IntelliPad 1.0 -- for Magician -- August 2004

Phone Pad

Help — Main Contents

- Introduction
- Starting Phone Pad
- Buttons in the Phone Pad input panel
- T9 input mode
- Multi-Tap input mode
- Numeric input mode
- Using the Options screen

Copyright © High Tech Computer Corp. and/or its licensors, 2000-2004, all rights reserved.

Introduction

Phone Pad is a Soft Input Panel (SIP) application that provides a flexible alternate input method. You can input every letter, number, and symbol offered by the standard QWERTY keyboard SIP, but with greater convenience. With Phone Pad, you can easily switch among three input modes (T9, Multi-Tap, and Numeric) plus a Symbols menu, allowing you to use the same simple buttons on the screen for different input behaviors, depending on the current input mode. Instead of using a QWERTY keyboard, Phone Pad uses an alphanumeric pad to input all characters.

Phone Pad is unique in that it does not require a stylus. The buttons are large enough to allow you to use your fingers to perform all input tasks and cursor navigation, if desired. Certain settings can be customized, such as enable/disable sound after each key press, enable/disable automatic space after selecting from the wordlist, etc. Both Portrait and Landscape orientation is supported.

Among the items you can input are:

- All 26 English alphabetic letters (both upper and lower case)
- All real numbers
- A wide variety of symbols (punctuation, currency, mathematic, European symbols, etc.) all conveniently arranged on one screen for easy selection.

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Starting Phone Pad

Phone Pad can be activated at any time, except when in the Today screen or when in Camera mode. Press and hold your stylus on the triangular-shaped icon in the extreme lower right corner of the screen. This opens a menu containing various input-related utilities. Select Phone Pad from the menu to open the Phone Pad input panel.

After Phone Pad is activated, you can choose from three different input modes, plus a convenient Symbols menu:

- T9 input mode
- Multi-Tap input mode
- Numeric input mode
- Symbols menu

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Buttons in the Phone Pad input panel

The usage of non-alphanumeric buttons is explained here. For usage of the alphanumeric buttons in the Phone Pad input panel, please see the T9, Multi-Tap, and Numeric topics.

Move cursor left

Pressing the < button once will move the cursor one space to the left without erasing characters. Pressing and holding it will move the cursor continuously to the left. If the Wordlist panel is displayed on the screen, pressing this button will select the item to the left within the Wordlist panel.

Move cursor right

Pressing the > button will move the cursor one space to the right without erasing characters. Pressing and holding it will move the cursor continuously to the right. If the Wordlist panel is displayed on the screen, pressing this button will select the item to the right within the Wordlist panel.

Shift / Caps Lock functions

The “Shift” button can be pressed to cycle through three different shift modes. The label on the button will change to indicate the current mode, as follows:

shift — When the button is labelled shift, letters typed in T9 mode and in Multi-Tap mode will all be in lowercase.

Shift — When the button is labelled Shift, the first letter typed in T9 mode and Multi-Tap mode will be capitalized. After the first letter is entered in the Wordlist, the mode will return to the previous shift mode.

SHIFT — When the button is labelled SHIFT, all letters typed in T9 mode and Multi-Tap mode will be in uppercase. In this mode, the behavior is the same as the standard QWERTY keyboard in Caps-Lock mode.

Backspace

The Backspace button contains a straight left-pointing arrow. It has the same behavior as the Backspace button on a QWERTY keyboard. Pressing it once backspaces over the character to the left of the cursor. If the Wordlist pop-up is not displayed, pressing and holding will continously backspace and delete characters to the left of the cursor. If the Wordlist pop-up is displayed, pressing and holding will instantly delete everything in the Wordlist.

Return/Enter

The Return/Enter button contains a left-pointing arrow with a 90-degree bend. It has the same behavior as the Enter button on a QWERTY keyboard. If the Wordlist pop-up is not displayed, pressing Enter will add a blank line in the current application screen. If the Wordlist pop-up is displayed, pressing Enter will add the word to the current application screen. When in Options or Settings screens, pressing Enter will have the same effect as pressing the OK button.

Space/Tab

The Space/Tab button contains the word “tab.” Pressing it once will add a space in your current application screen. Pressing and holding will have the same effect as the Tab button on a QWERTY keyboard. If the Wordlist pop-up is displayed, pressing this button will add the word to your current application screen, and automatically add a space after the word.

Switching input modes

The “Mode” button is located at the right side of the input panel and will be labelled either t9, 123, or abc to indicate the currently active input mode. To switch to a different input mode, press this button until the input mode you want is indicated in the button.

Inserting symbols and punctuation

Tap the button located in the lower right corner of the Phone Pad input panel, labelled opt/sym. This opens a screen that gives you easy access to all symbols in Phone Pad's symbols library, and lets you add them to the Wordlist. To view the next or previous screen of symbols, press the “up arrow” button (^) or “down arrow” button.

Note that when you are in T9 or Multi-Tap mode, the first Symbols screen contains common punctuation; whereas if you open the Symbols screen when in Numeric mode, the first Symbols screen conveniently contains mathematical symbols.

