Shapewriter updated today

[sh0ebox]

The issue of having to long press instead of "gesturing" in the punctuation marks is that it takes significantly longer when you have to press and hold a key for 1 second each time you want to use it. And the fact that the 0 prevents me from adding my username to the dictionary is that I have to enter my username in lots of places when I want to log in somewhere. having to tap in all the letters instead of "gesturing" it takes more time and is a pain, considering I can add it to my swype dictionary just fine.

I haven't given up on shapewriter yet... I'm still using it as my default input method. I just find these aspects of the app to be a bit of an annoyance, since the idea behind a gesture-based keyboard is to be more efficient by using gestures. Having to break away from gesturing to long press gets in the way of the efficiency.

 

[Matth3w]

That's the way SW USED to be. It doesn't do that anymore and that sucks. And it goes away if you hit the back key but if you touch the text box again it reappears.

I see what you mean. The trick, apparently, is to (a) use the back key once the text field is selected and (b) begin typing with the physical keyboard at that point.

Not optimal by any means. Swype has a much more intuitive behavior.

This isn't really a "feature" of SW, it's a bug present ONLY in the newest release.

 

[Flomaster]

I like Swype because I could add my email address and Shapewriter would never allow it.

You can do that in shapewriter just fine. you hit the command key slide finger to L-I-T for literal mode. then no autocaps or spaces so you can do emails. then swipe command lit again to go back to normal. Theres some nice features when you dig into it.[/QUOTE]

Nice tip with the emails, I hear that as a "downside" to Shapewriter all the time.

I cann't get shapewriter to memorize my email address even when I put it in L-I-T mode I am not able to swype my full email including the @ and . com even though i have it saved in my dictionary. and when I try and manually add it to shapewriter's dictionary it tells me invalid characters are entered and does not let me save it. I had high hopes for shapewriter too

-=Jason=-

 

[jsh1120]

I like Swype because I could add my email address and Shapewriter would never allow it.

You can do that in shapewriter just fine. you hit the command key slide finger to L-I-T for literal mode. then no autocaps or spaces so you can do emails. then swipe command lit again to go back to normal. Theres some nice features when you dig into it.

Nice tip with the emails, I hear that as a "downside" to Shapewriter all the time.

I cann't get shapewriter to memorize my email address even when I put it in L-I-T mode I am not able to swype my full email including the @ and . com even though i have it saved in my dictionary. and when I try and manually add it to shapewriter's dictionary it tells me invalid characters are entered and does not let me save it. I had high hopes for shapewriter too

-=Jason=-[/QUOTE]

Had the same problem saving an email address in the dictionary. Tried several times using the "literal" feature but no go. Seems odd that a "literal" feature wouldn't alllow just about any combination of characters.

After using Shapewriter almost exclusively for 24 hours or so, I have the impression that compared to Swype it gives more "weight" to the first letter it believes you enter. If it (or the typist) gets that wrong, the rest of the word is hopelessly garbled or confused with another word.

I'm not sure that's the case but it feels that way. Anyone else share that impression?

That's not to say there aren't features I like about it, by the way. Prefer the presentation of options for words, for example. And though I haven't used it much, I think Shapewriter might be better at capturing a selection of for cut/paste operations.

 

[Matth3w]

Give me an example, and I could try it out. I am very disappointed with this update though, I won't be singing it's praises anymore until they fix the hardware keyboard bug.

 

[jsh1120]

Give me an example, and I could try it out. I am very disappointed with this update though, I won't be singing it's praises anymore until they fix the hardware keyboard bug.

Example of what, Matt?

 

[Matth3w]

An example of something that you typed that came out garbled when you hit the wrong letter. I'm not discounting what you are saying it's just that most times when I see people say "Shapewriter refuses to type X word" when I try it, it seems to work flawlessly. Like someone had an issue typing the word "ill" and said it defaulted to something else (I forget what)...I couldn't replicate the problem.

It could also be that I am used to Shapewriter after typing on it for over a month.

