Fat With Phat Features (1/2)
PhatWare PhatPad v3.0
INTRODUCTION
I re-joined the Pocket
PC world after having owned a Palm Tungsten T|3.
One of the most useful applications on the Palm was
Note Pad, which was basically just a blank scrap of
electronic paper that I could quickly jot a note
down as electronic ink. I found this to be
great for jotting down phone numbers, shopping lists
and such when I did not want to worry about
handwriting recognition. Note Pad also allowed
me to set a reminder to go along with a note. After
rejoining the Pocket PC world, I discovered that the
Notes application in Pocket Outlook was not working
for me in the same way that Note Pad on the Palm
did. I therefore went on a search for an
application that would give me the functionality and
simplicity of use that Note Pad did on the Palm.
In addition, I wanted the program to support the VGA
screen on my iPAQ hx4700. I ended up finding
PhatPad 2.1 from PhatWare and after a week trial, I
purchased it.
Since purchasing PhatPad 2.1, it has become one of the most
used programs on my Pocket PC. Recently, I
have reviewed two other programs from PhatWare,
Calligrapher 8 and
PhatNotes Professional 4.6. I gave both of
these programs excellent reviews. Now,
PhatWare has released a new version of PhatPad,
bringing the program to v3.0. I was
wondering what more they could add to an already
great program and also curious as to whether
PhatWare could deliver 3 outstanding products in a
row. Read on to find out!
WHAT'S HOT
You can read pocketnow.com's reviews of
PhatPad 2 and
PhatPad 2.1 to see how much we liked the last
versions of this program.
In PhatPad 3, there are three new features of special interest:
- Includes new File and Page managers for Pocket PC
- Voice notes can be added to PhatPad files
- Text and handwriting search capability
- Includes new Pocket PC Today screen add-on
- Supports Windows Mobile 5.0
SETUP
Setup of this application is very
straightforward. Simply double-click the .exe file and the
application will install on both the desktop and the Pocket PC.
You can choose whether or not you want to install the desktop
application and the documentation. The Pocket PC application can
be installed to main memory, to built-in storage or to an external
storage card. I chose to install the application to the built-in
storage on my device.
PROGRAM FEATURES
As I mentioned, pocketnow.com previously
published reviews of
PhatPad 2 and
PhatPad 2.1. If you are not familiar with
the basic functions of this program, I suggest you
read these reviews. Essentially, v3.0
includes all the features of version 2.1 and
functions the same way. Instead of repeating
the previous reviews, I will concentrate on the new
features of PhatPad 3 and also speak a little bit
about the desktop application which was not covered
in our previous reviews. If you are not
familiar with the basic functions of this program, I
suggest you read these reviews.
One of the most significant changes to the look and feel of v3.0 is the new two dimensional preview screen in the PhatPad file manager. Why is this new screen especially useful? One neat feature of PhatPad is that this program will automatically name your files for you. Usually, the files are named using the date and time the file was created, although you can change this easily in the options screen. If you allow file naming in this manner, you will end up with a long list of files with names that are not especially distinctive. Of course, you can manually name files but this is an extra step. In v3.0, you do not have to take that extra step because the two dimensional preview screen lets you see a thumbnail preview of each file. To open a file simply tap it with your stylus. If you want to bring up other options, you can tap and hold on a thumbnail just like in the list view file manager.
The screen shot on the left shows the new two dimensional preview screen while the right screen shot shows the traditional file list. As you can see, it is much easier to find the file you are looking for by browsing the thumbnails.
I am a big fan of the new two dimensional preview screen. I like letting PhatPad auto-name the files for me and then not worrying about trying to figure out which one is which. By glancing at the thumbnails, PhatPad makes it really easy to quickly find the file you are looking for.
One thing missing from previous versions of PhatPad was the ability to add voice notes to your file. PhatWare has rectified this omission in v3.0. Adding a voice note to a file is as easy as clicking the speaker with a red square icon on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen which pops up a voice toolbar.
