LookDA 3

  1. Purpose
    1. Overview
      LookDA provides assistance in entering text using Graffiti within any application.. As you enter words, it presents a suggested completion. If you like it, or think that you are close, you can call up a list of all candidates for completion that LookDA knows about. You can tap any of the candidates to insert it into the text.
    2. More
      Each time you enter a letter, LookDA puts a "preview" word up in the title bar of the window you are entering text into if it knows any word that would complete your current word. This preview is the first word in LookDA's Words list that starts with the same letters as the word you are typing. If you like the preview, or want to see more suggestions, tap the "left trigger" defined below, and LookDA's list of candidates for your entered text will appear. You can tap any item on the list--which will enter the word plus a space--or you can just keep entering text and the popup will go away and the suggestions will continue to show on the title bar. (You can also turn off the preview feature. See Preferences, below
    3. AutoPop
      You can set LookDA to pop up the list of suggestions automatically whenever there are no more than 12 candidates.
    4. Timed Pop
      If you turn on Timed Pop (see
      Preferences) LookDA will now also pop up if you pause in entering text for two cursor blinks (if it has any suggestions to make)
  2. LookDA 3.x vs. LookDA 2.x
    1. Why 3.x differs from 2.x
      The changes in 3.x were driven by two factors: First, the Palm OS screen-drawing routines changed radically in OS 3.5. Palm did this because the old model just didn't work for color. LookDA 2.x relied heavily on details of the old screen-drawing model to appear full-time in the foreground without interfering too much with the application whose screen it was writing on.
      At the same time, I was reaching the conclusion that LookDA 2.6 took up too much space too often on the screen.
      LookDA 3.x addresses both these issues by sticking much closer to standard interface objects supported by the PalmOS.
    2. How 3.x differs from 2.x
      In general, LookDA 3.x shares common code with previous versions. The Words file, pages and such are all compatible among versions. LookDA 3.3 and will suggest lower case completions for capitalized entries, in addition to any capitalized ones in your words file and insert the lower case ones with an initial capital letter.
      1. In General
        The biggest difference is that the suggestions don't appear on screen. The first word that completes the current partial word is shown in the title area, but to see the rest--and to enter any candidate--you need to call up a list as described below in "Use."
      2. Missing from 3.x
        Aside from the interface, most of the code and most of the functionality of version 2.6 exists in 3.x. Four features do not:
        1. The "invert initial letter of word" command (cmd-I)
        2. The "delete partial word" command (cmd-space)
        3. The ability to learn a word by a menu-command stroke (cmd-L)
        4. The ability to turn LookDA off in certain applications.
        The first two can all be had by installing
        MenuCmdHack (in "Extras"). The third is also available using MenuCmdHack if you install the "Learn" DA provided in Extras.

        In addition, 3.x now automatically asks whether to learn the current word if you call up the suggestions and it has none. (You can put a space after the current word to make sure there is no suggestion.)
    3. Availability of 2.6
      LookDA 2.6 works fine with OS versions before 3.5. You may like its style better. If you want it, don't have it, and can't find it, email me.
  3. Installation
    1. New users
      First: LookDA requires HackMaster (or EVPlugbase). HackMaster is not included in this distribution but can be found on most Palm software sites (for example www.palmgear.com). (HackMaster is $5 shareware, EVPlugbase is free).
      Once you have HackMaster installed on your PDA, you need to install the LookDA files (using the Palm install tool or whatever other method you like) and then run HackMaster and enable the Hack called "LookStart."
      1. Required Files
        You must install the following two files:
        LookStart35.prc and
        LookDA35.prc.
      2. Other Files
        You may want (or need) to install some of the following files as well to make LookDA useful quickly.
        1. Words
          LookDA makes its suggestions by looking in a file called Words. You generally add your own words over time (described below). If you don't start with a pre-built Words file, LookDA will create a new, empty, file. You may have to do this if your native language isn't English, French, Spanish, Swedish or German. (See the topic called "Managing Your Words File" for how to get from a blank Words file to a usable state).
          However, if you intend to write in English, French, Spanish, Swedish or German, you can get a head start by using one of the files supplied with LookDA 3.x. Most of these files are contained in the zip archive "Vocabularies and AddWords". The main archive contains two English starter files:
          "Small Words2.prc", which contains about 850 common words, and
          "Big Word2s.prc" which contains approximately 2800 words (it is my Words file minus any word that Excel's spell checker didn't recognize).

