Writing on the IPod Touch

A touch screen device is not the optimal environment for text input; however, typing on the iPod touch is not as bad as you may think. Because I use my iPod touch as a portable computer, I write on it often. I have tested several of the free writing applications and I've come up with a list of those I think are the best.

Notes

The notes application that comes with the iPod touch is not feature rich, but for basic text input it works. Once you become accustomed to the keyboard, writing can be done quickly and even with one hand. The keyboard is small but you don't have to accurately hit each key to enter a word. If you make a mistake the iPod guesses what you meant to input using the device's dictionary. The great thing about the dictionary is that it automatically learns new words as you type them. Notes only lets you type in portrait mode which is the smaller of the two keyboards. I actually prefer the portrait keyboard and make more mistakes typing in landscape mode.

WritingPad

WritingPad is a free writing app that allows you to input text by tracing a path over the letters of a word. When you lift your finger after the last letter of a word, WritingPad guesses what word you intended to write and lists other possible words. It is easy to scroll through the list to select the right word or go back to a previously inputted word and correct it. WritingPad uses its own dictionary but you can add words manually by typing out each letter using the keyboard.

I like the idea behind WritingPad and I find it absolutely usable. It is not my favorite writing app because I have become accostomed to the normal way of text input and I make more mistakes with WritingPad than I do with an app like Notes.

EasyWriter

EasyWriter is an application for composing email. What distiguishes EasyWriter from other writing apps is that you can write in landscape mode for a larger keyboard. Another interesting feature of this app is the resizing of text using the pinch and zoom gestures. EasyWriter automatically saves what you are writing if you exit the application before sending it to email. I like EasyWriter for writing the first drafts of my articles because of the zoom feature. The only downside I've found to this app is not being able to work on more than one email at a time.

TextEditor (Honorable Mention)

In theory the TextEditor app allows you to sync your Google Docs text files with your iPod touch. It does this, but in the process the formatting of the document gets messed up. Spaces and carriage returns don't always make it through to the iPod. Having to fix formatting before I sync makes this app not worth my time. I hope the developers can fix this problem with an update because TextEditor would be my favorite text input app if it could properly execute what it is meant to do. It also gives you the option of writing in landscape mode, if that's what you're into.

WritingPad, EasyWriter, and TextEditor are my top picks for free writing apps on the iPod touch but the naive app Notes remains my favorite. The most I do with text input on the iPod touch is write first drafts of documents or articles and Notes works well enough for me to do that.