Palmone IIIx Handheld Handbook

							Chapter 2 Page 23
Chapter 2
Entering Data in Your
Palm III
™ Organizer
This chapter explains how to enter data into your Palm III™ 
organizer, by writing with the stylus in the Graffiti® writing area, by 
using the onscreen keyboard, by using the computer keyboard, or by 
importing data from another application.
Using Graffiti writing to enter data
Chapter 1 introduced Graffiti writing and briefly described how to use 
it to enter text in your applications. In this section, you learn the 
procedures for creating letters, numbers, punctuation, and symbols as 
well as some Graffiti tips and tricks.
Writing Graffiti characters
Most people find they can enter text quickly and accurately with only 
minutes of practice. Graffiti writing includes any character you can 
type on a standard keyboard. The Graffiti strokes closely resemble the 
uppercase letters of the regular alphabet, which makes Graffiti writing 
easy to learn. 
There are four basic concepts for success with Graffiti writing:
nIf you draw the character shape exactly as shown in the tables later 
in this chapter (like the shapes shown in the following diagram), 
you achieve 100% accuracy.
nThe heavy dot on each shape shows where to begin the stroke. 
Certain characters have similar shapes, but different beginning 
and end points. Always begin the stroke at the heavy dot (you 
should not create the heavy dot; it is only there to show you where 
to begin the stroke). 
						

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nMost characters require only a single stroke. When you lift the 
stylus from the Graffiti writing area, your organizer recognizes 
and displays the text character immediately. To accomplish single 
strokes, some Graffiti strokes are portions of the regular alphabet 
equivalents.
nThe Graffiti writing area is divided into two parts: one for writing 
the letters of the alphabet and one for writing numbers. The small 
marks at the top and bottom of the Graffiti writing area indicate 
the two areas.
To write Graffiti letters:
1. Tap the screen where you want your text to go. 
Note:You need to tap above the Graffiti writing area, and must 
see a blinking cursor before you write the text.
2. Use the tables on the following pages to find the stroke shape for 
the letter you want to create. For example, the stroke shown below 
creates the letter “n.”
Note:There are two different stroke shapes available for some 
letters. For these letters, choose the one that’s easiest for 
you.
As you’ll see later, you use the same shape to create both the 
uppercase and lowercase version of a letter.
3. Position the stylus in the left-hand side of the Graffiti writing area. 
Write letters here Write numbers here
Division marks
Start stroke 
at heavy dotLift stylus 
here 
						

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4. Start your stroke at the heavy dot and draw the stroke shape as it 
appears in the tables.
5. Lift the stylus from the screen at the end of the stroke shape.
That’s all there is to it! When you lift the stylus from the screen, your 
organizer recognizes your stroke immediately and prints the letter at 
the insertion point on the screen.
As soon as you lift the stylus from the screen, you can begin the stroke 
for the next character you want to write.
Important:You must begin the character strokes in the Graffiti 
writing area. If you do not make Graffiti strokes in the 
Graffiti writing area, your organizer does not recognize 
them as text characters.
Graffiti tips
When using Graffiti writing, keep these tips in mind:
nAccuracy improves when you write large characters. You should 
draw strokes that nearly fill the Graffiti writing area.
nTo delete characters, simply set the insertion point to the right of 
the character you want to delete and make the backspace stroke 
(a line from right to left) in the Graffiti writing area.
nWrite at natural speed. Writing too slowly can generate 
recognition errors.
nDo not write on a slant. Vertical strokes should be parallel to the 
sides of the Graffiti writing area.
nPress firmly. 
						

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The Graffiti alphabet
Letter Strokes Letter Strokes
AN
B
   O   
CP    
D    Q
ER
    
