Graffiti Alphabet of the Palm Pilot

One of the more compelling features of the Palm is its ability to recognize script from a stylus (or pen). Although the Palm is not yet smart enough to recognize your handwriting, it does have a script of its own which will allow you to enter data quickly into any Palm application. Such "graffiti" writing occurs on the lower third of the Palm (between the icons mentioned in the previous section). Note that this area is divided by two bold arrows into two unequal parts.

If you wish to write alphabetic characters, you must do so on the left section of the graffiti area; numeric characters are entered on the right section. This distinction is noted on your Palm by the icons in the lower corners of the graffiti area. These icons, however, perform a function of their own.

By tapping either of these icons a keyboard will appear on the bottom of the digital viewing area of the Palm. You can then tap on the virtual keys with the stylus like a regular keyboard. So the Palm gives you a choice: you can learn the graffiti strokes or just pull up the keyboard. Ultimately you'll probably want to do most of your data entry from your PC keyboard anyway; though both Palm options have a low learning curve, they are not nearly as fast or perfected as the PC keyboard itself.



Note that there are some unique graffiti strokes that allow you to manipulate text instead of just creating letters and numbers. If you want to erase the last character, you can use a right-to-left stroke in either the alphabetic or the numeric section of the graffiti display (see the bottom-right of the above graphic). You can capitalize any character by first using a bottom-to-top vertical stroke in the alphabetic side of the graffiti display.

These are just a couple of the special characters available in the graffiti display area; many more can be accessed via special keystrokes. Some of the special keystrokes are shown here. A comprehensive list of these secondary characters can be found in the Palm manual and on the special reference sticker that came with your Palm.