[Touch HD General] bugsykoosh:
For those of you frustrated with the autocorrect/autocompletion method of the Touch HD (who want the old Windows style back) here is the solution. It lets you still use the Diamond Keyboard and real autocorrection/autocompletion like the good old days. It was written for the Fuze but they have the same keyboard and software issues.

The complete solution with hyperlinks is located here: http://www.fuzemobility.com/?p=1527

Here is the text (the hyperlinks and photos were lost):

Many of you have seen my rants about the lack of traditional autocorrect and autocomplete on the Touch Pro (see here where I did it in a posting on editing the T9 dictionary, or here where I did it in our forums, and here where I did it at XDA (I’m BugsyKoosh)). Why was I so angry? For anyone who used an older Windows Mobile phone knows, the old method of autocompletion was far better than what the Fuze has. First off, when entering a contact the old method provided for a longer list of names that you can click on (whereas the Fuze guesses the single closest one and almost forces you into it). Then when actually typing words the Fuze gives you a few words but I always found it very finicky and ultimately turned it off because the space bar caused the word to complete and the spacing was off. Also, the Fuze wasn’t good at correcting mispelled words. It gave you a dictionary that would complete the words but if you spelled it wrong (because you didn’t use autocompletion and just kept typing) that meant you had a typo. The old style was a list of words as you typed in a drop down (you choose starting from 3 words) and it was both autocomplete and autocorrection so anytime I spelled the word ’spelled’ as ’spellde’ it will change it for me and it works a lot smoother. Also, the old style permits for word replacement using autocorrect so when I type the letters "pcm’ in the old style I edited it so it was replaced with ‘please call me if you have any questions’ and ‘tx’ was replaced with ‘thanks’. In fact I wrote a posting here on TiltMobility describing methods of changing the autocorrect files thinking I would port it over here just to get burned realizing that the Fuze simply wouldn’t do it…until now.

[Warning, this is a little long and filled with detail but I think the payoff is gigantic so please bear with me]

For definitional purposes, autocorrection is the ability to change a typo whereas autocompletion is guessing what I’m typing before or while I type. I cannot change the autocompletion dictionary at this time (the one that guesses as you type). This does propagate itself over time and it will get to know you. It also cannot be transferred from older devices. See this article for more information on why it is so hard but until DictMgr is updated we may be SOL (TVDinner was told by the author that an upgrade is in the works so lets all cross our fingers).

So the first step is to disable T9 (this is the method of autocompletion/correction I hate). The cab is posted here in our forums (I was provided this cab from a member at another forum). Don’t worry because you can uninstall this application and revert back (it’s a simply a single registry change actually). Once installed restart your phone for it to take effect. Then, go to Settings - Input and make sure all of the options for Word Completion are checked (you can change the number of words it suggests - I use three). OK now there’s one little glitch. My problem from the start was that the autocomplete method I like did not work with the Full QWERTY Keyboard (you know, the shiny onscreen keyboard that our Fuze comes installed with and is in the photo). It seemed like it would work and then stop and ultimately I was thinking I would be forced to install another keyboard (more on that later). After messing around with the keyboard I realized that I can get the Full QWERTY Keyboard to work with the old method. You have to make sure that the ABC-T9 toggle is set to T9 (look at the photo and you’ll see T9 is selected even though we disabled T9 entry). If you try to toggle it and it will not let you then try this: press the ABC-T9 button and try to toggle it, then hit the .,123 button and try that a few times until it flips over (if that doesn’t work do the same thing after going into portrait mode and toggle T9 and ABC). Have patience - it will toggle and once it does it stays that way. Now here’s the one flaw - the autocompletion with this keyboard only appears when there’s an odd number of letters (ex on the first, third, fifth) [note: autocorrection happens after you misspell a word so it works with this and any of the other keyboards]. Again, we can correct this with a different keyboard but we’ll get to that. What you’ll notice is that completion of contacts and words is instantly different and I think a lot better. Also, the library will build over time as it knows you and aside from correcting the words you type wrong it will get to know you and start to guess the next word before you even type it (it may even guess a few words at a time and by the time you make it to ‘tha’ it will give you an autocompletion option of ‘thank you very much’).

If you do not use the onscreen keyboard because you’re a physical keyboard kinda person then you’re in luck. Simply set the onscreen keyboard to the keyboard named ‘keyboard’ (it’s the crappy Windows default one) and you’re set. That one works like a charm with no nuances (but is miserable as an onscreen keyboard).

Before I let you all go on your editing ways, lets talk about one solution that gets rid of the nuance of only getting autocompletion on odd numbers (so it works on each letter you type) and that is by using a different onscreen keyboard (sorry, but I believe PocketCM uses T9 so it won’t work). If you use the onscreen keyboard and want to get past this nuisance then simply install freeware Happy Tapping Keyboard. In the attached photo I changed the skin to the iPhone skin (it is in that link provided - use the VGA skin). If you set Happy Tapping as your default keyboard it will not survive a soft reset even if you set it as the default input method. To do this install the Default IM cab and set it as the default keyboard (Settings - Input) and set it as the default keyboard in Default IM and it will stay with you. Happy Tapping is a great keyboard but personally I like the layout of the Full QWERTY Keyboard better, especially the shadowing of the buttons so you know its second function. And I learned that Happy Tapping is missing a ‘\’ key which was a burn when I was using Total Commander but I bet for the rest of you it’s meaningless. I will confess I used Happy Tapping for all of my 8525 and Tilt years and it is really very good.

So, in either event, lets change the dictionary so that typos are corrected (or in my case quick text can be created). You don’t need to do this but it’s a nice perk of using this method. There are two ways to do this - the application method and the Total Commander method. The first one is highly recommended for those of you who want simplicity. Simply install freeware DictMgr and go to the "word correction’ tab and you can begin to add words. The downside is that I only see the first few series of words (I don’t even get out of the A letters) but this doesn’t impact adding new words regardless of their first letter. If you use this method it make sense to use freeware MyMobiler so you can use your PC’s keyboard for ease. For those of you that want to see your entire dictionary and don’t mind a little Total Commander action then all you need to do is navigate to Windows and find a file named autocorrect.04…. You can open this in Total Commander (hit the pen/paper at the bottom) or move this file to your computer, edit it there and then move it back to your Fuze (change the settings to take it out of hidden/system). In either case, if you’re willing to use Total Commander there’s another benefit if you’re a former Windows Mobile user since you can get the file from your old phone and move it to your Fuze (I moved mine from my Tilt) but you can do both (move the old file using Total Commander and then edit it using DictMgr). For a step by step set of instructions on using Total Commander to modify the autocorrect file read the article I wrote here on TiltMobilty. In either case you MUST reset your phone for the changes to take effect (the file is read into ROM at startup). Be careful with autocorrection words (obviously you can change it later) but if you change ‘tx’ to ‘thanks’ that means in a text message you cannot use tx (it will correct itself to thanks) so think of variables like ‘thx’ changes to ‘thanks’ for emailing and ‘tx’ stays uncorrected for texting.

This will work for all versions of the Touch Pro, the Diamond and presumably the Touch HD as they all use the same keyboard configuration.

Wow, I feel like we’ve done a lot. I’m drained but relieved that my single biggest complaint is gone. A special thanks is owed to SCDavis who was the first person to try my disableT9 cab even though I warned him of a possible hard reset since I wasn’t sure what it would do and if it was uninstallable and of course to TVDinner who was with me for the autocorrection ride both in our forums and on XDA’s and brought DictMgr to my attention.