I'd like to make better use of my time on the move to write so thought I would get a PDA. I have a mobile phone I'm quite happy with so don't want an all-singing all-dancing PDA. I'd like a nice keyboard on it and the ability to write Rich Text Files and copy them over to my Mac. Is anyone using a good PDA (with no phone features)? I wanted an iPod Touch but it doesn't have that feature.

I see that you’re not getting any answers to your question. I think you scared everyone away. Ha ha.

“My god, he’s going to use a PDA.”

I don’t speak for anyone here, but I gather that many writers on this forum don’t even like using a computer, much less a PDA. A pencil and tablet or a typewriter for the first draft, is more to their liking. I don’t think you will get anyone here, to admit they use a PDA. (Even if they do.)

When I started my first draft, I intended to use a pencil and tablet, and I bought a big stack of tablets. But . . . reality set in quickly, and I lowered myself, to working on a computer. Now I own a life time supply of tablets.

I suggest you buy and use the PDA, but if anyone asks, tell them you use a soft lead pencil and cheap tablet made of recycled paper. Or save yourself some money, and use the pencil and tablet.

I’m just joking. Just get the book done. That’s the thing.

Azel

Ah, I didn't realise.

I work with computers so it's rare I ever use a pen or pencil.

Am I the only one who has no idea what a PDA is? (Probably.)

Rosy

Personal Digital Assistant, Rosy. I know it sounds like a secretarial robot, but it's actually one of those things that looks like a fat, square mobile, for making notes on.

Plenty of WWers use laptops, which is always an option, and there are very small, very expensive ones. I think anyone who touch-types is going to be impatient with even a good PDA keyboard, and personally I can't bear not to be able to see a whole A4 page at once. A PDA might be quite neat for writing flash fiction, though!

Emma

Though you could persuade me to want this:

http://www.johnlewis.com/Technology/Computers/Computers/Laptops/398/230415010/Product.aspx

Emma

I work from a Macbook Pro which is fine for working at a table on a train but I spend a lot of time on buses; the MBP is far too big to use on a bus hence the need for a PDA.

Those Sony Vaios are good but I work with graphics in my day job so I need to use Macs.

<Added>

Sorry Emma, I thought your link was to a laptop, that device you linked to looks good. Just reading the specification now . . .

Cute, isn't it, as Vaios always are, though at quite a price. But the spec is more like a small computer than a big PDA, so maybe it'd be worth it.

Emma

I think Azel might be joking a tad about how antiquated WWers are!

I tend to write scribbly notes on paper, but when I pull it all together it always goes on the computer - not a laptop, but a desktop. I don't like fiddly laptop keyboards, so would not have any patience with a PDA - not because I'm a technophobe but because if I'm not sitting at a desk with a decent keyboard in front of me I'd rather scribble on paper.

I find that first drafts on paper (often by choice, sometimes because of where I am) are edited as I put them into the PC, so it's not a waste at all to go through that stage.

Deb

I found out this morning there's a hack for the iPod touch so you can write not via the Contacts application so I just placed an order. My word count will soar once it arrives.

It's good to find ways of working which work for you. I once tried voice recording some fiction while I laid down - it did work, but I decided I prefer paper.

Deb

I could be tempted by these digital pens which remember what you write, and then decant it into a wordprocessor. Now that would be great on a bus because I can't do screens or reading on buses without feeling sick.

Emma

How on earth do they detect spacing between words? And wouldn't your writing be so wobbly on a bus it might confuse the thing?

Sounds like a great idea if it would work properly. I guess you have to train it for your own handwriting, like you have to train voice activated things with your own voice?

Deb

I think you write on special paper that gives the 'pen' a fix - slightly like a graphics tablet - and it imports it as bitmapped images, and then your computer had a handwriting recognition programme which presumably does learn your writing to translate it into WP files. But I bet it's like voice recognition - takes a good bit of fiddling for it to learn to be really accurate.

But I can't say I've investigated very thoroughly. Apart from anything else, I find the stage of typing up a first longhand draft very useful, editorially speaking, so cutting it out might be a disadvantage, I don't know...

Emma

I believe that if an author writes a book in longhand or uses a typewriter or a computer, he/she will get a different book with each method, even with the same story.

Writing a book in longhand makes a writer slow down, and gives him/her a large amount of extra time to ‘think’ about each line and the story.

Writing a book with a typewriter, makes a writer ‘think through’ their sentence or paragraph, before they type it. Before there were computers a writer had to do this, or he/she ended up re-typing the whole page over again.

Writing a book with a computer gives the writer a trade off. He/she is gaining speed, but giving up ‘time to think’ and ‘planing ahead, to see where the sentence or paragraph (story) is heading.’

I personally believe that the quality of books has suffered because of the computer. At least, these are my thoughts on the subject.

As for myself, I use a computer.

Azel