Wednesday, June 11, 2003
PDAMill's TopKey -- a better way to key?
Posted by Don Tolson in "SOFTWARE" @ 11:00 AM
Looking for a new way to share your knowledge with your Pocket PC? PDAMill provides TopKey - a alternative input method, similar to the soft keyboard provided in the Pocket PC O/S, but with customizable skins and keyboard layouts. It may not be for everyone, but if you use the soft keyboard, TopKey looks more professional and has some neat features.
Although the soft keyboard is not my primary method of input, I occassionally use it when I can’t use my thumb keyboard. The keyboard provided in the Pocket PC 2002 operating system is OK, but it looks utilitarian and lacks polish. It’s also not customizable, so you’re basically stuck with it.
PDAMill’s TopKey gives you a much more professional-looking alternative which has extensive customization abilities. Not only can you change the layout of the keyboard, but you can also select from one of four pre-defined skins to change the overall look of the keyboard. PDAMill expects to have a skin editor available soon which will allow users to create their own looks. Coupled with the ability to support characters from multiple languanges, and an intelligent predictive-input engine, TopKey becomes a very worthy replacement for the soft keyboard.
Installation
Installation of TopKey is fairly straight-forward, using the ActiveSync Remove/Add Programs facility. It requires 974K of memory and normally installs to main memory. Note: After it has finished installing, TopKey will present a message on the Pocket PC saying that a soft reset is required before it can be used. Tapping OK on this message causes an immediate soft-reset of your machine. This was a little startling the first time I saw it. I think maybe the message needs to be reworded to warn that this is actually going to happen.
It is possible to install TopKey to a CF card, but I found that when I did this, I got a message saying that the .CAB file was not valid. After tapping OK, the installation seemed to proceed normally (including the soft reset) and the software behaved normally. I did notice, however, that switching between keyboards was noticeably slower when running from the CF card. DUMMY ALERT! – if you install TopKey to your CF card, don’t take the card out if you expect to use TopKey for input :oops: Not thinking, I switched out my memory card and got a nasty message saying that there was a linkage missing when I tried to input a new task. :iamwithstupid:
Using TopKey
After installation, TopKey simply becomes another one of the input options available for your Pocket PC. You activate it from the Input menu in the bottom right corner of the screen. TopKey’s keyboard takes up about 1 or 2mm more vertical space than the soft keyboard provided with the O/S, so there may be some overlap of buttons, etc. on applications who are tight on space. Input sensitivity seems the same as the regular keyboard, and visual feedback is provided for key taps. It’s a little subtle on some of the skins (e.g. ‘Black’ simply changes the key to something that looks like it’s been pressed), so you may miss it. I also found the black keyboard difficult to read in outdoor lighting.
There are four default skins provided with TopKey. Here’s what they look like:
Figure 1: TopKey keyboard skins
The skin editor (to let you create your own keyboard looks) wasn’t ready yet at the time of this review, but PDAMill says it should be available shortly.
Switching keyboard layouts in TopKey is very easy. You tap the Language Abbreviation key in the bottom left of the keyboard and layout shortcut buttons are displayed along the top of the keyboard. Simply select one of these to switch to the new layout.
Figure 2: Language Abbreviation Key and Layout Shortcuts
The Layout Shortcut keys are customizeable, and I really appreciated the fact that I could use characters from any one of the layouts in my documents. It was like having up to six different character sets available at once! As PDAMill notes in the documentation, some languages (e.g. Hebrew) will require additional fonts to be installed on your Pocket PC.
Predicting the Future
The predictive response feature of TopKey is similar to that provided by the Pocket PC O/S, but it is limited to only three words. (The O/S version allows up to four words) It seems to ‘learn’ much faster though, because within about three minutes of use, it was already guessing my name and user-ids (which I use frequently), whereas the O/S version has never cottoned on to these.
Figure 3: TopKey Predictive Response
TopKey also provides stylus gestures (similar to those in the O/S version), but adds Backspace and Enter.
