Re: [NTLK] Taking notes on Newton

From: John Goggan (jgoggan_at_dcg.com)
Date: Mon Apr 22 2002 - 23:34:00 EDT


Holy crap, Ed! That has just helped my handwriting recognition a great deal!
(And I really DO write like crap!) I never thought that the "Letter Shapes"
data applied to the printing recognizer since it didn't show up when
"Printing" was selected. I've actually left my Newt on cursive for years even
though I always print because it seemed to do a better job and it was the only
way that I could specify my letter shapes!

I just installed alt.rec (I never did it before because I always had my Newt
on cursive, as I said, so I didn't think it would help any) -- and switched to
Printing (I already had all my letters defined) -- and got a SIGNIFICANT
improvement in my handwriting recognition!

I don't know how much of it was alt.rec -- and how much was finally leaving
the Newt in "Printing" mode -- but I must say it is much better -- even with
my absolutely horrible printing!

What you just said really should be in the FAQ... As a long-time Newton user
(a daily Newton user, even), I really wish I had known this years ago... :(

Thanks again, Ed!

 - John...

P.S. Can anyone confirm for certain that the Letter Shapes really ARE being
used in the Printing logic? I guess the improvement on me switching to
Printing finally could be just alt.rec -- or just the fact that maybe I write
differently than 2 years ago... I just want to be certain that the Printing
engine really IS using the Letter Shapes settings that only seem available
when the Cursive engine is selected.

Ed Kummel wrote:
>
> Here are four things that will help your handwriting
> tremendously:
> 1) Upgrade to an MP2100 (or 2000)
> 2) Get Pauls alt.rec program
> 3) Open up the Notes and set the preferences to
> Cursive. Then tap the Options button and select
> "Letter Shapes" From here, go through the entire
> alphabet and select those letters that more accuratly
> reflect the way you write the character. Make sure
> that if there is a character that you don't write a
> certain way the Newt shows, that you say "Never" for
> that character! When you're done, go ahead and set the
> recognition back to Printing.
> 4) use expansions! Sometimes when I write certain
> words, the Newton recognizes them wrong. For instance,
> the word "the". Sometimes the Newt recognizes it as
> "tne" or "t4e". I've used expansions to tell the Newt
> that whenever it sees "tne" (there is no such word as
> "tne") to put "the" there instead. I have well over a
> hundred expansions on my Newt...(thanks to alt.rec) to
> prevent common mis-recogntions on my Newt, plus I use
> expansions to expand words that I just don't feel like
> writing out so often ("MS" for "Microsoft" and "QS"
> for "QuickSilver" and so forth)
> If you use these 4 tips, you will never again have
> handwriting problems on your Newt!
> Ed
> web/gadget guru
> http://newton.tek-ed.com (download Newton packages)
> http://npds.tek-ed.com (my NPDS server and it's new
> subdomain)

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