Wing your pen with

EFFICIENT ELEGANCE

fast writing on-screen keyboards

Curvette En and Proximator En

installable as programs on some Palm handhelds,

tested on a Palm Tungsten E and TX (ALPHATROS Curvette is also available for the Z22 160x160-screen) and

specialized for the English language with the help of computer simulations and analysis on English texts to minimize pen movements.

Once installed and activated via the Activation Program recognizable by ,

the keyboard can be invoked (from within any at least built-in application e.g. MemoPad),

by simply tapping on "abc" in the graffiti area, or by activating the command bar (grafitti / ) and then selecting "i".

(The standard virtual keyboard can be invoked by tapping on "abc" a second time.)

Those demo versions, which you can download here, can be invoked only every second day - perhaps today.

The full version is personalized in containing your user name and available for 19 € via E_Mail to w.voll@t-online.de

Both keyboards are different in

how they achieve a quicker writing

and in the kind of fun those methods make.

In common they have buttons

to write time with date,

to toggle letter size in the text field (large/small),

switch the device off,

to show 14 memory keys for recall of text, e.g. often used words or phrases.

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The keyboards

EFFICIENT ELEGANCE

Proximator En

Download Demo (alphatros_proximator_en.prc)

This on-screen keyboard

is 2 keyboards:

The fixed blue keyboard and the yellow mobile proxi-keyboard.

The proxi-keyboard - containing the most frequently used letters -

can jump to surround always the most recently tapped letter of the blue keyboard.

On the bottom of the fixed keyboard

the anywhere sliding functions backspace, space, y, h

are shown for recall,

which are applicable anywhere (except on the closing button: the bird at the lower left corner).

For a quick check, the latest word appears at the nib of your pen

when performing the space slide until the pen is lifted.

On the bottom of the fixed keyboard you see the sliding functions which apply anywhere on the keyboard:

backspace, space, y, h

ALPHATROS Proximator En is easy and very fast.

But start slowly because the displacements of the proxi-keyboard will irritate you in the beginning.

Further useful features:

The latest word appears at the nib of your pen when performing the space slide.

The lower left corner is the closing key.

If you do not tapp but slide on it down the device is powered off.

Sliding up changes the size of the written letters in the text field.

The key bottom right shows up the 14 memory keys.

e.g. often used phrases. Marked text is saved in the tapped key and

shown as far as the key's size allows. The key is then ready for use.

In shift state the bottom right key inserts a line with the date

including weekday and time with seconds.

The caps or shift key (black triangle) is lockable by a second tap.

The text is scrollable by tapping on the lines on its right or below/above them, or by the up-down hard keys.

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If you have to change between languges or if you write much:

EFFICIENT ELEGANCE

Curvette En

By its short cut sliding style after sufficient practice

you write even quicker with Curvette than with Proximator.

Download Demo (alphatros_curvette_en.prc)

This on-screen keyboard is for most handheld computers running PalmOS 3.5 or higher ,

using 320x320 pixels. Also 320x480 pixels ( Palm T3 ) and 160x160 by demand.

There are Spanish, French, Italian and German versions too. And you can switch between all easily. See below.

This keyboard has achieved

optimal stylus performance in English,

to be most effective and even entertaining

by the tap 'n' slide method :

Spaces and vowels are entered by pressing the desired consonant key,

and sliding the unlifted stylus to the vowels

which surround any key as shown by the yellow key image.

This is a pleasant parallel to how you speak:

the consonant like a tap, the vowels like gliding.

So you will soon get used to performing it automatically.

Thus only the half of aimed taps are needed,

the taps on the remaining letter keys, placed closer together, by computer simulations.

Once installed and activated, the keyboard can be invoked

from within any application (e.g. MemoPad), by simply tapping on "abc" in the graffiti area.

The standard virtual keyboard can be invoked by tapping on "abc" a second time.

In some applications (e.g. Word to Go), the ALPHATROS Glissando En keyboard can only be invoked

by activating the command bar (grafitti / ) and then selecting "i".