F    S
G
   T
HU
IV
   
JW
KX
   
LY    
M    Z
Space Back Space
Carriage
ReturnPeriodtap twice 
						

							Chapter 2 Page 27
Writing capital letters
You make capital letters with the same stroke shapes as the basic 
alphabet characters. To make capital letters, you must first “shift” to 
caps — just as you press the Shift key on a keyboard — and then write 
the character strokes.
Note:Graffiti writing includes a feature that automatically 
capitalizes the first letter when you create a new sentence or a 
new record (by tapping New or a blank line). 
To draw the first letter of a word as a capital letter:
nUse the Caps Shift stroke:
Tip:When Caps Shift is active, an “up arrow” symbol appears in 
the lower-right corner of the organizer screen. If you 
accidentally activate Caps Shift, backspace will cancel it.
To enter only capital letters (Caps Lock):
nUse the Caps Lock stroke:
Tip:When Caps Lock is active, an underlined “up arrow” symbol 
appears in the lower-right corner of the organizer screen. To 
return to lowercase, make the Caps Shift stroke.
Writing numbers
Writing numbers with Graffiti writing is similar to writing letters of 
the alphabet, except that you make the character strokes on the right-
hand side (numbers side) of the Graffiti writing area.Caps
Shift
   
Caps
Lock   
Caps Shift
Caps Lock 
						

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Graffiti numbers
Writing punctuation marks
Graffiti writing can create any punctuation symbol that you can enter 
from a standard keyboard. All punctuation marks begin with a single 
tap on the Graffiti writing area. When you make this tap, you activate 
Punctuation Shift and a dot appears to show it is active. The next 
stroke you make with the stylus creates a punctuation mark.
Note:When Punctuation Shift is active, you can make a symbol 
stroke anywhere in the Graffiti writing area (the letters or 
numbers side). Number Strokes Number Strokes
0
    5    
1 6
27
 
38    
4    9
Punctuation Shift 
						

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Additional Graffiti punctuation
Writing symbols and extended characters
All symbols and extended characters begin with the stroke in the 
Graffiti writing area of your organizer:
When the Symbol Shift is active, a slanted shift symbol appears in the 
lower-right corner of the screen. The next stroke that you make creates 
the symbol or extended character.Symbol Stroke Symbol Stroke
Period
.
 Dash
—
Comma
,Left Paren
(
Apostrophe
Right Paren
)
Question
?Slash
/
 
Exclamation
!Dollar
$
Symbol
Shift
   
@     #     %     ^      &    *     <     >      –     +      =      | 
      {      }     [       ]     ~     `         ;     :            tab
Symbol Shift 
						

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Writing accented characters
To create accented characters, draw the stroke normally used to create 
the letter, followed by an accent stroke. Graffiti writing then adds the 
accent to the letter.
For example, the following diagram shows the strokes required to 
draw an accented “e.”
Accent strokes
Using these accent strokes, you can write the following accented 
letters:
à  á  â  ã  ä  å  è  é  ê  ì  í  î  ï  ò  ó  ô  õ  ö  ù  ú  û  ü  ÿ  ý  ñ
Additional non-English characters
You can write the following characters in the lowercase alphabet 
mode without any special punctuation or shifting:
Note:You must write these non-English characters in the left side of 
the Graffiti writing area.
·       Ô       Ò       Ó      ,,, ,,
. ,
+
±X:=
= cY? !
¦Æ
= e
a         a       a        a        a       a
ca
e 
						

							Chapter 2 Page 31
Navigation strokes
In addition to character symbols, Graffiti writing includes special 
strokes that you can use to navigate within text or fields in your 
applications. 
Graffiti ShortCuts
Graffiti ShortCuts make entering commonly used words or phrases 
quick and easy. ShortCuts are similar to the Glossary or Autotext 
features of some word processors. 
Graffiti writing comes with several predefined ShortCuts, and you can 
also create your own. Each ShortCut can represent up to 45 characters. 
For example, you might create a ShortCut for your name, or for the 
header of a memo. See “ShortCuts preferences” in Chapter 7 to learn 
about creating your own ShortCuts.
To use a ShortCut, draw the ShortCut stroke followed by the ShortCut 
characters. When you draw the ShortCut stroke, the ShortCut symbol 
appears at the insertion point to show that you are in ShortCut mode.Command Stroke
Move cursor right
 
Move cursor left
Previous field
(Address Book only)
Next Field
(Address Book only)
Open Address Record
(Address Book only)
ShortCut
    
						

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Your organizer includes the following predefined Graffiti ShortCuts:
    Entry ShortCut
Date stampds
Time stampts
Date / time stampdts
Meetingme
Breakfastbr
Lunchlu
Dinnerdi