A Tablet Input Panel alternative: Inker

Atozed Software is confident that they have a Tablet PC Input Panel alternative that's more efficient than the native TIP found in Windows. After watching the demo video, they might be on to something, but I'll have to install "Inker" and give it a try. My general observation is that Inker might be preferred by some, but it looks a bit too cluttered for my use on a UMPC. I do have a full-sized Tablet PC though so I can give it a go on both.

Some of the efficiencies noted might be a little overstated. For example, the product page says that it takes four taps to capitalize a word in the native TIP, while it's a single gesture in Inker. I count two taps, not four: one tap on the word shows the possible auto-complete options in the TIP and the first one is almost always the same word capitalized (or in lowercase if you wrote the word in caps). Regardless, I'm all for text-entry input options, so I'll take a look. You can too with a free download right here. You'll need Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 and of course a Windows edition that supports Tablet PC functionality.

Comments

[bluespapa]

I love having more alternatives for text entry, and it looked like Inker could become a must have, but it crashed on me three times in the first -- still incomplete - sentence. Ordinary things like backspacing did not work at all consistently. It's in beta, so it could be killer very soon, but not yet.

[AllanCJ]

I gave it a try. On one occasion it just stopped working. Another time I couldn't see how to get it out of its translucent mode and into properly functioning mode.

I'm not sure I care for the endlessly extending line of text. It makes it hard to review what you've written at a glance.

Potentially it could overcome one of the big problems I find with TIP, which is that you are (or rather I am) continually shifting between modes - handwriting, virtual keyboard and symbol keypad. That's time consuming and clunky with the TIP.

[Hristo Stefanov]

Hello, can you guys join us http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Inker-Users/join and share your experience? We are eager to investigate and fix any issues and fine tune Inker according to user feedback.

Besides, good testers will get free copies.

Regards, Hristo Stefanov.
Agile text input on Tablet PC with http://atozed.com/Inker

[Mark H]

I love TabletPCs but I don't like hand writing recognition for text input - I find it too slow and error prone. Mostly in slate mode I will be entering URLs and I find you end up doing a lot of correcting if enter them in the TIP, so I prefer to use Fitaly. Though sometimes it's slow at generating characters for the target input box.

[Chad Hower]

Thats why we built Inker. Using TIP full time was just painful (I have a slate too). Give Inker a try - you might be surprised and if you have suggestions, we'd be very open.

Inker is still beta - but for me Inker has made my slate USABLE without a keyboard.

[Nikooo]

Hey Chad, Hey AllanCJ,

are you guys thinking about developing Inker on Linux? There's to date no real and working solution for this OS. With Ubuntu growing larger and larger every day, you may find an interesting niche market there :)

[Chad Hower]

Anything is possible. :) But its .NET 3.5, C# and relies on the Windows recognition engine which is a huge amount of code......

However I do have plans for Cosmos:
http://www.gocosmos.org

[Ben Watson]

I'm trying Inker. It seems to recognize better than TIP and the interface is clearly more intelligent and efficient. However, it is full of bugs. It will often change the order of words after a correction. After successfully recognizing a word, if a different word in the workspace is corrected, it may change a previous word to something entirely different. It loses keystrokes when the recognized text is sent to Word For example "good" is recognized, but appears as "god" when transferred to Word. There is almost no information about how to use the program. To have access to the "user forum" one must provide Yahoo with personal data (or set up a fake account). Inker looks like it has considerable potential, but I don't expect to dispense with Fitaly and MessagEase.

[Chad Z. Hower]

The current build has several issues that have been unconverred by users. We are working on getting new builds out later in the week.

We are also working on separate forums, but Yahoo groups were the most expedient and most users already have yahoo accounts of one form or another.

You can also use the contact form on the website to send feedback and bug reports.

The word jumbling is a new bug, and we are working on that was well.

[Chad Hower]

Also keep in mind, its a beta release. :)

[Ben Watson]

I've been using this program and trying to help development. It's going very well, I can actually get productive with it. It isn't perfect but it is better at recognition than XP TIP and error correction is much easier. It's still in beta testing.

Ben Watson