In portrait shaped devices (Palm T3) the keyboard can be started

by one tap in all portrait-sizable applications (e.g. built-in ones, Word to Go,...).

How to write with ALPHATROS Curvette En

The first line of keys begins with a D which inserts a line with the date

including weekday and time with seconds,

and ends with the keys for cut and paste.

The key below "cut" makes the written text above appear small or large,

The key below "paste" shows up the 14 memory keys for recall of text,

e.g. often used phrases. Marked text is saved in the tapped key and

shown as far as the key's size allows. The key is then ready for use.

A direct memory key is on the right of the th-key.

The caps key (black triangle) is lockable by a second tap.

Sliding down from the lower left corner closing key powers off.

The large lower right corner of the keyboard is the backspace button.

It also serves as the slide map showing how any key is surrounded by the slidable vowel regions.

Those vowels which are in the center we don't regard before later.

Well, let's write something.

Press the key th, slide enough to the right and lift the pen. You get "the" .

In the same way you get generally the vowels.

To get " the" with a space in front, you press on th,

slide over at least a small distance to the upper right. This always gives you the space.

(As soon this space detour travelled is long enough, a black rectangular appears on the left of the pressed key.)

Then slide further on to the e-position to the right as before. The whole movement is shown in yellow.

E.g. for " which" press wh, then m(via the space detour to the upper right) slide down into the i-region

( between the a and e there is a gate to the i ) and tap on c and h.

Try: why, do, fun, fan, fill...

The space detour is the fastest way to get the space.

But thus you have two slightly different slide patterns for the vowels to slide:

with and without space: with and without detour: in the example: for " whi" and "whi".

If you want to start the vowel slide tour always in the center of the key

as a standard starting position, there are several possibilities:

1) You can start that space detour closer to the lower left corner of the key.

Or 2) After the detour, you could return to the center and then slide further.

Or 3) you can make the space on any key as a seperate horizontal stroke to the right entirely inside the key.

For "tea" you slide from the t to the right into the e-region then further straight

(or in crossing the t key a bit) to the a-region.

What if the new word begins with a vowel or with "y", like "you"?

You press the empty key located to the right of the qu-key

( or the caps key),

slide to the upper right for the space as mentioned above,

and further on via y and o until u according to the slide map.

So " you" is one spiral movement before the pen's take off at m (below qu ).

This is a pattern like others you can easily discover by looking at the slide map.

Soon you will perform them automatically, what makes typing very fast.

Look at the slide map and you can easily imagine the slides for other double vowels (including y)

e.g. in yes, yacht, yield.

And, starting on a consonant key, in weight (notice the ght-key), field, mail, dial, default, true, sea, loan.

Basically this is it, but you can use some additional features to become even quicker :

By far the most useful ones are No 1 and 2 :

1) You can see several letters inside the map's center, e.g. a y near the e.

This means for example for "they", that you don't need

to slide to the y-position according to the map, but you can lift the pen

when you return from the e to the key initially pressed and get the "y" nevertheless.

Similarly you get the bold vowels in passion, way, fruit, soil, .......

without to slide to those vowels' position.

2) By a slide to the left entirely inside any key

you can delete all the letters at once, you entered by the last tap 'n slide.

Any further such slide deletes one letter only.

3) A tap on the empty key writes: " I".

4) After having already released a vowel, espacially e, during a slide,

you can add "n" according to the map by sliding further, to the n. It's usable for words with -en ending.

(If you also use ALPHATROS Curvette Es, Fr, or It having not this n, you 'd better not use it and avoid confusion.)

For OS>=5 :

5) You can get the "r" like in "pry" by pressing the p key (slide north-east for the space perhaps)

and repress the p key north from the preceding press point and slide further for the "y".

The English, Spanish, French, Italian and German versions

of the ALPHATROS Curvette keyboard ( ALPHATROS Curvette En, Es, Fr, It, and De ),

are similar enough to have them all installed and activated on a single device (for the price of a single licence).

PalmOS5 users can switch between the various keyboards even from within the active application

by a slide on the lower left corner, which is the closing key.