The Treo is, in my opinion, the best laptop replacement device available today. If there is one downside to using the Treo as a laptop replacement: it is creating and editing large documents. While the QWERTY keyboard of the Treo 700 is great for quick text messages, emails, and web browsing, creating long documents with it is awkward. There are a multitude of options when it comes to entering data into the Treo, and in this article, I investigate these different options, and review several products which may make the process easier.

Keyboards

Most keyboards for the Treo fall into two categories: Bluetooth and Infrared. While both Infrared and Bluetooth allow devices to communicate wirelessly, Infrared technology requires line of sight to operate. During my research I had the opportunity to test three Infrared keyboards and one Bluetooth keyboard.

I tested the following infrared keyboards:

1. BelkinWireless PDA Keyboard
2. Palm Universal Wireless Keyboard
3. Targus Universal Wireless Keyboard.

The Palm keyboard is very compact and has a fairly large layout. I experienced two problems with this keyboard: missing keystrokes, and the lack of a method for securing the Treo. For more information about this product see my review here.

The next product that I tried was the Belkin keyboard, which is, unfortunately only compatible with the Treo 600 and 650. As a result, I was unable to test this product. I can however, speak to the design of this keyboard. First, I really like the silver finish and the simple folding design of this keyboard. I also like the size of the keyboard. The keys are a bit loud but have nice depth. I believe that touch typing would be easy on this keyboard. There was one design aspect that I did not like: this keyboard employs the use of a mirror to reflect the infrared signal from the keyboard to the device. While the software does assist in aligning the mirror by displaying arrows on the screen, this would need to be done every time the keyboard is used. Not having proper alignment of the mirror will cause poor performance. The mirror is also prone to fingerprints which may have an impact on the performance of the keyboard.

The last infrared keyboard I tested was the Targus. In my opinion, this keyboard has the best design and features of all of the keyboards I tested. Unfortunately, the keyboard suffers from latency issues. The Targus keyboard has several features that set it apart from the others. This keyboard is big, making it great for touch typists. The Targus keyboard also has a navigation pad. I found the navigation pad a wonderful touch and hope other manufacturers will include this on other keyboards. This keyboard also has several dedicated shortcut keys for quick access to contacts, email, calculator and memo pad. I did have the opportunity to try this keyboard with Treo models 300, 600, 650 and 700P. This keyboard functioned quite well with both the 300 and 600 models, but suffered from latency with the 650 and 700P. I found the latency issue to be a serious problem with an otherwise wonderfully designed keyboard.

The Bluetooth keyboard from Freedom worked with both the 650 and 700p, but I did experience some latency with this device. For a complete review of this keyboard see Derek Simmerman’s review.

Applications

Application developers have created many great applications to aid in entering data into the Treo. Developers have addressed the issue in several different ways including handwriting recognition, onscreen keyboards and predictive databases.

Handwriting recognition is nothing new for palm users. Graffiti, Palm’s handwriting recognition software, is loved by many. While the Treo does not come preloaded with Graffiti, it can be added to the Treo with third party applications such as Graffiti Anywhere. Because Graffiti uses keystrokes that aren’t always intuitive, I have never been a big fan of this method.

While not a big fan of Graffiti, I can definitely see the benefit of having a good handwriting recognition application for the Treo. I believe that Jot and MobileWrite are two such applications. Unfortunately, the developers of Jot no longer support the application and only the demo is available.

MobileWrite is an exceptional application from Inkmark Software. MobileWrite does not require the user to learn a proprietary system for entering characters and recognizes most characters flawlessly. In my opinion, the biggest limitation to using this type of application is actually, the Treo itself. The Treo’s small screen makes entering long words or long successions of characters difficult. MobileWrite attempts to address this by allowing the user to define how fast he/she writes, allowing MobileWrite to clear the screen as the user writes. The only problem I found with MobileWrite was that it doesn’t seem to be compatible with Documents to Go. MobileWrite does work well in all other programs I tested it with, including the Treo’s built-in address book and memo pad.

Notes, by Pennovate is another application that allows users to enter data using their own handwriting. Notes is different from MobileWrite in that it does not convert handwriting to text instead, Notes allows users to create and store notes in their own handwriting. For a complete review of this application see Alli Flower’s review.

Onscreen keyboards are another option for users to input data. While all are familiar with the built-in onscreen keyboard of the Treo, developers have taken the onscreen keyboard in many different directions. A good example of such an application is Mini-Keyboard from Animatorsoft. Mini-keyboard changes the landscape of the keyboard from the standard QWERTY format to a proprietary landscape. While this is a great idea for handhelds with larger screens such as the Palm TX, the Treo’s small screen makes this application less than ideal.

The last type of application I investigated was predictive. An example of this type of application is Text Plus from SmartCell Technology. Text Plus is an enhancement that attempts to predict the word or phrase that you are trying to type. Text Plus has one advantage over other methods: spelling. Since Text Plus allows you to select the word or phrase from a list (once you have entered a few characters) spelling and accuracy are greatly improved. While I didn’t find the application to improve my speed of entry, it did save me the time of correcting those spelling errors which are common when using the built-in keyboard.

Emerging Technology

The newest addition to the input lineup is the laser keyboard. Laser keyboards project a full-sized QWERTY keyboard on any flat surface. Laser keyboards are very small and easily transported. If you are looking for the most cutting edge keyboard available I suggest you investigate the Virtual Laser Keyboard.

Conclusion

As you can see, the field of input devices is very large. Finding the best option is a matter of personal choice. While I believe that all of the alternatives are viable, I feel that there is no substitute to an external keyboard for creating large documents.

Related Links

Keyboards in mytreo.net/store.

BelkinWireless PDA Keyboard

Palm Universal Wireless Keyboard

Targus Universal Wireless Keyboard.

Browse the mytreo.net software store.

Filed under: Accessory reviews