          In the Archive "Vocabularies and AddWords.zip", there are collections of useful files for several languages along with an important new application—
          AddWords—which lets you add vocabularies to Words and switch Words files.

          In any event, if you want to get the most out of LookDA, you should read the topic "
          Managing Your Words File."
        2. Pages
          You may also want to install the file "Pre-Built Pages.prc"
          Pages are another feature of LookDA -- they are user-built lists of words you can pop up depending on what letter is in front of the cursor. It is very useful for entering short words. If you don't install this file, LookDA will create an empty one.
          You can edit and modify the Pages from within LookDA. More information on Pages strategies is contained in the topic "
          Managing Your Words File."
    2. Users who are upgrading from earlier versions
      If you are upgrading from an older version of LookDA, you don't need to install a new version of Words or of LookDA Pages. You should disable eLook in HackMaster and then (if you wish) remove it.
  4. Use
    1. The trigger areas
      LookDA 3.x responds to user taps in two special "trigger" areas. The left "trigger" area is a triangle in the blank space to the right of the circles for the applications icon and the menu icon--it runs from a point exactly in the middle of the blank space between the two icons at a 45% angle up and down to the border of the Graffiti area. This sound harder than it really is--basically, this means that you can tap in the left trigger area by tapping around about half way between the top and bottom the silkscreen area and a little to the left of the Graffiti area. (The actual trigger area includes areas the PalmOS would normally recognize as a menu or applications tap, but little or none of the area a human being would normally use to access menus or applications.

      The right trigger area is the equivalent triangle on the right side of the silk-screened area (widest at the right boundary of the Graffiti area, narrowing to the point in the middle of the areas the calculator and find buttons are in).


    2. Title Bar--Previews
      LookDA normally presents the primary suggestion in the title area of the current window. This preview is just the first word that fits, not necessarily the most frequent. The preview is merely drawn--you can't do anything useful by tapping it. (You can temporarily get rid of the current preview and get back a clean title bar by dragging you pen from the right trigger area at least ¼" into the Graffiti area). (You can turn the title bar preview off, see "Preferences" under "Utilities.")

      If the preview appears surrounded by asterisks, it means that there are less than 12 candidates in LookDA for the current entry, so that if you pop up the suggestions list, all of them will fit on the screen without scrolling.

      For example, if you enter "to" and see "today" this, is the first word in LookDA's word list that begins with "to". If you enter "tom" and see "**tommorrow**" this is the first word in LookDA's word list that begins with "tom" and there are 12 or fewer words in LookDA's list that begin with "tom".


      If your entry starts with a capital letter and there are no capitalized words in LookDA’s word list that complete the entry but there are lower-case words, the first lower-case word that will work appears in the title bar.


      If you see the entry "------", it means there were no valid suggestions.

      If you need to clean the title bar (to see what has been obscured) stroke from the right trigger area about halfway or more into the graffiti area.
    3. The Suggestions List
      The point of the title bar preview is to give you some idea when you want to look at the suggestions list.
      1. Calling Up the List
        You call up the suggestions list by tapping in the left trigger area. You will see a standard Palm pop-up list. If there are more than 12 items, there will be scroll arrows and the page-up and page-down buttons on the PDA will scroll the list. (If there are no suggestions, the list will not appear, instead the will be asked whether you can LookDA to learn the word in front of the cursor.)

        If you don't want the list, just enter some more text (or tap outside the list). It will go away.

        If you like something on the list, you can enter it and a trailing space by tapping it.
        If the entry started with a capital letter this list may contain some lower case suggestions (after any that are capitalized). If you tap one of these, it will be entered with the first letter capitalized.

        If you have AutoPop set to on, the list will pop up automatically when there are less than 13 items, but you can call it up at any time.

        If you have not turned the Timed Pop off, the list will pop up if you pause long enough in the middle of a word and there is anything to suggest.
      2. Selecting From the List
        There are several ways to select a word from the candidate list. First, you should note that when the list is originally called up, the first item is selected. This is done because if you tap the left trigger area while the list is up, the item on the list that is currently selected is entered into you text with the trailing space. So if you see your word up in the title bar, you can double tap in the left trigger area to enter it.

