Slashdot Mirror
Portable Word Processors?
paulcole asks: "I am currently an English major and short story writer, who is in the market for a word processor. My laptop is a good enough tool, but I feel that it isn't quite what I need for a portable writing tool. Namely, I want something smaller, more portable, and easier to use. Right now, I am looking at the QuickPad Pro and the AlphaSmart Dana. Any insight on either of these products, or any others out there, would be very helpful." Do these 'smaller and more portable' devices necessarily justify the trade-offs in power and flexibility that a laptop with a full fledged word processor would provide?
Why? Palm OS, there's flexibility in the software choices. Choice is a good thing. Easier to sync with another computer, for printing, email, whatever. WiFi option could be a butt saver on occasion.
I always thought there should be more devices similar to this. A full blown laptop is great, but you lose some qualities like stellar battery life, low cost, lightweight. It'd be cool to have laptops with grayscale screens (if anyone made them anymore to keep the cost down in volume). I think it'd be great to have even 20 hour battery life, the thought of 100's of hours on AAA's sounds pretty damn good to me.
Exhalted dreamer...
You can get relatively inexpensive keyboards for most PDAs nowadays. The Palm ones fold down pretty small... not quite small enough to fit into a pocket, but close. The screens on newer devices are clear enough that you'd probably be able to work without too much discomfort.
I have seen some writers who like using the model 100/200 TRS-80. They are antiques (and unfortunately for the buyer, somewhat collectible), but they have really good battery life and an extraordinary keyboard.
You can find some on Ebay.
Small is nice, but I have used various computing devices for the past fifteen years to write/edit with varying degress of success. First, about keyboards: They are personal choices. Some writers have favorite instruments: some use a pen and yellow-lined paper, others like Vonnegut use index cards and a pencil. Me, I touchtype. If you don't, you will not be slowed down by non-standard keyspacing. If you do, however, getting used to a smaller keyboard may get in the way of the "creative process."
I first used an old (even then, in 1990) IBM PC-II 8086 with the usual 9" yellow-on-black display. I discovered that the more of what I have written is displayed on the screen, the better I edit -- and write, too. Scrolling up and down looking for where a long sentence or paragraph started is no fun at all on a small screen.
I then tried a Full Page display, which was tits, but I had a devil of a time getting WordPerfect to display the full screen on it.
Then, about 1992, I bought a new laptop, my first new computer and a huge investment. Big mistake, as it had a cramped 8 1/2 in display on which I could barely make out the text.
Small keyboards and small displays suck for me as a writer; they may for you too. My favorite road instrument now is an old IBM Thinkpad without the floppy or CD-ROM drives installed to save weight. Its 12-inch display is OK for editing and shows enough lines to keep the scrolling to a minimum.
At home, I have replaced the old FP with a 19-inch monitor and I write/edit in 2-column in WP-8 for Linux at the smallest point size I can read easily. For displaying lots of text, choose a serif style as it is quicker to be recognized by the eye.
Think thrice about the PDAs unless you don't touch-type and your stories are very, very short.
Stupid job ads, weird spam, occasional insight at
But that's essentially what the Dana is. Except the Dana has a much larger (and wider) screen, which makes it much better than any other PalmOS device for serious writing. And the keyboard is much, MUCH nicer than any other keyboard for a PalmOS device that I've used - and better than many laptop keyboards. The keys have a much better response, and you can use the keyboard on your lap since you aren't trying to keep your PDA balanced upright on top of a flimsy foldable keyboard. It probably costs less than Palm phones, too.
I got to help test drive an AlphaSmart Dana at a previous job, and seriously considered buying one for myself despite the fact that I already owned both a laptop and a Handspring Visor. The high-end model even has 802.11b, which is rare in PalmOS devices. For certain uses (having something to carry around with me at all times so I could work on text documents during down time in my case), they're really much nicer than a PDA (near-worthless for any serious work with text documents and has only an hour or two's battery life if being used continuously) or a laptop (darn heavy and also can't spend too much time away from a power outlet without dying).
I've never used the QuickPad. It's much cheaper, but it doesn't run PalmOS - which I consider a major plus on the Dana. What's the point of having computer, any computer, if you can't install video games on it? Other than that and the more limited feature set it means for the QuickPad, it seems like the QuickPad provides better stowability at the expense of a poorer view of the screen by making the screen flat rather than tilted upward.
Personally, I'd go with the Dana.
Sounds like the long-discontinued Apple eMate is just what you want. I saw a new-in-box eMate 300 on eBay for a buy-it-now price of $200, you could probably find a good one for around $100. It's basically a Newton with a keyboard, it seems designed for writing, good keyboard, basic B&W screen, good battery life. Zap your text over a serial cable to your main CPU for further work.
When I was working on my BA in English, my preferred writing implement was a Pilot Precise pen, Very Fine tip, and a stack of legal pads.
When I started working on my thesis, I bought a Powerbook Duo because it weighed less than most of the books I was toting around already.
Since your laptop seems to be unsatisfactory for some reason (too heavy, maybe?) you might want to look at either an older subnotebook (a Duo, or perhaps a Toshiba Libretto or a Sony Picturebook) or something smaller. Apple made a Newton with a built-in keyboard called the eMate that was pretty nice. Fantastic battery life, decent screen, and designed for elementary school kids so its damned near indestructible.
--saint