One Finger Keyboard

A key setup that is optimized for use with one finger. Very popular on pen-based computers, as they can be used by tapping the pen.

Some implementations:

• PalmOs has a built-in OneFingerKeyboard that is laid out in QWERTY. This is most likely to make it familiar to people but is a really bad idea for increasing your typing speed.

• Fitaly (http://www.fitaly.com/) is ShareWare for PalmOs, PocketPc. A Newton version (http://www.fitaly.com/newton/fitdemo.htm) was referenced here before but does not appear to be available any longer.

• TapType? (http://www.linkesoft.com/english/taptype/) by LinkeSOFT for PalmPilot; also ShareWare.

• ATOMIK (http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/atomik) by IBM for PalmOs (project may be dead)

• the IBM Shorthand Aided Rapid Keyboarding (SHARK) "SHARK is best used with the ATOMIK key layout ... I can input text in SHARK almost as fast as I can touch type on a keyboard" -- http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2004/11/text_entry_epip.html

Scribbling is more natural; but typing is still faster, for at least some people.

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I use Fitaly for my HandspringVisor, and it's definitely faster. There are tradeoffs, though, largely because you're typing on little tiny cells. With PalmGraffiti, you can look elsewhere while you're writing (so you can take notes in a meeting or class without looking down all the time), and your error rate is less. But I decided the speed was worth it. Also, it has handy popup screens for numbers, punctuation, accented characters, etc.

I'll cast a vote for Fitaly also, although I only use it when writing large amounts of text. I do wish I could customize the layouts--I use punctuation characters often when programming, and Fitaly puts them in awkward places. I usually stick with Graffiti for small amounts of input. --KrisJohnson

Kris - Check out this thread "A Better Fitaly For 5 Bucks" on making your own Fitaly layout with all punctuation characters available: http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=64806 . It also has tips for making your own Atomik layout. --JonathanAquino?

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I have done a simple analysis to compare Fitaly and Atomik, with the following results:

 C:\>cat BookOfMatthew?.txt | groovy fitaly.groovy
 Fitaly distance: 192163.3 units
 Atomik distance: 198783.9 units
 Fitaly is better by 3.4%

 C:\>cat GrimmsFairyTales?.txt | groovy fitaly.groovy
 Fitaly distance: 814045.4 units
 Atomik distance: 834466.2 units
 Fitaly is better by 2.5%

Details are here: http://jonaquino.blogspot.com/2005/01/fitaly-vs-atomik-comparison-of.html

Also, below is a visual comparison of the gestures for the words in Textware's Dom Perignon IV Speed Contest. The red is Fitaly; the blue, Atomik:

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See also HalfKeyboard, IambicPaddles