This is the voice toolbar. Click the red dot recording button to start recording and the stop button to stop.
PhatWare made it really easy to play back a voice note. From either the two dimensional preview screen or the Today screen plug-in (discussed below) all you have to do is click the speaker icon and the voice recording will play back without opening the PhatPad file. It really couldn't be any easier to use.
PhatPad has also been updated to support the latest versions of PhatWare's excellent Calligrapher program. If Calligrapher is installed on your Pocket PC, you can turn your handwritten notes into text... even at a later time. I have Calligrapher 8 installed on my Pocket PC and the integration between it and PhatPad works flawlessly. To make this integration even better, PhatWare has added a search feature to the program. You can search text or even handwriting! When searching handwriting, Calligrapher performs recognition on the handwritten parts of your file to see if it finds a match. You can designate parts of your drawing to not be searched and this helps recognition. For example, if you have a drawing of a map, you can designate the street lines not to be recognized.
To activate the search function, click on the Tools menu and select Find. The search function allows you to search text or handwriting in your files. Searching handwriting requires you to have Calligrapher 7 or later installed on your Pocket PC.
The other major feature addition to v3.0 is the new Today screen plug-in. If you do not read the instructions first, you may wonder why the Today screen plug-in does not show up on the Today Items screen in settings on your Pocket PC. Before it will show up there, you need to activate the plug-in within PhatPad. This is done very easily by selecting Tools > Options and then checking Enable Toady screen add-on. Once this is done, the plug-in will be visible in the Today Items screen.
On the left is the options screen where you must enable the Today screen plug-in. By default, the Today screen plug-in will show you the most recently modified documents. You can scroll through the files using the up and down arrows and open a new PhatPad file by clicking the PhatPad icon in the plug-in.
You can also configure the plug-in from the Today Items screen by highlighting it and clicking the Options button. You can then configure the height of the plug-in and whether you want it to automatically resize and show the caption at the top of the plug-in.
Personally, I have assigned PhatPad to one of the hardware buttons on my iPAQ to get quick access to it. If you do not wish to assign a hardware button to the application, you may be interested in this new feature, but I usually try to keep the number of plug-ins on my Today screen to a minimum.
Another major new feature of v3.0 is Windows mobile 5 compatibility. I do not have a WM5 device, so I was unable to test this out. From reading the instruction manual, I was able to see that PhatWare has implemented full support for the soft buttons in WM5, which should make using the program even easier.
The last feature I will cover is the included desktop application that comes with PhatPad. In a nutshell, anything you can do in the handheld application you can also do in the desktop application. The only exception to this is handwriting recognition. On the Pocket PC, to perform handwriting recognition of a PhatPad document, you need to have Calligrapher 7 or higher installed. On the desktop, you will need PhatWare's Pen Office or a Tablet PC to perform handwriting recognition. Keep in mind that you can perform handwriting recognition at any time and either on the desktop PC or the Pocket PC. This is handy if you do not have Pen Office or a Tablet PC (which I do not).
PhatWare spent a lot of time making sure that all the functionality of the Pocket PC version of the program is included in the desktop version. Furthermore, PhatWare recognizes that a desktop application's interface needs to be different than a Pocket PC interface. As such, the desktop application follows all Windows conventions and will be immediately usable to anyone familiar with a Microsoft Office program.
The desktop application is divided into three panes (click image for higher resolution). The left pane is a list view of your PhatPad files, the center a view of the currently open file and the right is a preview of other pages in your file, if any. You can click on the screen shot to view a larger version.
One feature I especially like in the desktop application are the tutorials. The tutorials help train you to use the program features including:
- Tutorial 1: The Basics
- Tutorial 2: Working With Images
- Tutorial 3: Working With Forms
- Tutorial 4: Working With Recognizer and Spell Checker
- Tutorial 5: Animations
The tutorials are not interactive, but they are very helpful nonetheless.
