of attaching overlays, a modification for OPTI for left handed users, and even a suggested German keyboard layout.

Instructions

Installation

QuickType is a Palm OS extension.  What this means is for QuickType to work, you must have X-Master, HackMaster, EVPlugBase or an equivalent installed.  A zipped file with X-Master has been included in this distribution.  X-Master is freeware.  Please read the documentation enclosed in X-Master.zip for information installation.  QuickType is also freeware.

First, make sure X-Master.prc and QuickType.prc are installed through the Palm Desktop install tool.  Optionally you can install one of the other provided keyboard layout databases (AlphabeticQuickTypeKeyboardDB.pdb, or OPTIQuickTypeKeyboardDB.pdb). On Windows platforms this entails clicking on them from the explorer, or opening the Palm Install Tool, selecting “Add…” and browsing to the files.   Once the files are installed on the device go into the X-Master configuration screen and click the check box next to “QuickType Hack” to enable QuickType.

Next you will want to put an overlay on your graffiti area, and how you do this is up to you.  Here are a couple of suggestions for attaching the overlay:

  1. You can print the page with overlays, place a post-it note or scotch tape over the correct image and print the page again so that the image gets placed on the post-it or tape, and then cut and attach it to your screen.
  2. You can also print the page with the overlays to a transparency and cut out a strip the size of your screen with the image centered and attach that to your screen. 
  3. I print the page with the overlays and cut out the correct one and hold it in place with a piece of tape, you could use a screen protector. 
  4. You could also create a mirror image of the pictures and print it to a transparency, screen protector, then attach it (that way the ink will not wear away).

There are more suggestions down in the user submitted area.  If you come up with your own way please let me know and I will include it in the next release of the manual.

Overlays

 

Palm III, VII series, and Visor overlay

PalmV, Sony CLIE

Palm m100

QuickType

Alphabetical

OPTI

Modified QWERTY

Blank

Please Note:  I personally print these from M$ Word (although the original images in src.zip were created with StarOffice). If you use some other tool to print them you are on your own.  People have had various levels of success.  One user had to set his printer to 100dpi, I don’t know why it may be a Word thing.

QuickType Layout Overlays

This is the original keyboard layout.  This is the default configuration that you will have if you install QuickType without an additional database.

Alphabetical Layout Overlays

This is a simple alphabetical organization of keys.  You can use these overlays if you install in the optional keyboard database “AlphabeticalQuickTypeKeyboardDB.pdb”.

OPTI Layout Overlays

You can use these overlays if you install the optional keyboard database “OPTIQuickTypeKeyboardDB.pdb”.  For more information on OPTI see Scott MacKenzies and Shawn X. Zhang’s excellent discussion on “The Design and Evaluation of a High-Performance Soft Keyboard” web page at http://www.yorku.ca/mack/CHI99a.html, or visit Scott’s page at http://www.yorku.ca/mack/index.html.

Modified QWERTY

This is a reorganization of the qwerty keyboard. The left half of the top row is the first row, the second half of the top row is the second row.  The next qwerty row is also split, and the last row continues all the way across.  You can use these overlays if you install in the optional keyboard database “QWERTYModifiedQuickTypeKeyboardDB.pdb”.

Blank Overlays

Use these overlays if you come up with your own layout.

Configuration

Open HackMaster and select the “+” sign next to QuickType Hack.  This opens the QuickType configuration screen.  Make sure that the Test field has focus, and tap the center of the letter “t” on the overlay.  If an “h” appears, click the left arrow several times.  Tap in the center of the “t” again, if an “a” appears tap the right arrow.  Continue until a “t” appears when tapping the keyboard “t.”  Try this with a few other letters.  Next tap closely around the letter “t” repeating the preceding procedures until you feel the overlay and QuickType are in sync.

Figure 1 – QuickType Configuration Screen

Key Assignment

Every alphabetical key on the keyboard can be reprogrammed.  If you don’t like the ordering, you can change it.  Simply click on “Assign Keys…” on the configuration, the configure any key as follows:

Select the key to change from the keyboard on the screen.  Fill in one character on the line marked “Primary” as the primary value for this key.  The primary value is the value that will be typed when the key is simply pressed.  Next you can optionally fill in the “Left” and “Down” fields with any text you want up to 255 characters.  You could use this feature to assign numbers to the left or down flicks for some letters (I did).  After you have filled in the values you want the key to represent, click “Save Key”.

Once you have programmed your keyboard click “Done” and you will be returned to the configuration screen.

Figure 2 – QuickType Configuration Screen

Using QuickType

Using QuickType is very straightforward.  If the character is on the overlay, tap it with the stylus.  Some of the keys are actually function keys.  For instance the “•” is the punctuation key.  This acts as the entire graffiti area did when it was tapped.  The word “spc” or “space” inserts a space.  The arrow pointing left is the backspace it removes the previous character.  The key with the down then left arrow moves you to the next line.  The arrow pointing to the straight line inserts a tab.  The “abc” and “123” bring up the alpha and numeric keyboards respectively.

REMEMBER: you can always just write graffiti right on the keyboard.  The only change to your graffiti writing is that for punctuation you will need to tap on the “•”.

QuickShift

QuickShift is the ability to capitalize a letter without breaking stride in typing.  To use QuickShift tap the letter you want then do a quick flick up with the pen.  The pen should not leave the Graffiti area.  The gesture is very much like the Graffiti stroke for shift, just shorter.  If you go too far you will get an actual graffiti shift, if you go too short you will just get the letter you tapped.  QuickShift will probably take some getting used to, but is much quicker than moving the pen over to the shift key then back.