        If the list has 12 items or less, the page-down button on the PDA moves the selection down (since there's nothing to scroll) and then you can enter by tapping in the left trigger area or by tapping the page-up key.
    4. Pages
      LookDA has another useful feature for entering text--"user pages". These are pages of 20 words that you can set to your liking. When you tap the right trigger area, the page set for the letter to the left of the cursor pops up. For example, my page for the space character contains a bunch of short words I use all the time ("the", "of")--the tap in right area, tap on the page is much faster for this kind of thing. (Another good page is "w" which contains all where, which, when and such.)

      There is a second use for pages—it is a good way to enter various accented characters you don't use often.

      You build pages using the "
      Edit Pages" utility described in the "Utilities" section below. You can also start with my Pages and modify it as you go along. Strategies for Pages are described in "Managing Your Words File."

      Like the suggestions pop-up, there are several ways to select an item on a Page in addition to tapping the item. You can enter the currently selected item by tapping the right trigger. You can change the currently selected item using the page-up Or page-down key--but only one. Switching to the other one will enter the selection.
    5. Automatic attachment
      LookDA has another useful feature--it will automatically "attach" standard endings. For example, if you start to enter "favorites" and at "fav" the word "favorite" shows up, you can double tap to enter "favorite " into the text. But you wanted "favorites ". No problem, if you've previously told it to, when you enter the "s" and the following space, LookDA will "attach" it to the previous word, turning "favorite s " into "favorites ".

      The items to be automatically attached have to be taught to LookDA (they are stored in the Words lists as words that start with a space character). The pre-built words list contain a useful selection for English, such things a "s" "es" "d" "ed" "ing" and such.

      Auto
      attachment is controlled by using the LookDA utilities described later in this outline.

      By the way, all punctuation marks are good candidates for auto-attachment.
    6. Utilities
      1. Calling LookDA
        An important group of LookDA's functions are accessed by making a stroke that starts within the left trigger and ends at least ¼" (about 6 mm) into the Graffiti area. This pops up a menu with the utilities described below.

        The utilities screen--LookDA itself—is a standard desk accessory; you can call it up any time the cursor is active in a text field by using an desk accessory launcher. (This can be useful if some other program is interfering with the call-up stroke.)
      2. Learn
        If you enter a word that LookDA didn't recognize, you can teach it to LookDA. Learn will add the word in front of the cursor to the Words list (if isn't there already). You can add a phrase by selecting the phrase before making the stroke that calls up the utilities and then selecting "Learn". (Note that you can also make LookDA learn by calling up the suggestions list on a word that it doesn’t know. You may need a space after the word if LookDA knows words that begin with the word you want to add.)
      3. Validate Words
        This will check your Words file. If you are having any problems with LookDA, try running Validate Words. It will tell you what it is doing by changing the title—Cleaning, Sorting, Checking, Done (you won’t see the "Done" notice usually because the window itself will close). This can take a while for a large file.
      4. Forget
        If you accidentally teach LookDA an incorrect word (or you just want to get rid of a word that has outlived its usefulness) enter the word, put the cursor just after it, call up the utilities and tap "Forget."
        You can "Forget" a phrase by selecting it prior to calling the utilities and tapping "Forget."
      5. Scan
        Tapping "Scan" will make LookDA scan through all the text in the current entry, learning each word with at least 5 letters.
      6. Edit Pages
        Edit Pages will bring up the page editor screen. Enter a character and tap "Get" to see the page. Make your changes and tap "Set."

