Ergo, The Keyboard Is Mightier Still Than The Sword24 March 2003 I was reminded recently that keyboards have an important role to play in mobile writing. I've been writing on a keyboard-less PDA for about six months, up until recently. In September of last year, I gave up my trusty Jornada 565 and switched to a Toshiba e570, the 64MB version of the popular Audiovox Maestro and the precursor to the current Toshiba Genio e550G. I did so because I wanted to get used to using a Pocket PC without a keyboard, and I wanted to start using an SD card. I knew that I'd be getting a Pocket PC Phone Edition in another month or so, a device that not only lacked a Compact Flash slot, but also at the time lacked any kind of keyboard option. So for six months now, I've been using a keyboard-less device, writing everything -- well, nearly everything -- with my stylus. I switch back and forth between Jot, Graffiti and Fitaly as needed, but I still noticed that my output has suffered recently. Granted, I've been busy. In the last six months, I've started a job, resigned, been unemployed, started another job, moved into a new apartment and managed to stick with my weekly column deadline the entire time (though I was a day late on a few of them). Regardless, I know that my output hasn't dropped off because I haven't had time to write. I've been able to write my column just fine. I'm still making time to write. Granted, because my column has a weekly deadline and my novel can be finished whenever, the column generally gets precedence. I'm finding time to write, but I haven't been writing fiction. For quite some time now. Recently, something changed. I redisovered the keyboard. I've taken to writing at a McDonald's near my apartment in the mornings over breakfast. This isn't bad now, and might be better when they roll out their "free hour of WiFi with a combo meal" offer nationwide (though maybe not; see my recent column on avoiding distractions). I wrote that column on avoiding distractions mostly in Letter Recognizer, and got about 700 words down in two hours of writing. I stopped writing when writer's cramp siezed up my hideous claw and I could write no more. How Tolstoy wrote War and Peace longhand I will never understand. I finished the column on my laptop a few days later, about fifteen minutes before I posted it. Then, my ViewSonic V35 arrived. I had already purchased a keyboard for it, and was able to get it up and ready to go for my morning writing session just an hour or so after opening the box (see last week's column on getting a Pocket PC up and running fast from factory defaults). I sat down at McDonald's, ate my breakfast, unfolded the keyboard and started writing the aforementioned column on surviving a hard reset. Ninety minutes later, I had finished all 1200 words of the column, and kind of wanted to keep going, but I had to get home and get ready to go to work. Later that day, I wrote 500 more words while on break at my job. Output that would have been tedious if not impossible with a stylus is pretty easy with a keyboard, and the foldable (made by Darfon, the same keyboard marketed under the Belkin name for the Palm and under HP's brand for the iPAQ) that I have is slim and light and easy to carry with me everywhere in my back pocket. Now, before everyone shoots me a "thank you, Captain Obvious" email, I'd like to examine why keyboards are such a boon to mobile writers. After all, wasn't the original point of writing with PDAs the idea that you didn't have to be seated with a flat surface in front of you in order to write? In a lot of cases, that would be true. Let's say you're standing in line at the grocery store, a quart of frozen banana guacamole in your basket, when a few lines of witty dialogue pop into your head (they don't even have to be part of anything you're currently writing; many writers record such snippets to be used later). With a PDA, you can sling the basket over your forearm and write the mot juste down while it's still fresh in your mind. But say it isn't just a few lines. Maybe it's a whole one-act play full of dialogue. Then what do you do? Keeping in the mind the principle of using the right tool for the right job, maybe you should put the frozen banana guacamole back in the frozen foods case, go over to the pub next door and unfold your keyboard. I suppose what I'm getting at is that the ideal of mobile computing -- mobile writing, anyway -- is multiple input methods for multiple situations. Using the stylus is fine for things, the keyboard is better for others. I don't think I could realistically go back to using either exclusively. My ViewSonic will do nicely for now -- though I do miss the internet access of my XDA when it comes to research -- but no matter what PDA I jump to next, I'll be buying a foldable keyboard to go with it. Jeff Kirvin
Jeff Kirvin is available for consulting on mobile technology. Email me today! |