TouchPal-A Well-Done Soft Keyboard Alternative!

I have certainly tried my share of soft keyboards, some better than others. In this case, I wrote this full review with TouchPal from CooTek--except the final paragraph, which was written with the iGo Stowaway Bluetooth keyboard (see below), so that I could contrast using both hard/soft keyboards head-to-head. TouchPal is probably one of the best predictive text entry tools I have used to date, but it took me awhile to get used to it. The iGo is like a slice of tiny keyboard heaven...read on for the review of TouchPal, and to find out if it beats a hard keyboard.

Predictive and Precise Modes

TouchPal has a smart layout and tabbed approach to providing full keyboard options in a small screen footprint. The key combos and tabs are barely large enough for fingers but the whole thing can be resized. The keyboard has 2 modes of entry: predictive and precise. In predictive mode (see above) you simply start typing the key combo of the word, and word hits will appear across the top of the keyboard. You can select the right one as soon as it appears but the program is amazingly good at selecting the right word for you, allowing you to type without having to be distracted by constantly selecting words.

Precise Mode...

In precise mode, you must manually select each character by sliding the keys to and fro, up and down to input the exact text you want. Each key contains a combination of 4 characters from the standard qwerty keyboard. This mode is usually reserved for tasks like inputting passwords, URLs, or going back to make changes, etc. but I was getting pretty fast with it as my standard entry mode. You can quickly switch between the modes by sliding the enter key upwards.

Using TouchPal
TouchPal can be frustrating to use at first, and I had to turn on the precise input mode to get the hang of the keys first. I didn’t understand that sliding wasn’t needed in predictive mode, so I was doing a lot more work than required. The obvious advantage of having key combos is that you can bang away and let the word guessing do it’s thing. It reminds me of Tengo in this regard (which I haven’t used in a while), and you can enter text surprisingly fast, but speed usually comes at the price of having to constantly go back and fix things as there will invariably be word hits that weren’t what you intended.

After a frustrating hour, I finally started to get better, and finger-typing became a little easier, but still not as fast as with a full-screen soft keyboard (my favorite being Sunnysoft). Full-screen alternatives are fine, but not perfect for all situations, as they require the entire screen and make it hard to quickly monitor and participate in activities like chat. The problem is worse for large fingers, especially thumbs, particularly on the keys at the edge of the screen. The TouchPal keyboard can be resized in portrait mode, which helps a bunch, but would also be a nice addition for landscape mode as well. The word-guessing algorithm is good, but not perfect. Word-guessing can be a real pain during edits as it will guess every keystroke as a word. Another annoyance occurs when you forget what mode you’re in, and enter a couple of lines of total gibberish. At the beginning, I could still type faster and more accurately with the standard SIP options. I ended up using my stylus and found I was doing much better than with my fingers, and in fact was getting down-right quick using 2 PDA stylus’ simultaneously.

Help and Options
I love it when a vendor puts a lot of time into an excellent application, and then goes one better and bundles in comprehensive on-device help and basic options that are easy to understand and tweak...

Features

Touchpal has a ton of features. This is where other soft keyboards often fall short, especially the standard SIP options. The keyboard has tabs across the top that provide access to a number pad, character map/symbols view panel (with common internet notation shortcuts) and a navigation pad.

Internet shortcut keys...

The number pad is pretty standard, but the symbols view panel is very useful, providing hot-keys for common internet domain notation like “@gmail”, “.com”, “.net” and even special character combos for chat smilie symbols like the ubiquitous “:)”. The pro version is customizable, allowing you to set up your own smilies, saved sentences, hot-key combinations, and edit the .net button (i.e. to “.org”).

Smilies...

Navigation Pad

Hard VS. Soft, which keyboard is right for you...
This paragraph was written on my new iGo Stowaway external keyboard. The speed and ease-of-use of a real keyboard is hard to describe after 2 days of using only a soft keyboard. You immediately appreciate the extra screen real-estate gained by not having the SIP panel opened up, and the cramped feeling of typing on the small screen completely evaporates. Of course, using both hands and all your fingers doesn’t hurt either. I received the iGo yesterday, and using the iPAQ Bluetooth manager app, had it set up and typing in like 5 seconds. There’s no doubt that I can type faster with a hard keyboard with fewer errors. Document tweaks and edits are definitely easier, but I was quickly improving with TouchPal, and I think that in time, I could match my hard keyboard input rate. I can definitely type faster with TouchPal than with my Blackberrys’ hardware thumb keypad. It is important here to point out, that a soft keyboard is not meant to replace hardware, but to provide the best SIP functionality during times when a hard keyboard cannot be used. I believe that TouchPal is the most powerful and intuitive soft input option I have discovered to date. It probably won’t fully replace my hard keyboard, but it is a great soft keyboard replacement choice for Windows Mobile. It is perfect for the mobile power user who is frequently text messaging, checking/replying to e-mail, and browsing the web.

TouchPal Standard is free and the Professional version is $12.98 (US) and can be obtained by going to the following link--www.cootek.com/purchase.aspx. The web-site has a great demo video demonstrating how fast an expert can type with the thing (though I never attained that level of speed), so go check it out here--www.cootek.com/intro.aspx. Don’t forget that SP&PPC Magazine members can also get a 15% discount at our VIP site...