        Pages have one oddity--a normal entry like "the", gets entered with a trailing space. But if you put a space after the entry the text is entered without the trailing space.
      7. Preferences
        1. Backup Words
          By default, LookDA does NOT automatically set the Words file to back up. This is intentional (because of the way a Words file is built, backing a large one up can increase hot sync times significantly). However, you can control this matter by calling up the utilities and selecting "Preferences" and checking "Back Up Words." You can turn this off by removing the check.
        2. Backup Pages
          By default, LookDA does NOT automatically set the Words file to back up. You can back up the Pages on every hot sync by calling up the utilities and selecting "Preferences" and checking "Back Up Words." You can turn this off removing the check.
        3. AutoPop
          This will let you change the Auto Pop setting (on or off). When Auto Pop is on, the suggestion list pops up whenever there are 12 or fewer candidates. You may find this either wonderful or irritating. Which probably says more about you than about the program.
        4. Not in this Application
          If this box is checked, AutoPop will not function in the application, even if it is turned on in general. (AutoPop is turned off, by special code, in the lookup field of the AddressBook, and in the lookup field of Multi Book)
        5. Auto Clean
          If this box is checked, the screen is cleaned up every time you enter a character that can’t be part of a word.
        6. Preview
          If this box is checked, a preview of the first word in the suggestions list appears in the title bar each time you enter a letter.
        7. Timer
          If this box is checked, pausing for two blinks of the cursor will pop up the suggestions list.
      1. Attach
        To teach LookDA to attach a new suffix automatically, enter some text, a space and the suffix. With the cursor still at the end of the suffix, call up the utilities and tap "Auto Attach".
      2. Detach
        To make LookDA stop automatically attaching a suffix you've taught it, enter a space and the suffix, call up the utilities and tap "De Attach".
  1. Managing your "Words" file
    1. Philosophy and Strategy
      LookDA is designed to work best with a moderate-sized Words file. My personal set-up has a Words file with less than 3,000 entries, almost all of which are at least five characters long. This means that candidates almost always pop up within three letters. I’ve put the most common English 2, 3, and 4 character words into my Pages (two letter words in the "space" page, 3 and 4 in the page for the first letter of the word). This means that for a two-letter word, I tap the right trigger and usually tap the word on the Page. For a three or four letter word, I enter the first character and tap the right trigger and usually tap the word on the Page. For a longer word, I usually enter 2 or 3 characters and the candidate list pops up.

      To accomplish this, the Words file needs to contain at least one form of most of the words you use, but it does not need all the forms. I have "decide" and "deciding", but not "decides" and "decided" because I can choose "decide" and add the s or d (auto attach will put it at the end of the word).


      There are other programs that take a different tack—they use a very large database and attempt a more sophisticated selection from them. If LookDA doesn’t suit you, you may want to try one of them.
    2. What is a Word
      LookDA treats a word as a sequence of "alpha" characters. LookDA's definition of an alpha character is any character whose ASCII code is at least as great as that of the "@" symbol. This means that an alpha character is any character other than the nonprinting characters (such as line feeds, tabs, and returns) and any of the following characters:
      !"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=?

      This is a somewhat nonstandard definition (but it allows LookDA to be much faster than a standard definition). In general, it works pretty well. However at least one nonalpha character—the apostrophe—is treated as a word divider by LookDA but not in standard English. So LookDA will see "can't" as two words. (You can still put "can't" into the LookDA Words file, by treating it as a phrase).

      Conversely, some characters normally treated as word separators are not handled properly by LookDA. An example is the "[" character. This is treated as "alpha" so that "[Huh]" is treated as a single word.


      The sort order is important to LookDA—if you are having trouble with the program, the most likely culprit is that the file has gotten missorted, try the Validate option in Utilities.
    3. Structure of a Words File
      The file is a simple list of words ordered in strict ASCII sequence.
    4. Building a Words File
      Most of LookDA's utility depends on having a useful Words file. There are several ways to create one.
      1. Starting base
        First, its a good idea to start with a pre-built base file. I've provided two different ones for English. (User of other languages are presently on their own. I’ve included a set of smaller bases for several other languages in the AddWords folder.

        If anyone has a nice base file in some other language that others might find useful, if you send it to me, I'll include it in the next release.)

        You can also build a base file on a PC if you have a vocabulary somewhere else (see below). For this purpose, it is a good idea to omit very short words (less than, say 4 or 5 letters)--they only clutter the file since you will generally enter most of the word before LookDA zeros in enough.
      2. Scanning
        You can use LookDA's "scan" command on all your text (in memos, for example) to build up a file. You can copy text on the PC into a memo on the Palm Desktop—excess text will just form more memos. Then you can scan them on the Palm.

        By the way, scan will work in most document readers, but will usually only search the part of the document that is actually decompressed into memory (usually 8K).
      3. Learning
        As you go along and enter a word that LookDA doesn't recognize but you think you use regularly, let LookDA "Learn" it. If you’ve just entered the word and LookDA doesn’t recognize it, you can just tap the left trigger area.

