When I moved from my HTC Universal (an O2 XDA Exec) to an Eten Glofiish X500, the one thing I missed most was the keyboard. It allowed me to enter text really quickly. At that time, I was running several projects that required me to correspond via email regularly. With the Exec, it was very easy for me to type out those emails and send them off. With the X500, it got a bit more tricky. There were things that I always had to include in the emails such as date/time and my signature. It got to a point where I would have my signature in a Word document file that I would copy from and paste in those emails just to speed things up.

Introduction

But if I had looked a bit more, I might have come across DinarSoft’s TapText, a very intuitive program that makes such Cut/Copy & Paste tasks so much easier. You don’t have to open another document when working with your email (or any other program for that matter). Currently at v1.3, it has not been updated in a while (the last one being February 2006) but that does not mean anything in terms of usability. That’s because whether you are using one of the older OS (Pocket PC 2002) or the latest Windows Mobile 6, this software will work for you. It works with any screen orientation as well so even if you are using a Palm, there’s no problem there. And at USD$9.99 a license, it’s one of the cheapest software’s out there. For those who are undecided, you can take them up on their 15 day trial offer (.exe and .cab files are available) before you decide. But just how useful is TapText?

Who’s It For?

Tap this for email…	And get this!

Well that would depend on what you usually use your Pocket PC for. For those without a keyboard and send a lot of emails and/or text messages, then this might be really useful. That’s because you can easily insert text into these applications without having to type them in manually. Signatures, name cards, commonly used terms. You program it into TapText and it’s there for you to choose from the next time you need it. I can really see it increasing productivity once you get familiarized with the program.

And if it’s for meeting…	TapText makes it just as easy

But it’s not just for emails. If you are a taking notes for meeting, then it’s got meeting templates that you can use. What’s great is that this template will include the date, start time, end time, agenda and so much more. Data that you can put in with just a few taps. And if you need more information, you can always edit the template to include so.

Use it for websites	And for inserting quotes

There are even options for you to enter websites (such as your own if you are sending an email to let a friend know about a new site you just launched) and quotes (if you are a quote-leaving kind of person). The quotes options especially was pretty interesting but it would have been really great if it could be updated online with say ‘Quotes of the Day’ or something similar.

Customize It All You Want

There’s a wealth of customization available for you to apply to your texts. From choosing whether you want to bold or italicize or even underline it, you can decide on the time and date format. So if you are not happy with the Dec 31^st 2007 format and are more of a 31/12/2007 kind of person, make sure you make the necessary changes.

One interesting feature which I can’t quite find is the ability of TapText to fill up form. According the product description page, you can teach it to fill up forms so that the next time you need to do so, TapText can fill it up for you. I am not sure if it’s like Google’s AutoFill which I use on my PC’s browser or something else but it sure looks useful. Now if only I can find out how to do so.

Is It Worth It?

With all the hype, you may be wondering if TapText is really worth it? Some of you might be arguing that you can do such things with templates and I do agree that you can. But with templates, you usually have to enter the date and time manually while TapText does it for you automatically.

And if you are one to argue the use of a Word document to store all your signatures and the likes, I do agree that this is another solution. But do remember that you would need to open and switch between tasks to copy and paste those text. With TapText, you just need to open one application (the one that you are using) and click on the TapText icon anytime you want to insert the text you need.

Summary

Pros:

• Increases productivity for users who enter a lot of text.
• Data (such as date and time) is automatically entered at tap.
• Text can be formatted to suit your needs.
• Small footprint which does not eat up a lot of resources.

Cons:

• Functions can be done by other means (mainly manual).
• Does not integrate into context menu of Pocket PC.
• Does not update quotes automatically.

Conclusion

TapText is a great text-entering application but it’s not for everyone, especially if you are not one of those who do not enter too much text on your Pocket PC to begin with. But if you are one, and you do not have a hard keyboard, then this program might just be what you are looking for. They have a 15 day trial for you to test the program and let you decide if that USD$9.99 should go into purchasing a license or continue using your templates and sticking to your Word document copy and paste routine.

Tags: commercial software