I've tried several third-party tools to increase my accuracy, and to replace the default keyboard that comes with the Palm device. I very nearly bought another optimized-layout product, but didn't like the fact that it won't offer "guesses" to complete the word I am tapping. It was a very good product, and I found the logic of its layout design most appealing. However, I am used to shareware add-ons that run $10 to $25 dollars, and was reluctant to spend more when I wasn't totally sure I would keep using it. But that is the beauty of shareware, especially for the Palm platform.

Then I discovered T9.

The T9 display
The T9 program is available for a number of platforms, and is now available for the Palm platform. T9 displays large buttons on the screen to encompass all letters of the alphabet. You can also select symbols and numbers by pressing the Sym and 123 buttons, respectively. T9 works by replacing the normal keyboard on your PalmPilot.

The layout of the nine T9 buttons are very similar to a telephone keypad. As you touch the buttons, T9 uses logic (and an internal word database) to figure out if the a,b,or c is the most likely letter you wanted, as shown in Figure A. It's quite accurate and it's fun to watch in actual operation.

FIGURE A

T9 looks a lot like a telephone keypad. Click picture for a larger image.

Using T9
Normally, you would tap on any part of the large buttons. Should you touch a word that T9 doesn't have in it's dictionary to offer, T9 will beep, and you can then enter the exact letters by tapping on each individual letter (rather than the larger button area).

You can also teach T9 words, such as your Internet domain name or personal name. In the beginning it didn't recognize Carmichael, for example, but it does now. Likewise, you can have it display the punctuation choices or international symbols, or numbers in a large, easy-to-read display.

If you want to tap in all uppercase, you can tap the shift button twice quickly and T9 will lock into uppercase until you tap the shift button again. It automatically uppercases the first letter of a sentence.