        This is easier if you install the "Learn" DA and menu command hack in the Extras folder and assign a simple command stroke to LearnDA.
      4. Transfer from a PC file
        You can also make your own Words file from a file on a PC. The Extras folder contains a series of tools for Wintel machines. However, the tools use a trick that is much more general--a Words file is so similar to a properly-built JFile (NOT JFile Pro or JFile 4) database that any tool that will create or JFile databases can create a Words file--You need to define the database as having only one field of type string (called "Words").

        If you create or modify a Words file with any tool, you should make sure that it is properly sequenced when you put in on the PDA. To do this run the
        Validate command in LookDA’s Utilities.
    5. Backup
      The Words file, by default, does not back up on a hot sync. While you are building the file, you probably want to reverse this preference by calling up the utilities, tapping "Set Backup" and choosing to backup.
    6. Editing a Words File
      You can edit the Words file, either on the PC or a PDA. From time to time it is a good idea to spell check (on the PC side) and to look over and cull your words for deadwood.
      1. On the Palm
        1. Learn & Forget
          First, you can use the "Learn" and "Forget" functions in the Utilities described above.
        2. Words Edit
          An easier way to review and edit your Words file as a whole is the "Words Edit" application in the "Extras" folder. Words Edit is fairly simple to use--it is based on the memo pad source code. It is somewhat finicky with accented characters or very long files.
        3. LnL
          Words Edit is based on the OS 3.0 memo pad and will not run on OS 2.x and 1.x. Roughly the same functionality exists on the older program, LnL, also included in the "Extras" folder.

          Note that LnL does not handle accented characters correctly. If your Words files has accented characters in it, and you use LnL, be sure to run
          Validate when you are done.
        4. JFile
          Words is basically a JFile database--if you run LookDA PC Utilities, you can make it one for real and view it in JFile (not JFile Pro or JFile 4). JFile does not sort the Words file correctly, so you need to run Validate after making changes using JFile.
      2. Desktop
        1. LookDA PC Utilities
          The LookDA PC Utilities folder provides utilities for converting the backup of a Words file to a csv file suitable for reading in Excel and such, and vice versa.
        2. Editing JFile databases
          LookDA PC Utilities is based (with permission) on some utilities John Lehett, the author of JFile, wrote for JFile, an excellent Palm database program. You may be able to use other JFile utilities to edit the Words file as well.
  2. The "Extras" Folder
    The extras folder contains a number of peripheral programs mentioned elsewhere in the text. The are:
    1. AddWords
      AddWords is in the "Vocabularies and AddWords" zip subfile. This lets you add the words from various pre-defined vocabularies to your Words file. It also can be used to switch back and forth between two different Words files. There is a much more useful readme file included in the subfile. This zip subfile also contains a group of vocabularies for French, English, Spanish, German and Swedish.

      If anyone has access to a public domain list of between 1000 and 3000 common words in other languages, please send it, so I can create vocabularies for additional languages.
    2. Words Edit and LnL
      There are programs for editing the Words file on the Palm device. Words Edit is for OS 3.x, LnL for earlier Palm OS versions
    3. LookDA PC utilities
      These utilities help convert the backup of a Words file on a Win 95/98/NT PC to and from csv format.
    4. Menu Command Hack
      This hack basically lets you run Desk Accessories with a menu command stroke. The supplied desk accessories "Invert Initial", "Delete Previous" and "Learn" recreate some functionality from LookDA 2.6, which had menu commands for these functions. You can install Menu Command Hack and these Desk Accessories and set them to trigger on command keys that work for you.

      Invert Initial changes the case of the first letter in the current word. It was attached to cmd-I in 2.6

      Delete Previous deletes the word in front of the cursor. It was attached to cmd-space in 2.6

      Learn teaches LookDA the word in front of the cursor or the selected phrase. It was attached to cmd-L in 2.6
  3. Distributions/Bugs/Updates
    1. Freeware
      LookDA is freeware. It is copyright by me, Stephen Millman, 2000, all rights reserved.
    2. Bug Reports
      Send to smillman@usa.net. I will try to help as I have time available.
    3. Updates
      I don't have a web site. Consequently, any software I want to distribute needs to be hosted on someone else's site. The folks at PalmGear (www.palmgear.com) have been kind enough to do so. The latest version can always be found there.
    4. History
      3.5 10/15/00
      1. Added Timed Pop up
      2. Added preference to turn off title bar preview.
      3. Removed feature that a tap when no suggestions exists offers to learn the word.