Figure 4: TopKey Stylus Gestures
Not being a power user of the soft keyboard, I didn’t find these particularly useful as shortcuts. It was just as easy to tap the appropriate keys.
Customizing TopKey
Customizability is one of TopKey’s strong suits. As with any of the input methods, you access the options using the Options section from the Input selection menu in the bottom right of the screen, or from Start/Settings/Input. Once TopKey is selected as the input method, an Options… button appears. Tapping this button takes you to the customization screen for TopKey.
Figure 5: TopKey Customization
The top section lets you select which language layouts will be available on your shortcuts (only six are allowed), while the bottom section lets you select the font style (normal or bold) and size of letters on the keyboard, and the skin for the keyboard. Tapping the Layout editor button takes you to the screen where you can rearrange or replace any of the keys on the keyboard with any character from any font, then save the result to an existing or new keyboard layout.
Figure 6: Keyboard Layout Editor
Gotchas
TopKey only really surprised me during installation. I don’t particularly like the fact it ‘forces’ a soft reset after installation. It think the message either needs to be reworded or the functionality changed to allow the user an option to do the reset later. I’m also not sure about that message saying that the .cab file was invalid.
Also, be forewarned that TopKey does not remove easily. On my HP J568, the O/S Remove function was unable to complete until after I had done a soft reset, and then I still had to go in by hand, using the File Explorer, to remove TopKey folders and files from the Program Files folder under Windows.
Where to Buy
Topkey v1.0 is available from Handango for US$14.95. [Affiliate] You can get the full-featured application for a free 14-day trial period as well.
Specifications
TopKey should work on any Pocket PC running the Pocket PC 2002 operating system. I was not able to test it on earlier versions of the O/S. It requires approximately 974K of memory and can be installed to main memory or a CF card.
The following keyboard layouts are provided with the product: Albanian, Azeri, Belgian, Bulgarian, Canadian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faeroese, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Mongolian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Swiss (French), Swiss (German), Turkish, Ukrainian, US-Dvorak.
According to the documentation, the predictive database works for English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Russian.
Conclusions
Use of the soft keyboard is not a main input method for me, but TopKey’s more professional look, feel, and customizability certainly make it a much more useable tool that the one provided with the Pocket PC operating system. Its price puts it in the top range for utilities like this and might be a barrier for some.
Although the soft keyboard is not my primary method of input, I occassionally use it when I can’t use my thumb keyboard. The keyboard provided in the Pocket PC 2002 operating system is OK, but it looks utilitarian and lacks polish. It’s also not customizable, so you’re basically stuck with it.
PDAMill’s TopKey gives you a much more professional-looking alternative which has extensive customization abilities. Not only can you change the layout of the keyboard, but you can also select from one of four pre-defined skins to change the overall look of the keyboard. PDAMill expects to have a skin editor available soon which will allow users to create their own looks. Coupled with the ability to support characters from multiple languanges, and an intelligent predictive-input engine, TopKey becomes a very worthy replacement for the soft keyboard.
Installation
Installation of TopKey is fairly straight-forward, using the ActiveSync Remove/Add Programs facility. It requires 974K of memory and normally installs to main memory. Note: After it has finished installing, TopKey will present a message on the Pocket PC saying that a soft reset is required before it can be used. Tapping OK on this message causes an immediate soft-reset of your machine. This was a little startling the first time I saw it. I think maybe the message needs to be reworded to warn that this is actually going to happen.
It is possible to install TopKey to a CF card, but I found that when I did this, I got a message saying that the .CAB file was not valid. After tapping OK, the installation seemed to proceed normally (including the soft reset) and the software behaved normally. I did notice, however, that switching between keyboards was noticeably slower when running from the CF card. DUMMY ALERT! – if you install TopKey to your CF card, don’t take the card out if you expect to use TopKey for input :oops: Not thinking, I switched out my memory card and got a nasty message saying that there was a linkage missing when I tried to input a new task. :iamwithstupid:
Using TopKey
After installation, TopKey simply becomes another one of the input options available for your Pocket PC. You activate it from the Input menu in the bottom right corner of the screen. TopKey’s keyboard takes up about 1 or 2mm more vertical space than the soft keyboard provided with the O/S, so there may be some overlap of buttons, etc. on applications who are tight on space. Input sensitivity seems the same as the regular keyboard, and visual feedback is provided for key taps. It’s a little subtle on some of the skins (e.g. ‘Black’ simply changes the key to something that looks like it’s been pressed), so you may miss it. I also found the black keyboard difficult to read in outdoor lighting.