QuickSpace

The idea for QuickSpace is taken from QuickShift.  With a quick flick to the right, you will get the letter you tapped AND a space.  So if you tap the letter ‘s’ and then flick right without lifting the pen you will get “s_” where “_” is a blank space.  This makes a great deal of sense when you realize that space is the most commonly used key on any keyboard.  Now every key is a space key!

AutoSpace

AutoSpace will automatically put a blank space immediately after punctuation keys.  So if you type a ‘,’ you will see ‘,_’ where ‘_’ is a blank space.  The punctuation keys include “.,:&!”.  If you have AutoSpace enabled, and you do a QuickSpace on a punctuation key you will get two spaces following the punctuation.

Flick Summary

Figure 3 - Flick Summary

Once again, a flick to the left on a key results in the text assigned to “left”.  A flick up and to the left on a key results in a capitalized text assigned to “left”.  A flick straight up results in the capitalization of that letter.  A flick up and to the right results in a capitalized letter followed by a space.  A flick directly to the right results in the letter tapped and a space.  A flick down results in the text assigned to “down”.  A flick down and to the right results in the text assigned to “down” followed by a space.

Practicing

Textware Solutions puts out a game for practicing with their keyboard replacement.  The game is called Fitaly Letris and is a great way to become proficient with QuickType.  Please email me your fastest words per minute and I will add the top three people to the about screen of the next version (I can list you by real name, nickname, or alter-ego your choice).

User’s Contributions

Printing from Alan

I use an Alps MicroDry printer. It's great for photos and is about 
the size of an ink jet only the "ink" is dry and is kept in little 
cassette tapes. The important thing is there is no heat per se (like a laser) and no liquid (like an ink jet).
 
Anyway, I put in a piece of paper and print out the image of the 
overlay I want. Then I take a piece of that Scotch #801 removeable tape that everyone and their brother puts on the silkscreen area of their Palm. Once I send it trough the printer again, I take another piece (regular Scotch tape this time) and stick that on top of the #801 to protect the letters.
 
I usually make this overlay wide enough to cover the entire 
silkscreen area because that way there are no edges to catch when using some special strokes (e.g. from the Home button to the grafitti area for 
Switchhack).  
 
The results look great! Nice color and very thin too!

Mark’s OPTI Overlay for the Palm III

OPTI layout for the Palm III, which has these changes:
 - Changed the size from 144x67 to 144x80
 - Switched "caps" and "shift" to the equivalent PalmOS symbols
 - Added a blue background behind the "space" squares
 - Added triangles marking letter/number separation for Graffiti
 - Hand tweaked a few letters/symbols for a better look
- Added tick marks around the edges to assist layout

Stacy’s Method of Attaching Overlays

Hi, I wanted to share with you how I stick my overlay on my palm. I have some eyelash glue (Don't ask me WHY I have this!!! :) called LashGrip that I put on the printed out overlay. this glue works very well and does not adhere to the palm screen when you take it off (sometimes just a very little, but you can dampen your fingers and then it slides off) but sticks so well while it is on. I know this is a weird way but it works really well

Steven Sashen’s Suggestion for Left Handed OPTI

FYI, I'm having an interesting conversation with Scott MacKenzie 
about the layout for OPTI. It seems that right-handed people can move from the center to the left faster than they can move from the center to the right ("pushing" the fingers out is faster/easier than "pulling" them back)... therefore the most used keys should be on the left whenever possible. 
I swapped A & R and V and Y and noticed an immediate increase in speed, 
even though Scott's model predicts a 2% decrease.

Ulrich’s German Layout

The database for this layout is included as “GermanQuickTypeKeyboardDB.PDB”.  You may need to resize this overlay to match one of the above based on your device.

Thanks

Thanks to all the users and beta testers who helped find and fix the bugs.  A special thanks to Monika G for the code for Autospace, which lead to the swipe space.

Thanks to Scott MacKenzie and Shawn Zhang for coming up with and allowing the use of OPTI.

Thanks to Gary B for creating and sending me the Modified QWERTY.

Information

Contacting

If you have any questions or problems with QuickType, please feel free to contact me at rsperko@yahoo.com.  You can find the most recent version at http://www.palmgear.com or http://www.freewarepalm.net. Better yet, if you have a problem, read through the source code provided and email a patch to the email address above.

Future

·        Fix shortcut support.  Writing the shortcut character and typing the shortcut name does not result in a shortcut occurring.  This is the same behavior as the built-in keyboard.

·        On screen keyboard replacement.

Incompatibilities

·        MiddleCaps Hack – with MiddleCaps Hack installed tapping a letter in the alpha part of the silkscreen area and then trying to write a number will fail to produce a number.

·        Graffiti – This is not an incompatibility, but I never noticed it until I started using QuickType.  A punctuation tap in the number area cannot be used with a punctuation stroke in the alpha area.  This is the way Graffiti works.  If you want to put an open parenthesis you must do both the punctuation tap, and the Graffiti stroke in the same area either alpha, or numeric.

·        RunWrite Hack – these two hacks share the same systrap.  I don’t know what the conflict is yet.  The freeware version called Switcheroo does work though.

License

QuickType is covered under the GNU Public License just as its father and grandfather were (DotNoteHack and KeyPadHack) although it is becoming a more and more distant relative.  I don’t think there is any shared code anymore.