Comments on: Review: WordSmith 2.1.1

When was the last time so many people are so excited about a software update?

never! Now let's open up the champange

It sure does seem very rare to have a software company deliver on promise. Great job Blue Nomad!

Can Anyone else reproduce this error? Open a Doc up on the Pilot and goto Options - User Dictionary.

Your review specifically mentions that the documents saved on the card are not backed up to the PC which is true for all files saved on the card.

However, I am not clear as to whether this also means that documents that are edited from the card will not have the changes synchronized to the desktop thru the WordSmith conduit.

Could you please clear up this confusion for me?

Also one other question comes to mind. Is it possible to set a document stored on the card as read only? It seems to me that this would help address the speed issue involved in transferring large documents to the Palm's RAM at least for documents like e-books that the user is unlikely to edit. A document marked read only could be handled similar to the way that PalmReader handles e-books stored on the card which does not require the full book to be transferred to Palm RAM.

I'm probably wasting my time saying Wordsmith is the best palm prog I have ever used. I'm sure many feel this way aswell :). Amazingly well done programs like wordsmith are necessary for poeple who have totally replaced their laptop. As a business user, whats the point of having a laptop if all the functions are there in your handheld? Infact, I prefer using wordsmith to actually word, I feel it is so much better at what it does. Its amazing what you can do with your handheld these days. I remember when I had to lug my laptop to make presentations, now I use margi's module and it works just aswell. With modem,networking addons, you really don't need laptops. Can't wait for bluenomad to release their excel alternative.

Question, programs like documents to go are either included or are free with rebates from palm,handspring,and handera. Why don't they give us wordsmith instead?

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When you have a Clie shoved up your mouth, you can only talk in vowels.

You said you can't backup the files on the Expansion Card...

Doesn't bluenomad also make BackupBuddy that will allow you to backup the files on the Card at each HotSync?

Curious if anyone else has experienced problems with trying to sync documents using the Wordsmith apps (Classic or Carbon). I have tested that the Classic app works fine running in only OS 9.2.2 to sync, but neither version will sync docs running in either OS X or in Classic within OS X.

Thanks.

I downloaded the latest for the MacOS (version 2.1.2) from the bluenomad website and installed it according the instructions. However there is no spell checker, thesaurus or finetype manager in the version that I downloaded. Does anyone know where I can get the version with the spellchecker/thesaurus?

Another new version seems to be out. Version 2.1.2 is found on palm gear.

I have great luck running all of Wordsmith from my Smartmedia card on my Prism. Here is how I have it configured:
1. Wordsmith is located in the "Launcher" directory using the latest "Launcher III" - You must have PiVFS on your Visor for this to work.
2. Make a "Shortcut" to Wordsmith in Launcher III. This allows the hotsync conduit to see wordsmith & sync the files with word.
3. Put the dictionary in your \palm\pidirect directory. It runs fine from there. If you don't have a visor with a memplug, Pi sells Pidirect for all other devices. It is fantastic!

With this setup, my syncs work great, and Wordsmith and the large dictionary take up about 6K or 7K of space on my RAM, the rest being on my Smartmedia card. There is a 7 second delay in launching Wordsmith from my memory card (probably less if I had a CF or Memplug), but this is well worth the 500+K savings. The dictionary runs a little slower (how could it be slower???) but it is not that noticable.
Doug

I only got into this last month after trying all the other demo programs available. I was really impressed at the changable FineType fonts. Some documents look SO much better on the Visor on it then say DtG or Quickword. And, at least with the documents I tested, I had less problems syncing with WS.

I was able to set my system up via the MemPlugCF to run with everything on the card. PiDirect has the programs and dictionaries under control, where PiVFSmgr controls all the storage of the files. Despite a false start that required a reinstall to clear, it seems to be working fine. I do have to have the appropriate PiDirectory active when I hotsync, otherwise nothing is synced to the PC. I thought at one time that I got a card based doc file to sync to the PC, but that might have been a temporary file or wishful thinking.

This program is CHOCK full of nifty features - expect to take a lot of time finding them all. But for me it fills the need - Tied with a Landware GoType Pro keyboard, this thing functions as my Laptop. And they got it out just in time for my business trip next week. I couldn't be more thrilled. This is a 5 star release...


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Mark A. Brinkman aka Omnitron
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I've been running some tests on the spellchecking module of WordSmith to see how accurate the claims of not being able to perform better because of CPU speed by the developer. Different programmers have different way of producing code, and the routines of that code, as well as the language of that code, have a large impact on the speed of the resulting application. I became suspicious of the spell checking problem right away, and my hat is off to BlueNomad for questioning it's performance in the beginning, but also for realizing that a slow-show is better than a no-show. WordSmith has been, and continues to be, my favorite.

There are many examples of similar applications to do the exact same task on identical hardware, but there can be drastic differences in speed. Back in the old days, there were two major spell checkers for AppleWorks and /// EZ Pieces. One was Apple Speller, and I think the other was Speller ///. They both worked well, but Speller /// was light years faster in doing the same task. It is important to note that both were faster than the spell checker supplied with WordSmith.

I am not familiar with the third party vendor, but they need to rewrite their code, or BlueNomad needs to look elsewhere. You can't blame hardware when your product is out performed by 15 year old software running on a retired 18 year old computer with 256K of RAM. A quick comparison is below just to rule the "It's because it's a Palm" theory. Measurements are made in Words Per Second, running on a Palm M505 with 8Mb of RAM, 128Mb expansion, and all tested applications in native RAM. Document is a 275 word memo which could be checked by both applications. All words in the document which were missing from the dictionary were added to the dictionary so the test could be completed without interruption.

SpellSmith with large dictionary: 1.8835616 WPS
SpellSmith with small dictionary: 5.3921569 WPS
SpellMan with large dictionary: 28.947368 WPS

Same document, same Palm, same CPU. Has anyone else done some additional testing? Feel free to share your comments.

One poster mentioned that Bluesync allows us to backup our cards to our computer and that's great. But what people are looking for from Blue Nomad is the ability to convert the files onto their desktop, not just back them up. Bluesynce will only put palm database files on the computer. You won't be able to use them with Word.

Is anyone else getting fatal alerts with 2.1.2? I get them when I delete a file or when pressing on the Home button to get out of Wordsmith. I'm using a Clie S320.

Despite all that WordSmith does as a word processor on your Palm, it is an expensive, costly, high-priced application (I am pretending I am the thesaurus for WordSmith). Once it comes down in price, to about $15 or less, then I might think about buying it. It is an application I need, but not that badly. I will wait and see if these companies have any mercy on guys who can't afford as much as the CEO of Microsoft.