There are four default skins provided with TopKey. Here’s what they look like:
Figure 1: TopKey keyboard skins
The skin editor (to let you create your own keyboard looks) wasn’t ready yet at the time of this review, but PDAMill says it should be available shortly.
Switching keyboard layouts in TopKey is very easy. You tap the Language Abbreviation key in the bottom left of the keyboard and layout shortcut buttons are displayed along the top of the keyboard. Simply select one of these to switch to the new layout.
Figure 2: Language Abbreviation Key and Layout Shortcuts
The Layout Shortcut keys are customizeable, and I really appreciated the fact that I could use characters from any one of the layouts in my documents. It was like having up to six different character sets available at once! As PDAMill notes in the documentation, some languages (e.g. Hebrew) will require additional fonts to be installed on your Pocket PC.
Predicting the Future
The predictive response feature of TopKey is similar to that provided by the Pocket PC O/S, but it is limited to only three words. (The O/S version allows up to four words) It seems to ‘learn’ much faster though, because within about three minutes of use, it was already guessing my name and user-ids (which I use frequently), whereas the O/S version has never cottoned on to these.
Figure 3: TopKey Predictive Response
TopKey also provides stylus gestures (similar to those in the O/S version), but adds Backspace and Enter.
Figure 4: TopKey Stylus Gestures
Not being a power user of the soft keyboard, I didn’t find these particularly useful as shortcuts. It was just as easy to tap the appropriate keys.
Customizing TopKey
Customizability is one of TopKey’s strong suits. As with any of the input methods, you access the options using the Options section from the Input selection menu in the bottom right of the screen, or from Start/Settings/Input. Once TopKey is selected as the input method, an Options… button appears. Tapping this button takes you to the customization screen for TopKey.
Figure 5: TopKey Customization
The top section lets you select which language layouts will be available on your shortcuts (only six are allowed), while the bottom section lets you select the font style (normal or bold) and size of letters on the keyboard, and the skin for the keyboard. Tapping the Layout editor button takes you to the screen where you can rearrange or replace any of the keys on the keyboard with any character from any font, then save the result to an existing or new keyboard layout.
Figure 6: Keyboard Layout Editor
Gotchas
TopKey only really surprised me during installation. I don’t particularly like the fact it ‘forces’ a soft reset after installation. It think the message either needs to be reworded or the functionality changed to allow the user an option to do the reset later. I’m also not sure about that message saying that the .cab file was invalid.
Also, be forewarned that TopKey does not remove easily. On my HP J568, the O/S Remove function was unable to complete until after I had done a soft reset, and then I still had to go in by hand, using the File Explorer, to remove TopKey folders and files from the Program Files folder under Windows.
Where to Buy
Topkey v1.0 is available from Handango for US$14.95. [Affiliate] You can get the full-featured application for a free 14-day trial period as well.
Specifications
TopKey should work on any Pocket PC running the Pocket PC 2002 operating system. I was not able to test it on earlier versions of the O/S. It requires approximately 974K of memory and can be installed to main memory or a CF card.
The following keyboard layouts are provided with the product: Albanian, Azeri, Belgian, Bulgarian, Canadian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faeroese, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Mongolian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Swiss (French), Swiss (German), Turkish, Ukrainian, US-Dvorak.
According to the documentation, the predictive database works for English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Russian.
Conclusions
Use of the soft keyboard is not a main input method for me, but TopKey’s more professional look, feel, and customizability certainly make it a much more useable tool that the one provided with the Pocket PC operating system. Its price puts it in the top range for utilities like this and might be a barrier for some.