After you have entered the desired symbol or string of symbols in the Wordlist, you can tap it with your stylus or finger to insert it into the current application screen with a trailing space appended. Or, pressing the Enter button on the Phone Pad input panel will insert it, with no trailing space. Or, pressing the Space button will insert it and automatically add a space after it.

NOTE: Tapping the opt/sym button opens the Symbols screen, but tapping-and-holding it will open the Options screen.

Inserting punctuation using the “1.” button

Pressing the “1.” number button on the Phone Pad input panel when in Multi-Tap mode will add a period to the Wordlist. Pressing it when in T9 input mode will display a variety of punctuation you can choose from, if at the end of a word. In some cases during T9 mode, it will also add the most likely punctuation to the Wordlist. For example, if adding the letter l, d, m, s, or t after the punctuation, it will turn into an apostrophe.

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Using the T9 input mode

T9 input mode is the easiest and most convenient way to input text in English. As you press alphanumeric buttons on the Phone Pad input panel, T9 tries to automatically match the letters you have selected with the most likely completed word.

If not already in T9 input mode (t9), use the Mode button to switch modes. The Mode button is located at the right side of the Phone Pad input panel and will be labelled either t9, 123, or abc to indicate the currently active input mode. If the button currently displays 123 or abc, simply press it once or twice, until t9 is indicated in the button. See Buttons in the Phone Pad Input Panel for information about each button.

After you tap one of the alphanumeric buttons, the Wordlist panel will pop up and will display the selected letters. Each time you tap another alphanumeric button, T9 tries to form complete words and displays them in the Wordlist. The currently selected word will be highlighted in red in the Wordlist panel. (Each number button in Phone Pad has its own corresponding English letters except the 1 button and the 0 button.)

You can select a different word in the Wordlist by pressing the Next and Previous buttons on the Phone Pad input panel, or by tapping the desired word. After you have selected the word (highlighted in red), pressing the Enter button on the Phone Pad input panel will insert it into the current application screen, with no trailing space. Or, pressing the Space button will insert the word and automatically add a space after the word.

As with Multi-Tap input mode, this mode will allow you to enter alphabetic characters (English only), punctuation, and numeric characters (press and hold on the desired number key to enter the number directly).

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Using the Multi-Tap input mode

If not already in Multi-Tap input mode (abc), use the Mode button to switch modes. Located at the right side of the Phone Pad input panel, the Mode button will be labelled either t9, 123, or abc to indicate the currently active input mode. If the button currently displays t9 or 123, simply press it once or twice, until abc is indicated in the button. See Buttons in the Phone Pad Input Panel for information about each button.

Unlike the T9 input mode, the Multi-Tap input mode will not search for all the possible combinations of letters or try to guess at a partial word's completion. You need to manually enter all letters yourself to form words. Each time you press an alphanumeric button on Phone Pad's input panel, the related letters will display in the Wordlist panel.

However, as with Multi-Tap input mode, this mode will allow you to enter alphabetic characters (English only), punctuation, and numeric characters (press and hold on the desired number key to enter the number directly).

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Using the Numeric input mode

If not already in Numeric input mode (123), use the Mode button to switch modes. See Buttons in the Phone Pad Input Panel for information about each button.

When in Numeric mode, each time you press a number button on Phone Pad's input panel, the associated number will display in the Wordlist panel.

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Using the Options screen

There are three ways to open the Options screen for Phone Pad:

* Press and hold your stylus on the triangular-shaped icon in the extreme lower right corner of the screen (except when in the Today screen or when in Camera mode). This opens a menu containing the Options... command, as well as various input-related utilities. Select Options... from the menu. In the Input screen, make sure the Input Method field contains “Phone Pad.” Then press the Options... button.

OR,

* If Phone Pad is already running, you can simply press-and-hold the opt/sym button located in the lower right corner of the Phone Pad input panel to open the Options screen directly.

OR,

* Select Settings from the Start menu. In the Personal tab, select Input. In the Input Method field of the Input screen, select Phone Pad from the drop-down list. Then tap the Options... button.

The Options screen contains three tabs: Options, Languages, and About.

Options tab

Turn on one-touch symbol entry

If this option is checked, you can select only one symbol at a time. That is, after you tap a symbol in the Symbols screen, the screen will close and the chosen symbol will be input (no need to tap OK in the Symbols screen).

Auto-hide matching Wordlist

The Wordlist panel will automatically be hidden after you select a word.

Turn on screen tap sound

By default, this checkbox is checked. An audible sound will be played every time you press a button in Phone Pad (unless your Pocket PC's volume setting is turned off/down). Uncheck this checkbox if you do not want every Phone Pad key press to create a sound.

Automatically add a space after selecting a word

If this option is checked, then every time you select a word from the Wordlist, a space will automatically be appended to the end of that word when the word is added to the current application screen.

Enable pop-up menu for deleting user-defined words

When you press-and-hold on a user-defined word in the Wordlist, a pop-up menu will open containing the commands Select this word, Delete this word, and Modify options.

Help

Tap this button to access the on-line Help messages for Phone Pad.

Languages tab

In the Database field, select the desired language from the drop-down list.

About tab

Displays product name, version/build number, and copyright information.

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