One of the other things I’ve been trying recently with my PDA has been using handwriting recognition to make input easier.

When I initially got the PDA I gave the built in handwriting recognition a go, which was really no good at all with my usual illegible scrawl, so I gave a copy of Calligrapher from Phatware Software a go.

Now it has to be said that this was a lot better, but I still ran into problems. A lot of the time it got things pretty well correct, however even with the ability to tweak the letter shapes it was looking for, there were still times where the way I wrote a letter totally confused the software. As a result, it actually worked out quicker to still use the on screen keyboard.

Anyway, since last year, Calligrapher has moved on, and now has the ability to learn from it’s mistakes, so apparently after a couple of weeks of training it can get something like a 95% success rate. Following some glowing reviews, I thought I’d take a look.

I’m still at the training stage, but most of the time it is pretty good. Since it is also backed up with a good spell checker, and a good deal of intelligence, it often modifies it’s ‘reading’ of what you have written, based on what you write afterwards. In the picture you can see my dodgy handwriting, and a successful interpretation of what I have written above. Incidentally, once you get beyond the training stage, it will allow you to write anywhere – not just in a fixed area at the bottom of the screen.

Now the only problem I can foresee is the combination of my lousy spelling and lousy handwriting, which gives it a double problem working out what I’m trying to write!