      3.4 9/13/00 (not released, but these changes appear in 3.5)
      1. Moved Set Backup and Set AutoPop utilities into a single "Preferences" item.
      2. Added preference to exclude pop up in specific applications and preference to back up the Pages file.
      3. Increased the size of the BigWords file (English).
      4. Fixed lower case suggestions so that accented characters work right.
      5. New clean up code—much better and safer. Added option to clean up on each nonalpha character entry.

      3.3 9/5/00
      1. NEW HANDLING OF CAPITALIZED WORDS: LookDA will now check for lower-case matches when an upper case entry has no suggestions. Also, LookDA’s suggestions list will now show all lower case entries that would be candidates for an upper entry (even if there are some upper case candidates as well). The lower case entries follow the upper case ones and tapping one will enter the selected word with an initial capital letter. The net result is that if you store capitalized terms (e.g. "Michael") and your entry starts with a capital (e.g."Mic"), the stored capitalized candidates will appear first on the list, but lower case candidates (e.g. "mice") will also show up. Tapping the lower-case entry (e.g. "mice") will enter it with an initial capital ("Mice").
      2. Fixed a nasty bug in Words Edit that made it not work with certain Words files (created by Scan and Add Words)
      3. Fixed a problem in 3.5 numeric fields that made automatic refresh work badly.
      4. Changed the strategy for cleaning the title bar. Now a stroke from the right trigger into the graffiti area does a "partial" clean up, sufficient for most applications, and safe (I think) in all applications. However, the original, more complete clean up is also available, if the stroke starts in the right trigger and goes clear across the writing area past left edge of the writing rectangle. Strong clean up may be necessary to restore the entire top line of in applications like Datebook (and Datebook 3) which put special info on the top line.

      3.2 8/15 /00
      1. Added "Validate Words" to Utilities. If you have any problems with LookDA, run it!!
      2. Fixed bug in creation of empty Words file.
      3. Eliminated autorefresh on space character
      4. Added AddWords program to manage vocabularies and switch words files.
      5. Added starter vocabularies for English, French, Spanish, German and Swedish

      3.1 -8/15 /00:
      1. Added AutoPop—the ability to have the suggestions list pop up automatically when there are 12 or less suggestions. This is off by default and can be turned on by using the "Set AutoPop" item in the LookDA utilities menu.
      2. Suggestion turns to "-----" when there is none and title bar returns to normal on a nonword character
      3. Added request to learn when the left trigger is tapped and there are no suggestions.
      4. changed left-to-right and right-to-left strokes so they only have to start in the relevant trigger and go about ¼" into the Graffiti area.
      5. fixed bug that would let a space be treated as an autoattach (so you could not enter more than one space in a row if you accidentally created this setting.)
      6. Changed naming convention—LookStart now carries the same 3.x number as the corresponding LookDA.

      3.02—8/11/00: fixed bug in Pages Edit caused, believe it or not by the compiler!

      3.01—8/10/00: fixed two bugs in the 3.0 release (I hope), one that prevented the utilities from appearing and one that caused a fatal error if you tapped the right trigger when there was no active text field.
    5. Bugs
      1. Scan causes a crash in the ToDo application. I’m looking into the cause.
      2. ScreenWrite appears to coexist badly with LookDA.
      3. LookDA is said not to recognize some trigger strokes if Fitaly Stamp is installed. (But the Timer option should work)
      4. Various esthetic issues.
  1. Other Options
    If LookDA doesn't suit you but you like the general concept of words being suggested while you write, there are now several other utilities that provide suggestions, each a little different (my apologies to any I've omitted) :
    1. WordComplete
      www.cic.com
      (I’ve tried this—actually I bought it—and it works well)
    2. TextPlus
      www.smartcell.com
      (I haven’t tried this one)
    3. Note Taker
      www.evolutionary.net
      (I haven’t tried this one)
    4. FastPhrase Plus
      I’ve lost the cite for this. It worked quite well when I tried it.