PhatPad 4.1
By PhatWare
MGN Rating - Rating Legend
1 star: Find something else; save your money
2 star: Below average; not recommended
3 star: Average; performs as advertised but not inspiring
4 star: Good; worth the money
5 star: Great; best of its kind on the market PhatPad is an advanced notes organizer for Microsoft Windows Powered Tablet, Desktop and Pocket PCs. It allows you to draw pictures, jot text notes, or put a mixture of pictures and typed text on a virtual scratch pad. The program uses a new digital ink technology, which provides a very smooth ink flow. I was very impressed by how smooth the ink felt, very much like writing on paper. I was testing PhatPad 4.1 on my Samsung i730 with a PocketPCTech WriteShield installed over the screen. The program worked perfect with a WriteShield.
PhatPad offers standard editing commands, such as Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste; 25%-200% zoom and special Fit to Screen mode; Draw, Select, Erase, and Change modes; customizable pen palette; variable pen width; customizable toolbars; variable page size; and page preview mode. You can export your notes and drawings as bitmap, JPEG or PNG images, email them as file attachments, and transfer them between Pocket PCs via infrared. PhatPad allows you to store up to 1,000 pages containing a mix of handwritten text, drawings and printed text per single file and add an optional memo, a background image, and a voice note. You can use the Pocket PC navigation button to browse multi-page documents and zoom in/out, or to scroll the current page depending upon your preferences. I transfered several PhatPad files from my PocketPC Phone to my Laptop and I was able to cut and paste my notes into a MS Word Document very easily. A Tablet PC will also provide letter recognition if you want to convert your notes to type.
PhatPad integrates right in with
Calligrapher 8.4 if you want letter recognition on your PocketPC.
The program is easy to install after you download a 16 MB install file to your PC. The software installs PhatPad on both your PC and PocketPC. The program takes up about 1.2 MB of storage on your device. If you have a Pocket PC or Tablet PC you will be pleased with the quality of the PhatPad client.
First we need to open PhatPad up from our PPC Programs folder.
The program comes with a 30 trial period. Try before you buy is always a nice feature. I did not notice any slowdown or resource issues using my i730 with PhatPad.
The program menu provides a variety of options and you can build custom toolbars.
It is very easy to select pen color from the ink palette.
Here I write a note with blue ink.
I switch to red ink to finish the note.
A very nice feature of PhatPad is the ability to add a background image to your note. Very nice if you want a custom touch to a note you may want to email to a friend. You can also set a form as a background for taking specific notes.
I set a flower image as my background.
I can add a note over the background, it is very easy to change the ink color to contrast the background. Also if you want to erase you can select the ink and delete with no effect on the background.
I had to make a note to myself to remember to shovel the snow off my driveway.
If you like taking handwritten notes on your PocketPC or Tablet, PhatPad is an excellent program for that purpose. For people who like to draw it makes a great doodle pad and you can save your work to a PC. Overall I am very impressed with PhatPad from PhatWare. Their web site has an excellent tutorial section on using their various products including PhatPad 4.1. If you have a Smartphone and want to view PhatPad notes you can download the Free PhatPad Viewer software for Windows Mobile Smartphone
here.
Give PhatPad a
free try. It is another excellent program from PhatWare.