 

[Sarreq Teryx]

not paying attention while trying to swype in "shapewriter", it somehow came up with "shi'ite4ever"

just thought I'd share that oddity

 

[jsh1120]

An example of something that you typed that came out garbled when you hit the wrong letter. I'm not discounting what you are saying it's just that most times when I see people say "Shapewriter refuses to type X word" when I try it, it seems to work flawlessly. Like someone had an issue typing the word "ill" and said it defaulted to something else (I forget what)...I couldn't replicate the problem.

It could also be that I am used to Shapewriter after typing on it for over a month.

Can't give you an obvious example at the moment. If I find a consistent example, I'll post it. But that wasn't exactly what I meant. Both Swype and Shapewriter attempt to make sense of a pattern of movement across the keyboard. And each does an amazing job. But my "impression" (and it's no more than that) is that Shapewriter places a heavier emphasis on what it thinks is the first letter typed.

So if Shapewriter believes I started with an "S" its algorithm is heavily biased toward words that start with "S". Or at least more heavily biased toward that set than Swype which seems to understand that if the second letter is, say, a "B," the first lettter was probably an "A," not an "S" (since few, if any, words begin with "SB" but many begin with "AB.") Shapewriter, on the other hand seems to go down a path that assumes my second letter might have been an "N" rather than a "B," giving me words that begin "SN" rather than "AB."

I hope that convoluted explanation makes sense.

I have no idea, of course, how these algorithms actually work and this behavior may simply be my imagination or the fact that I've been using Swype for over a month and either "it" or I (or both) have adjusted make it work more predictably. I've only used Shapewriter for a couple of days and my fingers don't yet "know" what to do nearly as well.

I do think it's very difficult to compare the relative performance of the two apps when you're used to one and new to the other. And both appear to have been developed from the same base of research (and probably code) developed by IBM in the '90's. So they're much more alike than different.

And I have to admit that every "deficiency" in Shapewriter I've found could be argued to be simply a different approach, no better nor worse than Swype's approach. Just an approach different from what I've become accustomed to.

 

[Matth3w]

not paying attention while trying to swype in "shapewriter", it somehow came up with "shi'ite4ever"

just thought I'd share that oddity

No offense but after using SW for over a month this just isn't believable. I know this must be a joke, because even if you try Shapewriter will not make this word, especially considering you can't swipe a number into the middle of a word.

 

[Matth3w]

:icon_ banana::icon_ banana::icon_ banana::icon_ banana::icon_ banana::icon_ banana:

Dear Sir/Ma'am,

Are you aware of the issue with the new update that the shapewriter keyboard pops up even when the hardware keyboard is out? This used to be my favorite app that I would recommend to all new Droid owners but I use my hardware keyboard too much to overlook this flaw. It never used to do this...is there a fix in the works?

Sent from my Motorola Droid
xxx.xxx.xxxx

Dear Matthew;We have noticed that, and will fix it ASAP. For now, you can use command stroke "hide" to hide ShapeWriter Keyboard.
Now we are on holiday, but we will solve it ASAP.


Thanks
Allen

 

[rednukleus]

I am testing ShapeWriter right now. It is more advanced than swype. I enjoy it. The gesture commands are fun

 

[smok1n]

With the release of Android 2.1 the Android keyboard got a microphone button for speech-to-text input - are there any plans for Shapewriter to have access to this new feature? Does it already have this and I'm just missing something? As it stands now, I have to go into the phone Settings and toggle off the Shapewriter keyboard if I want to use voice dictation.

 

[aaf709]

With the release of Android 2.1 the Android keyboard got a microphone button for speech-to-text input - are there any plans for Shapewriter to have access to this new feature? Does it already have this and I'm just missing something? As it stands now, I have to go into the phone Settings and toggle off the Shapewriter keyboard if I want to use voice dictation.

You can also long press on the text field and it will give you a choice on your input.

 

[smok1n]

With the release of Android 2.1 the Android keyboard got a microphone button for speech-to-text input - are there any plans for Shapewriter to have access to this new feature? Does it already have this and I'm just missing something? As it stands now, I have to go into the phone Settings and toggle off the Shapewriter keyboard if I want to use voice dictation.

You can also long press on the text field and it will give you a choice on your input.

Thanks aaf709!